Jeff Housenbold, managing partner at SoftBank Vision Fund
SoftBank
Jeff Housenbold of SoftBank, which led the Vision Fund investments in companies such as DoorDash, OpenDoor and Wag, is leaving the company later this year.
SoftBank shook the Silicon Valley investment world with its first Vision Fund in 2017, ultimately raising $ 100 billion, largely funded by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The Japanese company had been targeting an even bigger sum for Vision Fund 2 but halted the way back last year after many of their high-priced investments hit on bags.
In a memo submitted Friday and seen by CNBC, Vision Fund head Rajeev Misra said Housenbold is leaving to “run its own business.” Housenbold has been with the Vision Fund at a time ups and downs, leading some of the most obvious contracts with mixed results.
“As many of you know, Jeff was my first employer and over the last three and a half years has led our investments in 17 companies across Fund 1 and Fund 2, including DoorDash (DASH), Opendoor (OPEN), Compass, Rappi, Alto, and Memphis Meats, “Misra wrote in the memo.
Axios has previously reported on how he left. Housenbold confirmed the move on Twitter.
Housenbold, former CEO of Shutterfly, had a strong end to 2020, with the DoorDash IPO and Opendoor public market debate through a special purpose construction company. SoftBank’s stake in DoorDash’s food delivery app has jumped to $ 12 billion, with the stock picking up from its IPO, and interest in real estate company OpenDoor being about $ 2 billion, according to FactSet .
He also had some losers. In 2018, he led a $ 300 million investment in the Wag Coin Walking app before selling back a Vision Fund stake to the company less than two years later when the industry was struggling. Also in 2018, Vision Fund invested $ 240 million in the launch of Brandless e-commerce, with Housenbold taking the chair. Early last year, the company closed and was rebalanced again.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sign a memorandum of understanding between Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund and SoftBank Vision Fund.
Tom DiChristopher | CNBC
Housenbold spoke to CNBC in March 2020 as the SoftBank dealt with the collapse of the WeWork disaster and the Uber struggle while also preparing for a slowdown with the pandemic. He was among the executives of the company considering his “Bs Plans.”
“If the markets go into a long recession of 12 to 24 months and there is no access to public markets, we need to look at raising additional capital at the company level,” Housenbold said at the time. There is debt, there are equality players, there are unions and there are benefits. “
Misra said in the memo that Housenbold will stay with the Vision Fund for six months, and then serve as senior advisor to Misra and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.
– Alex Sherman from CNBC contributed to this report
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