Kalanick's Atoms raises $1.7B led by a16z; Uber rejoins as investor

Travis Kalanick's robotics company Atoms has raised $1.7 billion（約2700億円） in a funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Ben Horowitz, the firm's co-founder, will join Atoms' board of directors. Bain Capital and Fifth Wall also invested, alongside Uber—the company Kalanick founded and from which he was forced out as CEO in 2017 following complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination, and a toxic workplace.

Atoms is, in essence, a rebranding and consolidation of Kalanick's existing ventures. It sits atop Cloud Kitchens, his ghost kitchen business, and now includes Pronto, an industrial automation company run by Anthony Levandowski, a former Uber colleague, which Kalanick acquired when he announced the Atoms name in March. Kalanick has stated that his goal with Atoms is to build a 'wheelbase for robots,' though he has not disclosed specific technical or commercial details about the product roadmap.

In a post on X about the fundraise, Kalanick described the round as 'unfinished business' and framed it as the culmination of a sixteen-year journey. 'Fuel to complete the bits-to-atoms story arc we started at Uber, continued at CloudKitchens and will now finish at Atoms,' he wrote. He elaborated on his founding vision: 'Understand, predict and control the physical world with software. Building atoms-based computers where CPU is manufacturing, storage is real estate, and network is transportation.' Ben Horowitz added his endorsement in a simultaneous post, stating that it takes 'a rare kind of entrepreneur' to reshape heavy industrial sectors, and that Kalanick possesses 'a gritty work ethic, drive, and range that spans across domains, from software architecture to mechanical engineering.'

Atoms represents Kalanick's pivot from transportation (Uber) into robotics and physical-world automation. The company itself grew out of Cloud Kitchens, his ghost kitchen venture, which he established after departing Uber in 2017 amid workplace misconduct allegations. By rebranding Cloud Kitchens as Atoms and acquiring Pronto—an industrial automation firm—Kalanick is consolidating his robotics ambitions under a single corporate umbrella. His framing of this round as 'unfinished business' and completion of a 'bits-to-atoms story arc' signals that he views robotics and physical automation as a natural extension of the digital-first philosophy that drove Uber. Notably, Uber's participation in the round breaks a nine-year silence between Kalanick and the company that ousted him, suggesting either a thaw in relations or a pragmatic bet by Uber on Kalanick's new direction.

No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!