Adam Neumann, co-founder and former CEO of the shared office company WeWork, has been given money by the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz so that he can start a new rental real estate business.
According to a report in The New York Times, a venture capital firm invested approximately $350 million in Neumann’s up-and-coming real estate business called Flow.
Flow aims to provide a consistent housing experience across a chain of branded apartment complexes.
WeWork, which offers a variety of office spaces that are adaptable for workers, was previously estimated to be worth $50 billion. However, following a botched IPO (initial public offering) and the layoffs of thousands of its employees, WeWork became known for its corporate drama rather than its real business, as The Verge points out. Neumann got a $1.7 billion payout when he left his job as CEO in 2019.
This investment is “the largest individual check Andreessen Horowitz has ever signed in a round of investing to a firm,” as stated by the Times. In spite of opponents “who have portrayed his leadership of WeWork as a cautionary tale of corporate arrogance,” this puts Flow’s worth at over $1 billion, although it hasn’t even debuted yet.
Neumann has acquired more than 3,000 residential units around the United States, including locations in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, and Nashville. His objective is to reimagine the market for house rentals in order to create a branded product that provides consistent service and community attributes. Flow will be in charge of running the properties that Neumann has bought on a day-to-day basis. It will also offer its services to other projects and third parties.
“We think it is natural that for his first venture since WeWork, Adam returns to the theme of connecting people through transforming their physical spaces and building communities where people spend the most time: their homes,” Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen explains in a blog post. “Residential real estate — the world’s largest asset class — is ready for exactly this change.”
