Tech billionaire Bill Gates says he is glad his youngest daughter Phoebe Gates didn't ask for startup funding

"I thought, 'Oh boy, she's going to come and ask,'" Bill told The New York Times in an interview published Thursday.

Tech billionaire Bill Gates and his youngest daughter Phoebe Gates. Photo from Instagram

While Bill said he would have supported his daughter's business, he admitted that such an arrangement would have been complicated. "I would have kept her on a short leash and be doing business reviews, which I would have found tricky," he said. "And I probably would have been overly nice, but wondered if it was the right thing to do. Luckily, it never happened."

Phoebe’s startup, Phia, officially launched on April 24. The platform aggregates clothing prices across 40,000 websites to help users find the best deals, according to Business Insider.

Earlier this year, on her podcast "The Burnouts," which she co-hosts with former roommate and now cofounder Sofia Kianni, Phoebe shared that her father had initial reservations about her entrepreneurial plans.

"I literally never hear my dad talk about the start of Microsoft," she said. "I literally mostly just remember him talking about the foundation. I remember me wanting to start the company and him being like, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’"

Unlike her father, who famously left Harvard to start Microsoft, Phoebe said leaving college was not considered an option. "They were very much like, 'You need to finish your degree; you don't just get to like drop out and do a company.’" she recalled.

"Which is so funny because my dad literally did that, and that's, like, the reason I'm able to go to Stanford or have my tuition paid."

She and Kianni have secured more than US$500,000 in funding from venture capital firms and angel investors.

She said Phia aims to serve a large and relatable market. "We're roommates fighting about clothing," she said. "We are the girls who are scouring shopping sites for deals. And there are, frankly, thousands of other young women like us."

Phoebe is the youngest of three children born to Bill and Melinda, who divorced in 2021 after 27 years of marriage.

She has two older siblings: Jennifer and Rory. In a recent interview, Bill, 69, revealed that each of his three children will inherit less than 1% of his fortune, currently valued at over US$100 billion.

According to Forbes, Bill’ net worth stood at $107.5 billion as of April 14. Even 1% of that sum would amount to more than $1 billion for each of his children.