Welcome to The Interchange! If you received this in your inbox, thank you for signing up and your vote of confidence. If you’re reading this as a post on our site, sign up here so you can receive it directly in the future. Every week, I’ll take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week. This will include everything from funding rounds to trends to an analysis of a particular space to hot takes on a particular company or phenomenon. There’s a lot of fintech news out there and it’s my job to stay on top of it — and make sense of it — so you can stay in the know. — Mary Ann

Last month, Andreessen Horowitz — one of venture capital’s largest and most prominent players — announced that its “headquarters will be in the cloud” going forward.

Founded in 2009 in Menlo Park, California, the firm — also known as a16z — has for years been a symbol of Silicon Valley investing.

Its new philosophy in this post-COVID era of remote work is that there is no longer a need for a centralized HQ. This philosophy extends to its fintech team. And let's face it, fintech is opening so many doors in general — making a lot more things possible in terms of running a company or just operating in general, globally. Many may underestimate just how much the pandemic really pushed this acceleration in the financial services world and people are now kind of commenting, "Oh, there's this slowdown and, like, look at how much decreased investment is in fintech." You have to put it in perspective — we’re still way, way up from 2020 in terms of how much money is going into this space. And fintech is still taking almost a fifth of all venture capital dollars. I believe this is because it impacts everyone on a daily basis. If financial services are easier to access or if it's easier for a business to operate or make payments or accept payments, then that's all because of fintech.

I sat down (virtually, that is) with a16z general partners Angela Strange and Anish Acharya to learn more about why the pair believes we’re experiencing the “unbundling of Silicon Valley,” what sectors of fintech have the most potential and how the new era of remote work has led to so.much.opportunity for financial technology startups.