Travis Kalanick’s robotics company, Atoms, has secured $1.7 billion in a funding round spearheaded by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Ben Horowitz will join the company's board following the investment, which also saw participation from Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, and notably, Uber.

This funding marks a significant re-connection for Kalanick with Uber, the company he founded but departed as CEO in 2017. Atoms is an evolution of Kalanick's previous ventures, including Cloud Kitchens and his acquisition of industrial automation company Pronto. Kalanick described the round as "unfinished business," aiming to "complete the bits-to-atoms story arc" that began at Uber and continued with Cloud Kitchens.

Kalanick envisions Atoms as a "wheelbase for robots," seeking to "digitize the physical world" by controlling it with software. He elaborated on building "atoms-based" computers where manufacturing acts as the CPU and real estate as storage. Horowitz expressed strong confidence in Kalanick's ability to transform "old-school, heavy parts of our economy."