Matt Bornstein is being promoted to GP within the infrastructure fund at a16z. Matt has been instrumental in making the infrastructure team what it is today. When he joined the firm, over 6 years ago, he was doggedly focused on AI/ML and data, and we’d run into him in every important deal. Even then, when AI was more of a niche area that was “almost working” he was known to be singular as a VC in his market knowledge and technical understanding.
Since joining he’s been a key player in both building the team and putting together our AI/ML portfolio. He was the lead on Tabular which had an outsized exit to Databricks. He was lead on Cursor. And has led or been involved in many top companies in the data space including Mistral, Hex, Tecton (acquired by Databricks), Coactive, Replicate (acquired by Cloudflare), Unconventional and many others.
Beyond being a great investor, Matt has been a tremendous team member and a key thought partner on our investing process. He’s also written a number of the most read pieces in the history of the firm including The Modern Data Stack.
Before becoming an investor, Matt started two companies operating as CTO. And while he’s hard pressed to admit it, he’s a graduate of Harvard Business School and before that studied mathematics at Brown.
The entire team wants to congratulate Matt on this great accomplishment. We’re thrilled to see him promoted and are honored to continue to work alongside him. Matt was doing AI before it was cool. And now he’s a leading AI investor and a key pillar of the a16z infra team. Onward!