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Andreessen Horowitz is closing its London workplace and pulling again from its much-touted growth into the UK, because the Silicon Valley investor seeks to refocus on the US cryptocurrency trade following the election of Donald Trump.
The group made a high-profile entry into the British capital in 2023, opening its first workplace exterior the US with a concentrate on the UK’s crypto trade amid a crackdown on digital property by American regulators.
The Monetary Instances reported on Friday that the enterprise capital agency had signalled to native entrepreneurs and policymakers that it will cut back the money and time it supposed to spend money on the nation.
Quickly after, Anthony Albanese, a managing director on the group who helps to steer its crypto investments, introduced the agency would shut its UK places of work altogether.
“We’re excited by the keenness for crypto constructing and adoption within the UK and are inspired by the latest optimistic coverage bulletins and actions. Nonetheless, we now have chosen to concentrate on the US given the brand new administration’s sturdy coverage momentum and can subsequently be closing our UK workplace,” wrote Albanese on X.
“This doesn’t change our confidence within the UK’s rising position in crypto and blockchain. We are going to proceed to spend money on nice entrepreneurs irrespective of the place they’re on this planet, together with the UK. We additionally stay prepared to assist the UK with its ongoing crypto efforts.”
The companion initially tapped to steer the UK effort, Sriram Krishnan, stepped away from his London-based position final yr earlier than leaving the corporate altogether to hitch the Trump administration in latest weeks.
Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the agency’s founders, have turn out to be supporters of Trump, whereas advising him on know-how coverage.
The change comes as Trump signed an government order on Thursday aimed toward selling cryptocurrencies within the US and dealing in direction of probably growing a nationwide digital asset stockpile.
Costs in tokens comparable to bitcoin have soared since Trump’s election, beneath the idea that the brand new administration will advocate light-touch regulation of the crypto sector.
Andreessen Horowitz opened its London workplace with official fanfare two years in the past, with then prime minister Rishi Sunak saying he was “thrilled” on the group’s arrival, and that the transfer was a “testomony to our world-class universities and expertise and our sturdy aggressive enterprise setting”.
On the time, Andreessen Horowitz, which has $43bn of dedicated capital, made a lot of its push into the UK, having invested in plenty of UK-based crypto corporations together with Arweave, Aztec and Inconceivable.
“London is a serious monetary hub, it’s a serious tech hub and admittedly it’s a really engaging place for individuals to stay,” Chris Dixon, who leads Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto investments, mentioned to the FT in 2023.
One UK official downplayed the US investor’s decreased ambitions within the nation, saying: “They had been by no means actually right here.”
