Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective becomes a venture capital machine

“In the seven years since the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, his 55-year-old widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, has become one of the most high-profile philanthropists in the world” Sarah McBride and Gerry Smith report for Bloomberg. “She’s donated tens of millions to innovative K-12 schools, stepped up her role in her longstanding charity helping underprivileged kids go to college and given multiple grants to investigative journalism outlets, in addition to acquiring a majority stake in the Atlantic magazine.”
Laurene Powell Jobs“But Powell Jobs’s main organization, the Emerson Collective, has also become a quiet force in Silicon Valley for its less obviously altruistic investments,” McBride and Smith report. “Since 2014, Emerson has backed more than 30 startups, according to research firm PitchBook, investing in a range of novel companies making everything from floating data centers to supersonic aircraft. Its portfolio even includes digital bulletin board site Pinterest Inc.”
“Powell Jobs, a former bond trading strategist at Goldman Sachs, assiduously avoids the spotlight,” McBride and Smith report. “She’s also one of the wealthiest women in the world, with a net worth today estimated at about $22 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.”
“Today, Powell Jobs’s son Reed Jobs is working on accelerating cancer research, an interest that stems from his father’s illness when he was a teen,” McBride and Smith report. “Emerson is different, Reed Jobs says. ‘While most other players in this space focus on philanthropy or investment,’ he said in an interview posted to Emerson’s website, ‘we are able to do both.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Why not do both philanthropy and investment? It doesn’t need to be an either/or decision.
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