Travis Kalanick’s robotics company, Atoms, has secured $1.7 billion in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The investment includes participation from Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, and Uber, which reconnected Kalanick with the company he co-founded. Ben Horowitz, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, will join Atoms’ board following the investment. Kalanick, who left Uber in 2017, has been working on a project called Cloud Kitchens, which he rebranded as Atoms. The company is essentially a holding entity built on the foundation of his previous work. Kalanick announced the new name in March and stated that the funding round is a continuation of a long-term vision to digitize the physical world.
Kalanick’s vision for Atoms includes building a 'wheelbase for robots,' which he described as a way to understand, predict, and control the physical world through software. In a post on X, he noted that the round represents 'unfinished business' from his time at Uber. He emphasized that the goal is to complete the 'bits-to-atoms' story arc, which began at Uber and continues through Cloud Kitchens. The investment is seen as a significant step toward realizing this vision, though specifics about the company’s future plans remain unclear.
Kalanick’s return to the robotics space comes after years of working on Cloud Kitchens, a ghost kitchen play, and acquiring Pronto, a heavy industry automation company. His former Uber colleague Anthony Levandowski leads Pronto. Ben Horowitz praised Kalanick’s ability to drive change in traditional industries, calling him a rare entrepreneur with the grit and range needed to transform old-school sectors. The story is still unfolding as Atoms moves forward with its ambitious goals.
Source: techcrunch
