a16z raised over 20% of US venture money this year, and Contrary's Kyle Harrison calls it the 'McDonaldization' of VC
What's the deal? In an essay published on 31 October, ContraryDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → partner Kyle HarrisonDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → argues that venture capital is going the way of McDonald's. He borrows from sociologist George Ritzer's 1993 book The McDonaldization of Society: efficiency, calculability, predictability and control are each rational on their own, but together "they can produce something pretty irrational."
By the numbers: US venture funds raised $108.5 billion across 699 funds through the third quarter, already 38.6% more than in all of 2025, according to the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. Andreessen Horowitz alone closed $23.8 billion, more than 20% of the total, including its $8.5 billion Growth Fund V. Funds of $500 million or more took 78.1% of the money while making up 6% of funds closed, and firms on their fourth fund or later took 88.2%, the highest share in PitchBook's dataset (historically it moved between about 50% and 80%). Just 81 first-time funds closed, raising $4.9 billion; Harrison notes the count was 479 in 2022. The median US fund this year is $10 million, against an average of $165.4 million.
What happened to the renegades? In 2022 Harrison predicted that solo GPs, small funds and partners spinning out of big platforms would chip away at the incumbents. The partners did keep leaving: Mark Goldberg, Kristina Shen and Ethan Kurzweil started Chemistry with a $350 million first fund in 2024, and this year Niko Bonatsos left General Catalyst to start Verdict, Damir Becirovic left Index to raise $80 million for Relentless, and Bryan Kim left a16z to raise about $100 million for Mido. "The renegades kept rebelling; but they just mostly stayed small," Harrison writes.
The LP view: The same day, Altimeter's head of capital formation Meghan Reynolds wrote that LPs keep telling her "the math doesn't math". Their venture and growth portfolios have grown 100% or more this year through capital calls and markups with few distributions, leaving many at or over their allocation; 75% or more of their managers are raising right now; and they cannot plan distributions around public lock-ups and "some big GPs still holding onto spacex". "This is going to lead to some tough decisions. GPs should plan accordingly," she wrote.
What could go wrong? Harrison's worry is less about returns than about what all that efficiency does to the one thing venture is meant to be good at, backing unusual ideas: "can a system built to sell the most burgers imagine better?" IA Ventures founder Roger Ehrenberg called the essay "an important read for GPs and LPs alike."
The signal: The fundraising data shows a barbell: a few platforms raising tens of billions and many small seed funds, with the $100 million to $500 million middle shrinking to 10% of funds closed, the lowest in PitchBook's records.
Read more: Kyle Harrison (Investing 101), PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor Q3 2026, PitchBook, Meghan Reynolds (X), Roger Ehrenberg (X)
Image credit: Investing 101 / Kyle Harrison
