Building a new Playground Global, after Andy Rubin
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
Playground Global is rebuilding, months after the departure of controversial founder Andy Rubin and just days after the failure of its highest-profile investment, Rubin's mobile-phone startup Essential Products.
What's new: Laurie Yoler, a Silicon Valley veteran with both investing and operating chops, has joined Playground Global as its fifth general partner.
Yoler tells Axios she was recruited by several venture capital firms, but chose Playground Global because she felt it was going after some of the toughest challenges in autonomous tech and artificial intelligence. She adds that all of her conversations with Playground came after the departure of Rubin, the "father of Android" who was accused of sexual misconduct while still at Google.
"We didn't overlap and, honestly, Andy wasn't even a thought for me," Yoler says.
- Yoler has been advising self-driving startup Zoox for several years and serving on its board. She also was a founding director of Tesla Motors.
- Her other roles have included president of Qualcomm Labs, managing director of GrowthPoint Technology Partners, founder of Sun Microsystems' corporate venture capital unit, and product manager for what became the Visa Check Card.
- She's maintaining pre-Playground board seats at consumer electronics company Bose and home goods company Church & Dwight (maker of Arm & Hammer products).
Yoler says that Playground has invested less than half of a $500 million second fund raised in 2016, and that she recently led a round for digital contracting startup Leaf Logistics.
Playground also recently hired:
- Allison Braley, a marketing-focused operating partner who most recently was VP of marketing for Fair.
- Michael Tolo, a venture principal who previously was an analyst for Australian investment firm Future Fund.
Editor's note: The story has been corrected with Playground Global's correct name and that it has five (not four) partners.