Kofi Ampadu, the companion at a16z who led the agency’s Expertise x Alternative (TxO) fund and program, has left the agency, in line with an e mail he despatched to employees that TechCrunch obtained. This comes months after the agency paused TxO and laid off most of its employees.
“Throughout my time on the agency, I used to be deeply grateful for the chance and the belief to steer this work,” Ampadu wrote within the e mail, despatched Friday afternoon, with the topic line “Closing My a16z Chapter.”
“Figuring out out-of-network entrepreneurs and supporting them as they sharpened their concepts, raised capital, and grew into assured leaders was probably the most significant experiences of my profession,” he wrote.
Ampadu led this system, which launched in 2020, for over 4 years till its pause final November, taking up for the preliminary chief, Nait Jones. Afterward, Ampadu appears to have labored at a16z’s newest accelerator, Speedrun.
Ampadu’s departure maybe alerts the tip of the TxO chapter. The fund and program centered on supporting underserved founders by offering entry to tech networks and funding capital by way of a donor-advised fund. Although some founders spoke extremely of this system, others criticized the controversial donor-advised construction. This system additionally launched a grant program in 2024 to offer $50,000 to nonprofits that assist numerous founders.
Its final cohort was in March 2025, and its indefinite pause got here as many prime tech names reframe, lower, or remove prior public commitments to range, fairness, and inclusion. We’ve reached out to a16z and Ampadu for remark.
His full word beneath:
I moved to the USA three months earlier than my eleventh birthday. One month later, I began sixth grade in a faculty greater than 5,000 miles from my residence, my mates, and every little thing acquainted. Not too long ago, my mother jogged my memory that my college required me to enroll as an English-as-a-Second-Language scholar. My reminiscence instantly returned to how confused I felt. Even at 10 years previous, I knew it made no sense {that a} child from Ghana, an English-speaking nation, was being requested to be taught a language he already spoke fluently.
This was a programs requirement, a blanketed assumption about what college students from sure locations may or couldn’t do. That very same kind of systemic assumption is what we got down to problem by way of the Expertise x Alternative Initiative. The enterprise ecosystem typically depends on proxies equivalent to faculties, networks, and prior credentials, which may obscure distinctive founders who don’t comply with the most typical paths. TxO invested in and supported these missed founders to bridge the hole between expertise and alternative.
Throughout my time on the agency, I used to be deeply grateful for the chance and the belief to steer this work. Figuring out out-of-network entrepreneurs and supporting them as they sharpened their concepts, raised capital, and grew into assured leaders was probably the most significant experiences of my profession.
As I transfer on to my subsequent chapter, I go away with satisfaction in what we constructed and gratitude for everybody who helped form it. Thanks for the belief, the collaboration, and the assumption in what is feasible. There’s extra work to do and I’m excited to maintain constructing.
