When one door closes … Opendoor CEO Eric Wu steps down, CFO Carrie Wheeler steps in as new chief govt • TechCrunch

Opendoor co-founder Eric Wu introduced at present that he’s stepping down from his function as CEO of the actual property expertise firm and that Carrie Wheeler will probably be taking up as chief govt.

In a weblog publish, Wu mentioned that he’ll transition to serving as president of market. Wheeler has served because the chief monetary officer of Opendoor since September of 2020.

In asserting the shift, Wu wrote: “First, I imagine that an vital driver of shareholder worth is the invention and refinement of product market match, and I need to spend my days, nights, and weekends delivering merchandise that handle client wants. Second, and extra importantly, I’ve spent numerous hours with Carrie, and I do know she is the chief and govt Opendoor wants.” 

Wheeler will be a part of Opendoor’s board, of which Wu will proceed to function a member. John Rice, who has served on the corporate’s board since 2021, has been appointed lead impartial director.

In early November, Opendoor launched a brand new market known as Opendoor Exclusives in its Dallas-Fort Value and Austin markets. On the time, Wu mentioned: “We’ve designed Opendoor Exclusives to be a brand new market the place you possibly can instantly purchase and promote a house, with none of the effort of the normal actual property mannequin. We’re doing this by leveraging our 9 years as a number one purchaser and vendor of houses, opening our platform and providers, and aiming to deliver collectively a whole bunch of hundreds of our house sellers and residential patrons. At this time marks a founding second as we increase our imaginative and prescient to service all homebuyers and householders and purpose to redefine the actual property transaction perpetually.”

The strikes come after a tumultuous 12 months for Opendoor. On November 2, Opendoor introduced it was letting go of about 550 folks, or 18% of the corporate, throughout all features. 

At the moment, Wu mentioned his firm was navigating “some of the difficult actual property markets in 40 years.”

In the meantime, the corporate’s inventory has taken an enormous hit. Opendoor went public in late December 2020 after finishing its deliberate merger with the SPAC Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings II, headed by investor Chamath Palihapitiya. The eight-year-old firm closed its first day of buying and selling on the Nasdaq inventory alternate at $31.25, “properly above the $10 share worth at which Social Capital offered shares in an April [2020] preliminary public providing,” per Crunchbase and Reuters reporting. On the time of writing at present, shares have been buying and selling at $1.76, solely barely increased than the corporate’s 52-week low of $1.46. Because of this the corporate is valued at simply $1.11 billion, down from a valuation of $8 billion in 2021.

In August, Opendoor agreed to pay $62 million to settle fees by the Federal Commerce Fee, which mentioned the corporate’s claims that it helps folks earn more money by promoting their home to the corporate slightly than itemizing it on the open market have been misleading.

In terms of enterprise capital, Opendoor final raised $300 million at a $3.5 billion pre-money valuation in March of 2019. Over time, it has raised about $1.3 billion in fairness funding and practically $3 billion in debt financing to finance its house purchases. Traders within the firm embody Basic Atlantic, the SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund, NEA, Norwest Enterprise Companions, GV, GGV Capital, Entry Know-how Ventures, SV Angel and Fifth Wall Ventures, together with others.

Founders embody Wu and Founders Fund normal associate Keith Rabois.