Atoms, the robotics company founded by Travis Kalanick, has successfully closed a significant funding round, securing $1.7 billion. The investment initiative was spearheaded by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, with its co-founder Ben Horowitz slated to join Atoms' board of directors.
Prominent investors such as Bain Capital and Fifth Wall were among the other participants in this substantial funding round.
Notably, Uber, the ride-sharing giant Kalanick founded and was subsequently ousted from as CEO in 2017 amid allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination, and a toxic workplace culture, also contributed to the funding. This marks a significant reunion between Kalanick and his former company.
Atoms operates as a rebranded holding company, evolving from Kalanick's venture since his departure from Uber: CloudKitchens, a ghost kitchen enterprise. When the new name, Atoms, was unveiled in March, Kalanick simultaneously announced the acquisition of Pronto, a heavy industry automation firm led by his former Uber colleague, Anthony Levandowski.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) regarding the fundraise, Kalanick offered a broad vision rather than specific project details for 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 articulated. He further elaborated on his long-standing ambition: “16 years ago, I started a journey to digitize the physical world. 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.”
Kalanick has previously articulated his ambition for Atoms to construct a “wheelbase for robots.”
Concurrently, Ben Horowitz expressed strong support in his own Wednesday post, declaring, “Travis is Back.” Horowitz praised Kalanick's unique entrepreneurial qualities: “It takes a rare kind of entrepreneur to change these old-school, heavy parts of our economy. They need a gritty work ethic, drive, and range that spans across domains, from software architecture to mechanical engineering. Travis is that guy.”
This evolving story continues to unfold.
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