Opendoor Co-Founder Eric Wu Is Leaving the Real Estate tech Company, According to a filing with the SEC.
In a statement, Wu said: “After ten years, I am called to return to my initial roots and create and build again. “I am humbled by this achievement and grateful for all my teammates who helped shape the product, culture and company.”
Wu will remain an advisor to the company and the board of directors. Even during this time at Opendoor, he was an active investor. According crispy baseWu has invested in dozens of companies, including Airtable, Scribe, Roofstock and the now-defunct Zeus Living.
The executive had been gradually reducing his executive responsibilities at Opendoor, founded nine years ago. The last December, Wu announced that he was resigning from his position as CEO to serve as Opendoor Marketplace President.
The company, like many others operating in the real estate sector, has had some challenges as mortgage interest rates have soared to nearly 8%, making it difficult for people to buy homes.
In November 2022, Opendoor announced that it was lay off about 550 peopleor 18% of the company, in all functions.
At the time, Wu said his company was navigating “one of the most challenging real estate markets in 40 years.”
Opendoor went public in late December 2020 after completing its planned merger with SPAC Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings II, led by investor Chamath Palihapitiya. That was after the company had raised about $1.3 billion in equity financing and nearly $3 billion in debt financing. Investors include General Atlantic, SoftBank Vision Fund, NEA, Norwest Venture Partners, GV, GGV Capital, Access technology Ventures, SV Angel and Fifth Wall Ventures, among others.
The founders include Wu and Founders Fund general partner Keith Rabois.
This has been a week of founder departures. On Thursday, TechCrunch broke the news that Credit Karma co-founder Nichole Mustard was leaving the company after more than 16 years. Jack Altman also announced that she would be coming down from Latticea software startup he founded in 2015. Altman told Business Insider that he wanted to “go back to the early stages of building a company.”
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