Travis Kalanick’s robotics startup Atoms taps former Uber finance chief as CFO
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- Atoms appointed Gautam Gupta as chief financial officer, bringing on another key former Uber executive less than a month after closing a $1.7 billion funding round.
- Gautam Gupta confirmed he is stepping down from A*, the venture firm he co-founded, to join Atoms full-time, calling Travis Kalanick a 'genius' with the fortitude to create new markets.
- Uber participated in Atoms’ $1.7 billion raise, reuniting the company with founder Travis Kalanick, whom it ousted in 2017, with reports confirming a $100 million investment.
- Anthony Levandowski, former Uber and Google self-driving engineer, now leads Pronto — a mining autonomy startup acquired by Atoms earlier this year — adding to the Uber alumni network at the company.
- Travis Kalanick described the funding round as 'unfinished business,' framing Atoms as the next phase in his 'bits-to-atoms' vision started at Uber and continued through CloudKitchens.
Why it matters: The $100 million Uber investment marks a significant reconciliation between the company and Kalanick, whose ouster followed major governance failures. With Gupta joining and multiple Uber veterans in leadership, Atoms gains operational credibility while signaling that past controversies haven’t closed doors to high-stakes tech ventures.
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