Silicon Valley giant backs Adam Neumann's real estate firm Flow

VENTURE capital giant Andreessen Horowitz said on Monday it would be investing in Adam Neumann’s residential real estate company Flow, backing the WeWork Inc co-founder who has often drawn criticism for his allegedly erratic management style.

The investment was announced in a blog post by Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner at the venture capital firm. The blog did not disclose the financial details of the investment.

He wrote: “Adam is a visionary leader who revolutionised the second-largest asset class in the world — commercial real estate.”

In 2019, Neumann agreed to resign as chief executive officer of WeWork and give up majority voting control of the company after Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp and other shareholders turned on him over a plunge in the company’s estimated valuation ahead of a planned initial public offering.

WeWork ultimately went public last year through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company in a deal that valued the office-sharing startup at US$9 billion, a steep drop from the US$47 billion it was worth in 2019.

Andreessen Horowitz and Flow did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests seeking additional comment.

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Flow’s website does not offer much details about its business, except that it is scheduled to launch in 2023.

According to a Wall Street Journal report in January, Neumann had acquired majority stakes in over 4,000 apartments, valued at US$1 billion altogether. REUTERS