For US venture capital (VC) firms based on the west coast, even New York is a different planet. Sand Hill Road firms—the San Francisco location of most Silicon Valley-based VCs—has traditionally unashamedly invested locally, routinely shunning startups based anywhere else in America let alone the world.
But times are changing. Nearly 13,000 km away in Singapore, blue-chip Silicon Valley stalwart Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) is actively hiring for an office in Southeast Asia, according to two Singapore-based VCs with knowledge of the efforts. (A16z is co-created by Marc Andreessen, a founder of dotcom darling Netscape, which has over US$16 billion in assets under management.) Both VCs requested anonymity as they did not wish to be seen discussing other firms in public.
