Travis Kalanick's Atoms raises $1.7B, led by a16z — with Uber back in the fold

What's the deal? Travis KalanickDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s robotics company, AtomsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, has raised $1.7 billion through a combination of equity and debt financing led by Andreessen Horowitz, whose co-founder Ben HorowitzDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → will join the company's board.

The Uber twist: Uber's involvement reconnects Kalanick with the company he founded — and the same company that pushed him out as chief executive officer in 2017 after complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination, and a toxic workplace.

What's the endgame? Atoms is a rebranded holding company built atop Kalanick's post-Uber work, including the ghost-kitchen venture CloudKitchens. When he revealed the name in March, Kalanick said he had acquired Pronto, the heavy-industry automation firm run by former Uber colleague Anthony Levandowski.

Kalanick has said he wants to build a "wheelbase for robots" and to move into mining, going beyond what Pronto already does for vehicles. He was reportedly interested in buying the US arm of Chinese self-driving firm Pony AI last year, but The Information reported in March that those talks had ended.

In his words: "On many levels, this round is a bit of unfinished business," Kalanick wrote, describing "the bits-to-atoms story arc we started at Uber, continued at CloudKitchens and will now finish at Atoms."

He framed the mission as one he began 16 years ago: "to digitize the physical world" by building "'atoms-based' computers where CPU is manufacturing, storage is real estate, and network is transportation."

What's the money for? Kalanick was vague, but hiring appears central. He wrote that "the builders of tomorrow's progress machines" will face "Nature and its fierce resistance to change."

Horowitz's pitch: "Travis is Back," Ben Horowitz declared in a simultaneous post. He argued that changing "old-school, heavy parts of our economy" takes rare range, "from software architecture to mechanical engineering. Travis is that guy." Horowitz said Atoms aims to "make everything and everyone more productive."

The signal: The financing marks one of the largest capital commitments yet toward applying AI and robotics to physical industries, while signaling renewed investor confidence in one of Silicon Valley's most controversial founders.

Read more: Travis Kalanick on X · TechCrunch