Steve Jobs's Son Is Diving Into Venture Capital — and His Focus Hits Close to Home Reed Jobs, 31, launched venture capital firm Yosemite, which already boasts $200 million from investors and institutions.
By Amanda Breen
Key Takeaways
- Yosemite is a spinoff of Emerson Collective and will invest in new cancer treatments.
- Jobs "had never ever wanted to be a venture capitalist" but realized he could make a "tremendous difference."
Like father, like son: It seems innovation runs deep in the Jobs family.
Reed Jobs, the 31-year-old son of Steve Jobs and Laurene Powell Jobs, is launching a venture capital firm to invest in new cancer treatments, DealBook reported.
Jobs' father was diagnosed with cancer when he was just 12, and it motivated his interest in oncology from an early age, he told the outlet.
Related: Steve Jobs Systematically Cultivated His Creativity. You Can Too.
The new firm "Yosemite," a nod to where his parents got married, has raised $200 million from investors and institutions including the venture capitalist John Doerr, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Rockefeller University and MIT, per DealBook.
Bloomberg | Getty Images Reed Jobs, left; Laurene Powell Jobs, right.
The firm is a spinoff of Emerson Collective, the business and philanthropic organization started by his mother in 2004. Jobs has served as managing director for health at Emerson, which he said is differentiated from other funding organizations by its ability to focus on both philanthropy and investment, per the company's site.
Yosemite will house both a non-profit business and a donor-advised fund to provide scientists with grants, according to DealBook.
Related: The Best Advice Steve Jobs Ever Gave | Entrepreneur
Jobs took a step back from oncology to major in history and earn a master's degree in the subject and "had never ever wanted to be a venture capitalist," he told the outlet.
"But I realized that when you're actually incubating something and putting it together, you can make a tremendous difference in what assets are part of that, what direction it's going to take, and what the scientific focus is going to be," Jobs explained.
