Cash App Founder Stabbed to Death in San Francisco

A view of the venue during the Afterpay, Cash App & TIDAL Front Row to NYFW Party in New York on Sept. 13, 2022. (Anna Webber/Getty Images for Afterpay)

Bob Lee, the creator of the mobile payment service Cash App and the former chief technology officer of Square, has been stabbed to death in San Francisco.

The 43-year-old tech executive was found by officers in the early hours of April 4, after suffering multiple stab wounds.

The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) said there had been a violent attack in the city’s downtown Rincon Hill neighborhood at 2:35 a.m. local time.

“Officers rendered aid and summoned medics to the scene. The victim was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. Despite efforts by first responders and medical personnel, the victim succumbed to his injuries,” police said.

Authorities later told CBS News that Lee was the victim, while the SFPD stated that his death was being actively investigated as a homicide.

No arrests have yet been made, but the SFPD has not released details on potential suspects.

Silicon Valley Execs in Shock

The tech executive had been serving as chief product officer of the San Francisco based cryptocurrency company MobileCoin since November 2021, according to his LinkedIn page.

Lee rose to prominence in the tech industry for being the first chief technology officer of the payments platform Square, later renamed Block, in addition to his creation of Cash App.

Jack Dorsey, the founder of Square, mourned the death of Lee on the social media platform Nostr, writing: “It’s real. Getting calls. Heartbreaking.”

A proponent of cryptocurrencies, Lee said in a statement after joining MobileCoin that “the traditional financial system leaves behind hundreds of millions of ‘unbanked’ people worldwide and consequently excludes them from the associated benefits.“

Shock spread throughout the tech industry after the news became public, with online tributes pouring in.

MobileCoin’s CEO Joshua Goldbard told told ABC7 in a statement that “Bob was a force of nature. Helped to birth Android and CashApp into our world.”

“Moby was his dream: a privacy-protecting wallet for the 21st Century. I will miss him every day.”

Bill Barhydt, the CEO of crypto wallet company Abra, wrote on Twitter on April 5, “I just got devastating news that our friend Bob Lee ... was killed in SF early today.”

“Bob was a dad, the former CTO of Square where he created Cash App & CTO of Mobile Coin. He was a generous decent human being who didn’t deserve to be killed,” Barhydt continued.

Lee had previously worked at Google where he managed Android’s core library team and launched the world’s most-used operating system, according to his profile on MobileCoin’s official website.

He later founded the social network Present and invested in companies like Figma, Clubhouse, Beeper, and Faire.

The tech executive assisted the World Health Organization after the COVID-19 pandemic spread worldwide with their tracker mobile app and later helped set up a stay-at-home testing kit company.

Reuters contributed to this report.