Technology

Angela Strange, who joined the venture firmAndreessen Horowitz nearly four years ago and has been quietly working alongside general partner Alex Rampell on a wide variety of fintech deals, has herself beennamed a general partner.

The promotion is interesting on a few levels, starting with what may be the most obvious development to outsiders: Strange is now the third person who has been named general partner at the nine-year-old outfit over the lastthree months. Notably, she is the third woman to be named general partner since the firm announced its first female general partner in June.

Andreessen Horowitz now has 13 general partners.

For those wanting to see more diversity at the countrytop venture firms, the firmmoves are a welcome development. They are also a little surprising, particularly considering how delicate venture partnerships tend to be, and the typical pace of announcing general partners, which is rarely ever monthly, even at the biggest firms in the world. (In fairness, Andreessen Horowitz isn&t exactly known for caring much about tradition.)

Strange is also just the second general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (also known as a16z) who has been promoted from within, preceded only by Connie Chan, whose promotion to general partner we reported last month. Why that matters: a16z has historically had an express policy ¬ to promote internally,& as explained to us last month by general partner Jeff Jordan, who joined in 2011 after serving for years as the president and CEO of OpenTable. That policy had become antiquated over time, as a16z has grown and the operating functions that support its portfolio companies have matured, he said.

That shift in thinking helped enable Strangequick rise within the firm, where, as Rampell outlined in a call yesterday, she has won both the admiration of her colleagues and established a rapport with many of the firmportfolio companies, some of which she has been serving as a board observer. (With her promotion, Strange will now begin taking board seats.)

The firmbroadening bench of general partners is also presumably tied to fundraising. Notably, a16z hasn&t announced a new flagship fund since 2016, and most firms roll out new funds every two to three years, meaning a new fund — or even funds — will be coming in the not-too-distant future.

Consider the firmfirst female general partner, Katie Haun, who spent more than a decade as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, and well as worked as the DOJfirst-ever coordinator for digital assets.

Haunnew role with a16z was announced in June when the firm closed its first &crypto& fund, a $300 million vehicle that she is now actively investing alongside general partner Chris Dixon, who joined the firm as its seventh partner back in late 2012.

It isn&t so hard to envision a separate effort similarly spearheaded by Strange and Rampell, particularly in light of a newreport in Axiosthat a16z is moving away from raising enormous flagship funds and instead toward sector-specific funds, including its two bio funds. (Asked yesterday, the firm declined to comment on whether Axiosreport was accurate or if other, targeted funds might be in the works.)

Either way, the fintech portfolio that Rampell and Strange have been piecing together stands out. Among a16zmany related bets to date are the so-called unicorn companies Robinhood, Stripe and TransferWise. The firm has also placed numerous bets on startups that seem to be innovating in their respective fields, including Point, athree-year-old startup that lends money to people and receives partial ownership of their homes in return; OpenDoor, a five-year-old service that will make an offer on a homeownerhouse sight unseen; and OpenInvest, a three-year-old asset management startup with a social impact bent.

Strange — a Stanford MBA and serious marathoner who earlier spent four years as a product manager at Google, as well as worked earlier in VC in a more junior role — appears to have more up her sleeve, too.

In conversation yesterday, she told us while the firm remains interested in lending startups (&there are a lot of new creative models that can be applied&) and real estate as an asset class, a growing area of interest for both her and Rampell is so-called insurtech. &Itvery much in its infancy,& said Strange, noting that &one out of 10 companies in the S-P 500 is an insurance company, yet there are no new entrants to that group.&

Thanks to data, that will change soon, in her view. &Data to better underwrite and data to allow you to find and attract customers in a more efficient way… itcoming,& she suggested. And no matter the fund from which she and Rampell are investing, a16z will have its checkbook ready.

Toward the end of 2017, Instacart penned a partnership with one of the countrybiggest grocery retailers, Kroger. At the time, it was a smaller deal with one of Kroger chains called Ralphs.

But today Instacart is expanding its partnership with Kroger, bringing Instacart delivery to 75 additional Kroger markets, growing InstacartKroger footprint by 50 percent nationwide. The expansion will be completed by late October, bringing Instacart delivery to more than 1,600 Kroger stores.

This builds on Instacartmomentum, following partnership deals with chains like Albertsons, Aldi, SamClub, and Loblaw.

In all, Instacart is now available to 70 percent of all households across the country. Last year, the company announced its goal to reach 80 percent of U.S. households by the end of 2018, and its most recent funding round seems to be propelling the startup to achieve that goal.

In February, Instacart raised $200 million led by Coatue Management, as well as Glade Brook Capital Partners and existing investors. The round valued Instacart at $4.2 billion.

Since Amazonacquisition of Whole Foods, Instacart has been put in a challenging position. But, in many ways, that challenge has represented opportunity. The nearly $14 billion acquisition has spurred an even more rapid evolution of the grocery industry, leaving incumbents with a choice: Acquire (or build) your own delivery platform or partner with Instacart to compete with online grocery purchase and delivery from Amazon.

Some retailers, like Target, have chosen to purchase their own platform. But other big players, such as Albertsons and SamClub, seem to have been motivated by the Whole Foods deal to partner up with Instacart.

This has grown Instacartmarketplace to feature more than 300 different retail partners on the platform, which has in turn helped grow Instacartcommunity of shoppers, which has topped 50,000 this year.

As this growth continues, a great deal is dependent on Instacartability to maintain the quality of the product. But the company is also taking steps toward shoring up the platform. Instacart has begun testing a partnership with Postmates to help make deliveries during peak hours in San Francisco.

Editors Note: An earlier version of this post had a headline that said Instacart now serves 70 percent of U.S. households. It has been updated to reflect that Instacart is available to 70 percent of U.S. households.

The Lenovo Smart Display release date has been confirmed as October for the UK.

Lenovo revealed the arrival to its first market outside the US during IFA 2018, and both the 8-inch and 10-inch versions of the Smart Display will be available in the UK.

You'll be able to buy the Smart Display from John Lewis and AO, and Lenovo says it will have more