PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel was revealed as the buyer of two waterfront adjacent Miami Beach mansions that sold in September for $18 million.
Thiel, the German-American billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist, acquired Jacques Nasser’s double-home at 445 to 441 East Rivo Alto Drive on the Venetian Islands. Business Insider first reported the buyer’s identity, which a source confirmed to The Real Deal.
Thiel is a co-founder of San Francisco-based venture capital firm Founders Fund, which has a presence in the Miami area. Thiel incorporated Founders Fund Miami in December, according to state records. He also invested in Facebook and co-founded Palantir Technologies. Forbes pegs his net worth at about $5.9 billion.
Nasser, a Lebanese-American business executive and philanthropist who led Ford Motor Company as president and CEO, put the Miami Beach property up for sale asking nearly $20 million in July.
The property includes two houses, each with a pool, with a total of nine bedrooms, seven bathrooms and one half-bath. Nasser paid $5 million for the 0.6-acre property in 2005. The homes were originally built in 1947 and 1956, records show.
Dora Puig of Luxe Living Realty was the listing agent in the latest deal, and Douglas Kinsley of Fortune International Realty represented the buyer.
Thiel is one of the biggest tech names to plunk down cash for a waterfront Miami Beach home in recent months, as more venture capital and tech executives move to South Florida. In December, Keith Rabois, a member of the “PayPal Mafia” and a general partner at Founders Fund, paid nearly $29 million for a mansion, also on the Venetian Islands.
In October, Jon Oringer, the billionaire businessman who founded the stock media company Shutterstock, paid $42 million for a waterfront mansion on North Bay Road.