Bob Lee, an early executive at Square who created the company’s Cash App mobile wallet, died Tuesday in a San Francisco stabbing.
Lee was most recently the chief product officer at MobileCoin, a cryptocurrency company focused on enabling encrypted payments through cellphones. He served as Square’s chief technology officer from 2010 to 2014, during which time he got the Cash App started. He also worked as an angel investor and startup advisor.
Lee’s LinkedIn profile said he was an investor in companies including SpaceX, Clubhouse, Tile and Figma.
The San Francisco Police Department disclosed Tuesday the fatal stabbing of an unnamed 43-year-old male that occurred around 2:35 a.m. MobileCoin confirmed that Lee was the victim in an email to the Associated Press.
“From large contributions to Android at Google, to being the first CTO of Square, in that time creating Cash App, and working with us here at MobileCoin, Bob surely had an impact that will last far beyond his short time on earth,” MobileCoin CEO Josh Goldbard said in a statement reviewed by the AP.
The Cash App helped transform Square, which is now known as Block Inc.
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from a company focused on providing payment-processing services for small businesses to one that also served consumers. The Cash App initially let people send money to friends, but it’s since blossomed into a platform that also encompasses stock and bitcoin trading. The service had 51 million monthly transacting active accounts in December.
Others in the tech world offered tributes as well.
AP reporting contributed to this story.
This post was originally published on Market Watch
