Atoms 1.7B funding round backs Travis Kalanick’s automation bet
Andreessen Horowitz led the raise for Atoms, which combines CloudKitchens, Pronto AI and other industrial automation units.
By Dominic Okoye · Staff Writer
· 3 min read
Atoms has raised $1.7 billion in funding, giving the industrial automation startup led by Uber Technologies Inc. co-founder Travis Kalanick a large pool of capital for a company whose valuation, revenue and headcount were not disclosed. The Atoms 1.7B funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, according to the company’s Wednesday announcement, with Uber and more than a half dozen other venture firms also participating.
Atoms also said it obtained debt financing from a group of banks, but it did not disclose the amount. The mix of equity and debt points to a capital-intensive plan, which is consistent with a company building automation systems, kitchens, logistics infrastructure and autonomy hardware rather than pure software.
The company is organized as seven business units under separate brands. Most of those units were previously housed inside City Storage Systems Inc., the startup Kalanick founded in 2016. City Storage Systems became part of Atoms earlier this year.
What does Atoms do?
Atoms builds and operates technology for automating work in restaurants, mining and transportation. Its model spans several products and subsidiaries, from ghost kitchens and restaurant software to food-preparation machines and autonomous driving systems for mine trucks.
The best-known unit is CloudKitchens, now one of the seven Atoms subsidiaries. CloudKitchens runs ghost kitchen facilities in dozens of U.S. cities, according to the company’s materials. Restaurant operators use the sites to fulfill delivery orders, with each building containing more than 20 kitchens plus logistics systems meant to speed order handling.
Another unit, Lab37, sells a food automation system called Bowl Builder. Atoms says the 19-foot machine uses 18 ingredient dispensers, sensors and a steam generator to assemble food bowls, and can also handle some packaging work after preparation. Like CloudKitchens, Lab37 originated inside City Storage Systems.
Atoms’ other restaurant-related units include ProFood, which develops food production facilities, Otter, which sells restaurant management software, and Picnic, which provides office lunch deliveries. The company has not disclosed financial metrics for those subsidiaries, so the scale of each business remains unclear.
Why mining and transportation are part of the plan
Atoms expanded beyond food operations in March by acquiring Pronto AI Inc. The acquisition brought in an autonomous driving system built for mines, combining chips, sensors and a GPS module in a ruggedized case. The system is designed to let trucks operate at mine sites without a human driver.
The company’s website also indicates that one unit is working on products for the broader transportation market, although Atoms has not provided details. One possible path would be adapting Pronto’s mine-truck autonomy technology for other vehicle categories, but the company has not said that is its plan.
Kalanick has framed Atoms as a broader industrial automation company. In a blog post, he described Uber as the first step, CloudKitchens as the next one, and Atoms as an effort to build “atoms-based computers” for major industrial sectors.
Atoms did not say how it will spend the new funding. Kalanick’s post said the company’s automation products will use artificial intelligence, which could mean some capital goes toward model training, but Atoms has not provided budgets, timelines or product-level AI claims.
This story draws on original reporting from SiliconANGLE.
