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Travis Kalanick’s Atoms Eyes Robotaxi Business After Big Funding Round
Confirmed
In Short: Travis Kalanick’s startup Atoms is exploring the robotaxi market, according to reports.
Travis Kalanick, the former CEO of Uber, is back in the autonomous transportation game with his new company Atoms. According to reports, Atoms is considering entering the robotaxi business, a move that aligns with the startup's recent $1.7 billion funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Sources close to the company told TechCrunch that Atoms has discussed with Uber how the ride-hailing giant could utilize its robotaxi technology. This comes after Uber invested $100 million in Atoms, a figure previously confirmed by TechCrunch.
Kalanick launched Atoms in March by rebadging City Storage Systems, a holding company with interests in CloudKitchens. The startup has since acquired Pronto, an autonomous mining startup led by Uber’s former self-driving chief Anthony Levandowski, further cementing its focus on automation.
Despite the renewed attention around robotaxis, Atoms is positioning itself differently. People familiar with the business told ascendants.in that its approach resembles companies such as Wayve and Nuro, with an emphasis on developing autonomous technology rather than manufacturing vehicles themselves.
Former Uber finance chief Gautam Gupta has joined Atoms as chief financial officer, signaling the company's ambition to scale its operations. While robotaxis don't represent the entirety of Atoms' plans, this direction seems consistent with Kalanick's vision for the startup.
Background
Travis Cordell Kalanick is an American businessman best known as the co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Uber. Previously he worked for Scour, a peer-to-peer file sharing application company, and was the co-founder of Red Swoosh, a peer-to-peer content delivery network that was sold to Akamai Technologies in 2007.
What's confirmed
What's still developing
- Disrupt 2026: OpenAI, Anthropic, Replit, and more take over 6 industry stages. 25% off tickets now Back by popular demand: Save up to $300 on Disrupt Earlier this summer, Travis Kalanick’s Atoms announced a $1.7 billion funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
- Now a story in the Financial Times offers more details about Atoms’ goals.
- Nearly a decade after his turbulent departure from Uber, Travis Kalanick is building again at the intersection of transportation, artificial intelligence and automation.
- Atoms is preparing to expand its autonomous engineering team and could use acquisitions to bring in additional talent.
- At an Andreessen Horowitz event in San Francisco, Kalanick offered a glimpse into how he sees the connection between his past and what he is building now.
- The capital gives Kalanick room to build at a scale very different from that of an early-stage autonomous vehicle start-up.