Venture Firm: Steve Jobs’ son Reed has launched his own venture firm

Reed Jobs, son of the late Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs, has launched his own venture firm — Yosemite Management. The company is a spin-off of Emerson Collective, his mother Laurene Powell Jobs’ investment and philanthropic organization. Based in San Francisco, Yosemite spun out of Emerson’s health division, where Reed Jobs served as managing director. According to a report in The Information, Jobs is leaving Palo Alto-based Emerson to head the new company.

The company has reportedly already closed its debut fund with $200 million from prominent individuals and institutions, including MIT, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and John Doerr, per the report. Dubbed Yosemite Fund 1, the fund is said to have been oversubscribed. The fund will focus on health care-related startups, specifically those focused on cancer treatments. Yosemite will both make traditional venture investments and offer grants.
Jobs has three siblings, sisters Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Eve Jobs and Erin Siena Jobs. Steve Jobs died in October 2011 due to complications from pancreatic cancer at the age of 56.

On mission to fight cancer
“We’re on a mission to lead the next chapter in the fight against cancer and forming our own standalone entity provides us the flexibility to best propel great ideas until they’re at scale,” Jobs said in a media release. “We believe this first close demonstrates investor confidence in Yosemite’s strategy of building new companies, trust in our extensive grantee and institutional network, and value in our combined experience in shepherding new transformational cancer treatments,” he added.
31-year-old- Jobs has been a managing director at Emerson since 2015, when he graduated from Stanford University with a master’s degree. At Emerson, Jobs led the organization’s venture investments and philanthropic donations in health care. Under his direction, the organization reportedly invested in startups including Dragonfly Therapeutics Inc, a developer of cancer treatments; Medable Inc, which helps life-science companies find patients for clinical trials; and TrialSpark Inc., a developer of treatments for skin diseases.