A visitor tries out the Oculus Gear VR virtual reality goggles at the Facebook Innovation Hub on February 24, 2016 in Berlin, Germany.
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Facebook just lost the last remaining co-founder from one of its biggest and most important acquisitions.
Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell announced Tuesday that he’s departing the virtual reality company after seven years. Mitchell headed up virtual reality product development at Facebook.
“After seven incredible years, I’ve decided to move on from Oculus / Facebook,” Mitchell wrote in a post on Reddit. “I expect the incredible team at Facebook to continue to surprise and delight us on this mission to build the next computing platform. I can’t wait to see what comes next.”
Mitchell said he’s now taking some time off “to travel, be with family and recharge.” His departure follows the exit of co-founder Palmer Luckey in 2017, who now runs defense start-up Anduril Industries. Brendan Iribe, the former CEO and a co-founder of Oculus, also exited the company in 2018.
Facebook acquired Oculus for $2 billion in 2014 in a move that represented a major bet on virtual reality. Since then, Oculus has released several iterations of its headsets, most recently launching a fourth-generation standalone version for $399.
Mitchell’s departure marks the latest example of a co-founder departing the company after Facebook acquired it. Last April, Jan Koum, cofounder of Facebook-owned WhatsApp, said he was leaving the company. Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger departed the social media app last September.
Representatives from Facebook were not immediately available for comment.
