Uber founder Travis Kalanick bets big on India with new venture

Despite his exit from Uber, Travis Kalanick continues to hold a seat on the board of the ride-hailing giant. Photo: Reuters

Bengaluru: Uber Technologies Inc. founder Travis Kalanick, who was ousted from his role as the ride-hailing giant’s chief executive last year, has started a new venture investment fund called 10100, which will look to invest in emerging technologies in countries such as India and China, among other things.

In a Twitter announcement on Thursday, Kalanick said he had begun to make investments and started working with entrepreneurs over the past few months as part of his efforts to move on from his stint at Uber—a company that he co-founded with Garrett Camp in 2009.

“Over the past few months, I’ve started thinking about what’s next. I’ve begun making investments, joining boards, working with entrepreneurs and non-profits. Today I’m announcing the creation of a fund called 10100 (pronounced ten-one-hundred), home to my passions, investments, ideas and big bets. It will be overseeing my for-profit investments as well as my non-profit work,” said Kalanick in the statement.

In the latest announcement, Kalanick did not specify the size of his new fund nor share details of the number and size of investments the fund would look to make. Kalanick did not immediately respond to an emailed request for more information on the new fund.

Other than emerging technologies in India and China, 10100 will focus on “large-scale job creation”, with investments in real estate, e-commerce and emerging innovation in China and India.

The new fund will also look to undertake non-profit initiatives that will initially focus on education and “the future of cities”, said Kalanick.

The launch of the fund comes less than a year after Kalanick resigned from Uber, following a tumultuous period at the ride-hailing firm, which was hit by several controversies and was accused of fostering a culture of workplace harassment and sexism, among other things. The controversies came to light broadly due to a blog post put out by former employee Susan Fowler and ultimately triggered an internal investigation that was conducted by former US attorney general Eric Holder.

Despite his exit from Uber, Kalanick continues to hold a seat on the board of the ride-hailing giant.

In recent months, Kalanick has also sold off a third of his entire stake in Uber to Japan’s SoftBank Capital, as part of a massive secondary transaction. That deal was estimated to be worth roughly $1.4 billion.