After a $350m investment by a16z in Adam Neumann’s latest venture Flow, the plan to launch a digital wallet has been confirmed. Neumann was also the co-founder of WeWork and CEO. Flowcarbon is a blockchain-based carbon trading platform.
Flow is a residential real estate startup that Adam Neumann founded. It plans to launch a digital wallet capable of storing cryptocurrency after an investment by Andreessen Horowitz.
Marc Andreessen, a blogger on Monday, wrote that Neumann was the reason why venture capital firms decided to invest in Neumann because of his “direct strike” as a “visionary leader” in solving US housing problems.
Forbes was told by Davidson Goldin, a spokesperson for Flow, that the digital wallet will not be used to pay rent in apartments managed by the real-estate startup. According to the spokesperson, the wallet can be used for external transactions. A rewards program could also include crypto.
Neumann was awarded a $350million investment by a16z to fund his real estate management software company. The New York Times reported the news on Monday. However, only a few details were disclosed. Neumann resigned from WeWork in 2019, the company he founded in 2008 after investors pressure.
According to Forbes, Neuman, who left WeWork in 2012, was well-known for his ability to buy properties in secondary markets such as Nashville, Tennessee and Norwalk Connecticut. He also invested in the property management software company Alfred.
Forbes discovered the digital wallet plan through a job advertisement posted by a recruiter. It was a role at “a ground breaking venture that will involve a multi-faceted approach, spearheaded by Adam Neumann.”
Neumann is creating a “next-generation multi-family property management and system with a propriety payments system”, according to Forbes. This will include a “full financial services wallet, tokenized reward program, and crypto payment methods”, the ad added.
Goldin confirmed the digital wallet plan and called the job description “largely false.” Goldin offered an alternative description, which did not include “crypto” and “blockchain”, but required him to “analyze technology ecosystem and services within the multifamily sector.” Later, the recruiter admitted that they had “made a mistake and misrepresented this job. “
Neumann was previously involved in crypto and founded crypto startup Flowcarbon. In a round led by the crypto unit at a16z, $70 million was raised to help develop its blockchain-based carbon trading software. Flowcarbon announced that its token launch was delayed and that it would slow down operations due to market volatility, just two months after the round.