Uber co-founder raises $1.7B for new robotics startup ATOMS

ATOMS said it aims to make gainfully employed robots that bring abundance to their owners and society at large. | Source: ATOMS

ATOMS, a robotics startup led by former Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick, today said it has raised $1.7 billion in equity investment. Kalanick said the funding will enable ATOMS to complete completion of the “bits-to-atoms” story arc he started at Uber and continued at CloudKitchens.

So far, Kalanick hasn’t given many details about the robots the new company plans to build. He did say that ATOMS will act as an OEM that builds “atoms-based” computers for all major industrial sectors. Also as part of this investment, ATOMS merged its various businesses into one equity structure.

Lead investors in the round, a16z and Ben Horowitz, are joining the company’s board. Other equity partners include Bain Capital, Uber, Fifth Wall, Chemistry, A*, K5 Global, Abstract, SV Angel, and Alpha Square Group. Debt partners include Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, and Barclays.

It’s notable that Uber participated in this most recent funding round. This investment reconnects the ride-hailing company with one of its founders. Kalanick was pushed out of Uber in 2017 following allegations that he ignored reports of sexual harassment at the company.

After Uber, Kalanick acquired a controlling stake in Cloud Kitchens, a Los Angeles-based company that operates ghost kitchens and develops related technology. ATOMS is essentially a rebranded holding company created on top of Cloud Kitchens.

Now, the company aims to create physical automation to transform multiple industries. To start, ATOMS said it aims to create better infrastructure for food , more productive mines , and a wheelbase for mobile robots .

Generally, ATOMS is interested in making specialized robots that can do real work. Kalanick wrote that humanoids will be good at handling low-scale tasks in human-designed spaces, like in people’s homes. But if you need an industrial kitchen to make 1,000 pancakes an hour, you’ll need a more customized approach, he said.

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