Helping Our Portfolio Companies Expand Globally
Technology has become more powerful, and more globally strategic, than ever before
America | Tech | Opinion | Culture | Charts
This piece from Raghu Raghuram, Managing Partner and General Partner at a16z, is a part of today’s announcement: A16z’s Global Mission | Ben Horowitz
One of the key pillars of the a16z approach is to provide founders with access, power, and resources typically only available to large companies. We do this today in many ways. Our talent team has spent years getting to know the best people across tech, so in turn our portfolio companies can build their own best teams. Our go-to-market team has built relationships across the leading companies and biggest potential customers, so that we can provide them with the best view and advice on developments at the frontier of innovation. In return, our founders can more easily build their own relationships with these companies. Our new media team has built a broad and deep network of influencers and ecosystem partners that can advance and amplify the perspectives of our founders and a16z.
Since the firm was founded 15 years ago, the majority of this activity was largely concentrated in U.S. markets. Today, that is no longer sufficient. Technology has become more powerful, and more globally strategic, than ever before. As a result, our portfolio companies want and need to access global markets earlier than ever – often well before they have the dedicated international teams or offices.
As part of our newly announced a16z global initiatives, we will be helping our Growth companies succeed in this new reality. We’ll take the same playbooks and relationship-based approach that have helped our companies in the US and adapt them to international markets. We will also be bringing our go-to-market experience as operators to the table, helping our founders take a structured, long-term approach to global expansion, rather than the ad-hoc, deal-by-deal approach to which most companies default.
As anyone who has been involved in international business knows, this is not a once-size fits all approach. Some markets, like the UK, are “easy” while markets like Japan are hard. We will prioritize allied markets that are critical to our founders, but difficult to penetrate without a strong network and a unique go-to-market network. Accordingly, we will focus our global expansion investments on the following:
Japan and North Asia. Japan, Korea, and Taiwan are among our most important geopolitical allies. These markets are also hungry for AI and investing heavily in defense and robotics. At the same time, success is impossible in these markets without a power network, a well-respected brand, and a go-to-market motion tailored to local culture. We'll be establishing a new office in Japan and have already announced the opening of a new office in Korea.
Middle East. The Middle East has a massive need for our technologies as they accelerate their transformation into modern, diversified economies.
Europe. While the UK is a familiar market for most growth companies, the rest of Europe has distinct characteristics culturally, economically, and commercially. We aim to help our founders navigate these differences and accelerate adoption of their technologies.
Mexico and Latin America. Much of the region is modernizing rapidly, often leapfrogging legacy systems in sectors like banking and financial services, energy and infrastructure, and government-backed services. This creates a distinct appetite from government and enterprises alike for the kinds of technologies our founders are building.
English-speaking markets. Growth-stage companies usually do well on their own in these geographies. While we will eventually build out our operational networks here, these are not our starting point.
Since joining a16z last year, I’ve seen first-hand the power of the firm, and I’m excited at what we’ve already been able to accomplish together. In this global mission, I will be working in close partnership with Anne Neuberger in her new role as GP and Head of Global Affairs; Jen Kha and the Global Partnerships team; and our existing go-to-market and talent team, who have been building this foundation for years.
This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. Furthermore, this content is not investment advice, nor is it intended for use by any investors or prospective investors in any a16z funds. This newsletter may link to other websites or contain other information obtained from third-party sources - a16z has not independently verified nor makes any representations about the current or enduring accuracy of such information. If this content includes third-party advertisements, a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content or related companies contained therein. Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z; visit https://a16z.com/investment-list/ for a full list of investments. Other important information can be found at a16z.com/disclosures. You’re receiving this newsletter since you opted in earlier; if you would like to opt out of future newsletters you may unsubscribe immediately.
The market map here covers Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Middle East, Europe, and LatAm. The conspicuously absent market is the one where the deployment wave a16z is building toward is already running at full scale. Doubao crossed 120 trillion tokens per day in May. The use cases driving that number are exactly the SMB workflows, logistics operations, and enterprise procurement automation described in this post as the "next" opportunity in other geographies. The go-to-market problem Raghuram describes — you need local networks, local relationships, local trust — was solved in China by state-adjacent capital that moved faster than LP timelines allow. CATL, Tencent, and Liang Wenfeng self-funding are not just investors. They are the distribution network. Understanding that capital architecture matters for how a16z portfolio companies will compete globally, not just where they expand. I scan 100+ Chinese sources daily at China AI Dispatch.
Excited for generaltranslation.com to continue to help a16z portcos like Cursor and Partiful launch in multiple languages!