Former BitGo employee will help deploy Andreessen Horowitz’s $2.2B crypto fund

Arianna Simpson has been a general partner at the venture capital firm for more than a year as a16z led several high-profile raises for crypto and blockchain companies.

Major venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz will be promoting a former employee of digital asset infrastructure provider BitGo to assist in running its $2.2 billion crypto fund.

According to Andreessen Horowitz general partner Katie Haun, Arianna Simpson will be joining partners Chris Dixon, Ali Yahya, and Haun for the launch of the firm’s $2.2 billion venture fund, Crypto Fund III. Simpson has been a general partner at the company for more than a year, and will be promoted to the position of deal partner to assist the fund aimed at financing cryptocurrency networks and teams contributing to the decentralized economy.

Haun, who reportedly first connected with Simpson through a direct message on Twitter, cited the former BitGo employee’s ability to articulate crypto ideas “in a digestible way” as well as her commitment to the values of the ecosystem as positives in her contribution to the fund. Simpson has been a part of Andreessen Horowitz as the firm led several high-profile raises for crypto and blockchain firms, including the $40 million raised for Talos and $9 million for wallet provider Phantom.

Simpson, a former account specialist at BitGo and once part of Facebook’s global marketing solutions team, has been involved in the crypto space for more than seven years and helped launch venture capital firm Crystal Towers in 2015 — the company focuses on investments in cryptocurrencies and digital assets. Her promotion comes following Andreessen Horowitz announcing last month it had recruited former SEC director Bill Hinman and others to join its team.

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Andreessen Horowitz’s $2.2 billion crypto fund builds upon the firm’s previously launched Crypto Fund II, an initiative started in August 2020. The company has said the new venture will allow it “to find the next generation of visionary crypto founders, and invest in the most exciting areas of crypto.”