Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has pushed back against local media reports suggesting it plans to open an office in India, with its general partner calling the report “completely fake news.”
Earlier on Thursday, Indian media reported that a16z was preparing to have a physical presence in the country by establishing an office in Bengaluru. The reports, citing anonymous sources, also stated that the company was in the technique of hiring a local partner.
However, Anish Acharya, a Bay Area-based general partner at a16z who has spent the last six years at the firm, dismissed the reports. “While I love India and the many impressive founders and investors in the region, this is completely false news!” He he wrote on X
When contacted, an a16z spokesperson confirmed Acharya’s statement and commented on his post.
The rejection comes after a16z appears to be scaling back some of its international ambitions. Earlier this yr, the company decided to shut its London office, which was set to open in 2023, after the UK government reportedly ordered five years According to the Sifted website, he is attempting to win the favors of this powerful company. The closure got here just 18 months after the a16z store was founded, with the company citing a change in strategy and more favorable regulatory changes in the country. However, the company said it will proceed to take a position internationally through distant teams and local networks. Later reports indicated that several scouts operated throughout Europe.
So far, India has not been a16z’s essential focus – unlike other US enterprise firms resembling Accel, General Catalyst and Lightspeed Venture Partners, which have made deep inroads into the market. The company’s only notable enterprise in India was cryptocurrency exchange CoinSwitch, which it backed as a part of the company’s $260 million funding round in 2021.
In the following months, a16z reportedly attempted to take a position roughly $500 million in Indian startups, although it has not made any major investments in the country since then.
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As TechCrunch previously noted, a16z co-founder and general partner Marc Andreessen gave a speech at the Stanford Graduate School of Business years ago, saying that while it is “extremely tempting” to support startups in emerging markets, it is also a challenge for the enterprise capital fund to expand into more countries. Venture capital is “a very practical technique of understanding the people you’re employed with, each in terms of evaluating the company and the work[ing] in the company,” he said then.