Horowitz Andreessen Academy raises $42m for new San Francisco school

Udemy and Maven co-founder Gagan Biyani is leading the project, which will begin with a tuition-free founding fellowship built around student projects, company placements and access to technology industry mentors

The Horowitz Andreessen Academy has raised $42 million led by Andreessen Horowitz for a new education model based in San Francisco, Photo credit: Horowitz Andreessen Academy

A new San Francisco education venture backed by Andreessen Horowitz has raised $42 million to build an alternative to the traditional university model around AI, project-based learning and direct experience inside technology companies.

The Horowitz Andreessen Academy is being founded by Gagan Biyani, co-founder of Udemy and Maven, who has become its CEO. Andreessen Horowitz led the funding, with Marc Andreessen and General Partner Erik Torenberg joining Biyani on the board.

Its first intake will be a one-year, tuition-free Founding Class Fellowship for young high school graduates. Applications are now open.

The Academy is placing individual projects, or what it calls “pursuits,” at the center of the program rather than prescribing a standard academic pathway. Students could use the year to build a company or robot, conduct research, make a film, train an AI model, develop a new skill or pursue another self-directed project.

Writing on LinkedIn, Biyani described learning to build as the institution’s central objective in an AI-driven economy: “The #1 goal is to help students learn to build, which is the most important skill in the AI era. They'll learn primarily by pursuing their own projects, either individually or in groups.”

OpenAI, Anthropic and Google join founding network

The Academy has signed up 10 founding partners: Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit and Stripe.

It says its wider network already includes more than 50 hiring partners and more than 200 speakers and mentors.

Students will spend at least three months working full-time inside a company, either through one of the Academy’s hiring partners or another organization identified through its network.

A further international element gives each student a $5,000 travel budget for three to four weeks of independent research and travel abroad.

The teaching network includes founders, academics, investors, researchers and practitioners. Named guest lecturers include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, NVIDIA Founder, President and CEO Jensen Huang, Coinbase Co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong and Y Combinator President and CEO Garry Tan.

Course and track listings range from AI Research & Models and AI Inference Engineering to venture capital, brand development and health and human performance.

For students interested in technical research, Torenberg said on LinkedIn that the model is intended to connect them directly with researchers working at frontier AI laboratories.

“At the Academy, academics are focused on the frontier. Students will be taught and mentored by AI researchers at frontier labs,” he wrote.

A two-year program is planned

The first cohort will not yet be the full version of the institution its founders are proposing.

Biyani said the initial Founding Class Fellowship will run for one year and be tuition-free. Subject to regulatory approval, the Academy plans to move to a two-year program that charges tuition at a level similar to an elite private university.

Torenberg described the longer-term model as a residential San Francisco program for students aged 16 to 22.

Its structure is being developed around three elements: self-directed pursuits, courses and co-op work placements. The Academy says students will also meet regularly with peers and mentors to review progress and seek specialist help when needed.

That approach builds on Biyani’s previous education ventures. He co-founded online learning marketplace Udemy and later Maven, a platform built around live, cohort-based courses.

Following the Academy launch, Biyani also moved from CEO of Maven to Board Chairman, with Rishin Banker taking over as Maven CEO.

Applications for the Horowitz Andreessen Academy’s tuition-free Founding Class Fellowship are now open.