Just months after becoming a partner at San Francisco-based VC firm Benchmark, mobile game entrepreneur and early Brex investor Victor Lazarte has purchased a two-parcel Atherton property for $25.4 million, according to property records.
Located at 37 and 53 Euclid Avenue, the side-by-side parcels have a combined 2 acres between them. The “park-like atmosphere” gives the feel of a “Santa Barbara estate,” according to listing notes from agent Delia Fei of Compass. The main home is a Mediterranean-style 2003-built four-bedroom, with four full and two half baths. The estate also features a one-bedroom guest house and a pool house for a combined 8,200 square feet. The grounds include fountains, a fire pit, a green house, a vegetable garden and a three-car garage.
Fei did not reply to a request for comment on the sale, nor did Lazarte’s agent Nino Gaetano of The Agency. The properties were most recently listed for $27 million at the end of September. They went into contract on Nov. 21 and closed on Dec. 14.
The side-by-side properties were first listed just a few months after they were purchased in 2020 in an off-market deal for nearly $23 million by a Boston-based LLC called 1 Bay CA, according to MLS data and public records. That initial ask at nearly $29 million was removed from the listing at the start of 2021 and the properties didn’t return to market until last year, when the price ratcheted down to $27 million.
Compass agent Sia Glafkides said she toured the property with her clients in August 2023, before it was officially back on the market. They were looking for a home built within the last 10 years with a high quality of construction and at least 1.5 acres. They debated the merits of the Euclid homes with another property they also liked about a mile away at 75 Almendral Avenue.
“Every detail was scrutinized, with the buyers envisioning themselves living in
both properties and assessing their suitability to their lifestyle,” she said via email.
Though both homes were newer, with a “Mediterranean-Tuscan villa aesthetic,” they ended up buying the Almendral home for $17 million.
Glafkides said that there were several Atherton trades at $15 million and up that took place in December on homes that had been “overpriced” and listed for over six months. Most, if not all, sold in all-cash transactions, she said.
That appears to be the case for Lazarte’s purchase as well. The Brazilian-born entrepreneur co-founded Wildlife Studios in Sao Paulo with his brother Arthur in 2010, when he was in his early 20s, and moved to the Bay Area eight years later when the mobile game company was looking to expand, according to a profile on him in Forbes published last year. Their biggest hit games include Tennis Clash, Zooba, Sniper 3D and Colorfy, according to the company’s website.
Wildlife was valued at $1.3 billion in 2019 in a funding round led by Benchmark, making it Brazil’s most valuable tech company with the widest global reach, according to Brazil Journal. The gaming company was valued at nearly $3 billion in 2023, when Lazarte decided to take a step back at Wildlife and became a partner at financier Benchmark, according to Forbes. He had moved to New York for a year, but returned to the Bay Area when he took on the new VC role in July, according to the article.
For the last six years Lazarte has served on the board of Brex, an online credit card and accounting system for startups, according to his LinkedIn profile.
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