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Reed Jobs would rather talk about curing cancer than his last name
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Reed Jobs, the son of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, is making a name for himself in oncology venture capital with his firm Yosemite, which he launched in 2023. While he is easygoing about his famous last name, he prefers discussing his mission to cure cancer through innovative biotech investments. Yosemite focuses on building companies from early academic research using a combination of philanthropy and outside capital, a strategy Jobs believes is essential for discovering new treatments.
Yosemite is an oncology-only venture firm, targeting the 40% of biotech dedicated to cancer. Jobs argues that cures for cancer require creating new knowledge, not just uncovering existing drugs. To de-risk early-stage ideas, Yosemite provides no-strings-attached grants to university labs, an approach that has already produced two of its twenty portfolio companies from the first fund.
The firm recently announced the first close of its second fund, targeting $350 million. About a third of that capital will go into companies spun out of Yosemite's own ideas or collaborations with academics at institutions like Yale, Berkeley, and Stanford. The rest will be invested in external companies. Additionally, 2.5% of the fund's assets under management, plus $1 million annually from management fees, are allocated to a donor-advised fund for grants.
Jobs highlights the impact of artificial intelligence on both drug discovery and clinical trial design, which he believes is expanding opportunities faster than expected. Yosemite has already pioneered areas like epigenetic gene editing, which modulates gene expression without altering DNA, and safe delivery of gene editing to specific cells, a long-standing bottleneck in the field.
Among his proudest portfolio companies are Azalea, born from a grant to CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna's lab and now in clinical trials, and Quarry, built with serial founder Craig Crews. Quarry uses a novel therapeutic approach called induced proximity, where a drug drags a disease-causing protein to the cell's breakdown system rather than blocking it directly.
Jobs notes that the biotech investment climate has improved since Yosemite's launch. While early in its performance track record, he believes Yosemite's ability to create new areas of medicine before other firms gives it a competitive edge. With a team of 17 and a clear focus, the firm aims to become a serious player in oncology venture capital, driven by the conviction that innovation can transform cancer treatment.
