Steve Jobs' son who lost dad to cancer launches investment firm to focus on new treatments

Steve Jobs, the visionary behind Apple, died from the complications of a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2011 at the age of just 56. Reed Jobs, the founder's son, is now reportedly starting a venture capital firm to invest in new cancer treatments in honor of his father and his struggle with cancer, reports USA Today. DealBook, a financial news service reporting on mergers, acquisitions, venture capital and hedge funds produced by The New York Times first reported the news.

The 31-year-old is the managing director of health for Emerson Collective, an organization founded by his mother in 2004. The organization is focused not only on health but also education, immigration reform, the environment, media and journalism. Reed once explained in a Q&A on Emerson Collective's website, "While most other players in this space focus on philanthropy or investment, we're able to do both." He further added that his team's "core goal" is to develop "new therapeutic options for cancer patients."

Reed has served as managing director for health for the organization, and the firm Yosemite is its spinoff. Yosemite has raised $200 million from investors and institutions including the venture capitalist John Doerr, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Rockefeller University and MIT. Its name hints at a sentimental connection: the national park where his parents were married in California's Sierra Nevada mountains.

“My father got diagnosed with cancer when I was 12,” Reed told DealBook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin. This sparked an interest in oncology and he started with a summer internship at Stanford when he was 15. “I had never ever wanted to be a venture capitalist," Reed told the outlet. "But I realized that when you’re actually incubating something and putting it together, you can make a tremendous difference in what assets are part of that, what direction it’s going to take, and what the scientific focus is going to be.” Yosemite will run a for-profit business but will maintain a donor-advised fund.

According to PEOPLE, Steve Jobs married Laurene Powell in 1991 and welcomed their first child, Reed, on September 22, 1991. He is one of the tech CEO's four kids including Lisa, 45, Erin, 27, and Eve, 25. He graduated with an honors degree in history and international security in 2014 and also received a master's degree in history from Stanford the next year. His mother, who inherited billions of dollars of stock in Apple and The Walt Disney Company wasn't planning on passing it on to her children.

"I'm not interested in legacy wealth buildings, and my children know that," she told The New York Times in February 2020. "Steve wasn't interested in that. If I live long enough, it ends with me. I inherited my wealth from my husband, who didn't care about the accumulation of wealth," she continued. "I am doing this in honor of his work, and I've dedicated my life to doing the very best I can to distribute it effectively, in ways that lift up individuals and communities in a sustainable way."