SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is backing a new San Francisco school that will offer recent high school graduates an alternative to traditional college.
The Horowitz Andreessen Academy will begin with a one-year, tuition-free fellowship in September 2027. The full-time program expects to admit about 50 students. It will not award college credit or a degree.
Gagan Biyani, co-founder of the online learning platform Udemy, will serve as the academy’s founder and CEO. The school will operate as an independent business, with Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen and general partner Erik Torenberg joining its board.
The academy said it will select students largely on their portfolios and completed projects. Applicants must have a high school diploma or equivalent by August 2027 and cannot have completed more than one year of full-time college after high school.
Students will spend most of the program developing projects, attending practitioner-led courses and receiving feedback from mentors. The curriculum will cover artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, sales, fundraising, media and company operations. Each student will also complete at least three months of full-time work through a company placement.
The academy lists Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit and Stripe as founding partners. The companies will help shape the curriculum and provide access to technology, industry professionals and employment opportunities. The school also lists more than 50 hiring partners and 200 speakers and mentors.
Andreessen Horowitz led a $42 million funding round for the academy. Students in the inaugural class will receive more than $50,000 in computing credits and a $5,000 allowance for travel and research. Students must arrange their own housing, meals and other living expenses, although the academy says limited need-based assistance may be available.
The academy plans to introduce a two-year program in 2028, pending regulatory approval. Organizers said that program would charge tuition comparable to private universities.
