Jeffrey Housenbold, a former founding managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, the fund management arm of Japanese telecommunications and internet group SoftBank, has joined media and consumer product company Beast Industries.
At Beast Industries, the holding company of Jimmy Donaldson, the YouTube personality better known as MrBeast, Housenbold will be president and chief operating officer.
The move comes as Beast Industries plans to launch beverage and mobile game businesses next year, according to court filings seen by Business Insider. The document showed Donaldson’s company expects to log $700m in revenue this year.
“We are on a mission to build an extraordinary media and consumer product and services company that has a positive impact on the world,” said Housenbold in a LinkedIn post regarding his new job at Beast Industries.
Other content creators have also been partnering with VCs to manage their assets.
W, YouTuber Jake Paul’s male personal care brand co-founded with VC investor Geoffrey Woo, just raised $14m in seed and series A rounds this week. Influencer Kim Kardashian had partnered with brand investor Jay Sammons to launch private equity firm Skky Partners back in 2022.
SoftBank Investment Advisers hired Housenbold in 2017 and tasked him with launching its Vision Funds 1 and 2. Global Corporate Venturing named him a Rising Star in 2019.
From July 2021, Housenbold held a 14-month stint as senior adviser to SoftBank Investment Advisers chief executive Rajeev Misra and chairman Ron Fisher.
During that time, he also founded an early and mid-stage growth equity fund called Honor Ventures. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 reportedly injected $100m into the scheme, which was raising between $500m and $600m.
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SoftBank commits to Housenbold’s new fund
Honor Ventures aims to raise between $500m and $600m for investments in consumer tech startups.
