Travis Kalanick is back, and Uber is helping to fund him. The founder Uber forced out in 2017 has raised $1.7 billion for Atoms, an industrial-AI and robotics company he has built in near-total stealth for years.
Andreessen Horowitz led the round. Its co-founder Ben Horowitz is joining the board. And among the investors sits Uber, the company Kalanick started in 2009 and left under a cloud.
That exit still shadows the story. Uber pushed Kalanick out as chief executive in 2017 after complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination and a toxic workplace. Nine years on, his old company is writing him a cheque. Kalanick, never one for understatement, calls the round “unfinished business”.
The equity comes with serious debt. Alongside a16z, Bain Capital, Fifth Wall and others, Atoms lined up credit facilities from JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Barclays. The company did not disclose a valuation. That is the kind of firepower needed to build heavy machines, not apps.
Bits to atoms
