Travis Kalanick's robotics company raises $1.7B, led by a16z
Uber is also investing in Travis Kalanick's company Atoms, which has made gauzy claims about using industrial AI to modernize the world. Travis Kalanick's robotics company, Atoms, has raised $1. 7 billion in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Key Takeaways
- Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, and others participated in the round.
Perhaps most notably, Uber also joined the funding round, re-connecting Kalanick with the company he founded - and the same company that pushed him out as CEO in 2017 following complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination, and a toxic workplace.
- arm of Chinese self-driving vehicle company Pony AI with backing from Uber.
The Information reported in March that those talks had ended.
- Building 'atoms-based' computers where CPU is manufacturing, storage is real estate, and network is transportation.
" Kalanick has said he wants to build a "wheelbase for robots" with Atoms.
- Horowitz wrote that Atoms will be all about making people more productive in the physical world.
"I think the most valuable thing someone could do with AI and robotics is to repeat the same thing Uber did for transportation, or that computers did for the digital world: to make everything and everyone more productive ," his post reads.
- He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane.
Stats & Key Facts
- #Travis Kalanick's robotics company, Atoms, has raised $1.
- #7 billion in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
- #Perhaps most notably, Uber also joined the funding round, re-connecting Kalanick with the company he founded - and the same company that pushed him out as CEO in 2017 following complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination, and a toxic workplace.
Atoms is essentially a rebranded holding company created atop the project Kalanick has been working on since he resigned from Uber, a ghost kitchen play called Cloud Kitchens. When he revealed the new name in March, Kalanick announced he had acquired Pronto, the heavy industry automation company run by his former Uber colleague Anthony Levandowski. Kalanick has also said he wants to get into mining with atoms, going beyond what Pronto already does for vehicles in that industry.
Last year, it was reported that Kalanick was interested in buying the U. arm of Chinese self-driving vehicle company Pony AI with backing from Uber. The Information reported in March that those talks had ended.
In a post on X about the fundraise, Kalanick didn't go into specifics about what he wants to build with Atoms. "On many levels, this round is a bit of unfinished business. Fuel to complete the bits-to-atoms story arc we started at Uber, continued at CloudKitchens and will now finish at Atoms," Kalanick wrote.
For more details please read the original article at TechCrunch AI.
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