Atoms, the startup founded by Travis Kalanick, raises $1.7 billion in investment

Atoms, a robotics company founded by former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, has successfully raised $1.7 billion in an investment round led by the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). This major funding process is being viewed not only as a milestone for the startup's future but also as Kalanick's sensational return to the tech world. This is reported by Techcrunch.com reports .

Major funds such as Bain Capital and Fifth Wall participated in this investment round. Most notably, Uber is also among the investors. This marks a reconnection between Kalanick and the company he founded, which he left in 2017 amid controversy. As part of the deal, prominent investor Ben Horowitz will join the Atoms board of directors.

A new phase for the CloudKitchens project

Atoms is essentially a rebranded holding company based on CloudKitchens (a ghost kitchen network), a project Kalanick has been working on since leaving Uber. When the new name was announced in March this year, Kalanick revealed that he had acquired Pronto, a heavy industrial automation company led by his former colleague Anthony Levandowski.

On his X social media page, Kalanick called this investment "unfinished business." According to him, the Atoms project will be the final point in the story of "moving from bits to atoms" that began at Uber and continued through CloudKitchens. The entrepreneur aims to digitize the physical world and manage and predict it through software.

Creating a platform for robots

So far, no detailed information has been provided regarding the exact product Atoms is working on. However, Kalanick has emphasized his intention to create a unique "wheel base" or platform for robots. According to his concept, the era of "atom-based computers" is coming, where the manufacturing process acts as a CPU, real estate as storage, and transport as a network.

Welcoming Kalanick's return, Ben Horowitz noted that such determined and versatile entrepreneurs are exactly what is needed to transform traditional and heavy sectors of the economy. He believes Kalanick has a unique ability to integrate fields ranging from software architecture to mechanical engineering.

This project could also be interesting for emerging markets. Automated delivery and robotics solutions will serve to increase efficiency in logistics and catering sectors in the future. For now, it remains unknown when Atoms will publicly unveil its technological solutions.