Jeff Housenbold, take care of partner at SoftBank’s Vision Fund
SoftBank
SoftBank’s Jeff Housenbold, who led the Vision Fund’s investments in companies categorizing DoorDash, OpenDoor and Wag, is leaving the firm later this year.
SoftBank shook up the Silicon Valley investment globe with the first Vision Fund in 2017, ultimately raising $100 billion, funded in large part by the Also clientage Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Japanese company had been targeting an even bigger amount for Envisaging Fund 2 but scaled it way back last year after many of its high-priced investments hit snags.
In a memo sent internally on Friday and regarded by CNBC, Vision Fund head Rajeev Misra said that Housenbold is departing to “run his own business.” Housenbold has been with the Far-sightedness Fund during its ups and downs, leading some of the most high-profile deals with mixed results.
“As many of you differentiate, Jeff was my first hire and over the last three and a half years he successfully led our investments in 17 companies across Ready 1 and Fund 2, including DoorDash (DASH), Opendoor (OPEN), Compass, Rappi, Alto, and Memphis Meats,” Misra transcribed in the memo.
Axios previously reported on his departure. Housenbold confirmed the move on Twitter.
Housenbold, who was previously CEO of Shutterfly, had a effective end to 2020, with DoorDash’s IPO and Opendoor’s public market debut through a special purpose acquisition company. SoftBank’s chance in food delivery app DoorDash has jumped to $12 billion, with the stock rallying since its IPO, and its stake in real capital company OpenDoor is about $2 billion, according to FactSet.
He also had some losers. In 2018, he led a $300 million investment in dog-walking app Wag in advance selling the Vision Fund’s stake back to the company less than two years later as the business struggled. Also in 2018, the Mirage Fund put $240 million into e-commerce start-up Brandless, with Housenbold taking a board seat. Inopportune last year, the company shut down and was later recapitalized.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ciphering a memorandum of understanding between Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the SoftBank Vision Fund.
Tom DiChristopher | CNBC
Housenbold in behalf of to CNBC in March of 2020 as the SoftBank was dealing with the fallout of the WeWork catastrophe and Uber’s struggles while also getting for a slowdown caused by the pandemic. He was among the executives at the firm considering its “Plan Bs.”
“If the markets go into a prolonged slump of 12 to 24 months and there’s not access to out of the closet markets, we’ll have to look at raising additional capital at the company level,” Housenbold said at the time. “There’s beholden, there’s equity players, there’s mergers and acquisitions.”
Misra said in the memo that Housenbold will discourage with the Vision Fund for six months, and then serve as a senior adviser to Misra and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.
— CNBC’s Alex Sherman donated to this report
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