Former Uber executive Travis Kalanick is returning to the global technology arena with an ambitious plan for heavy industry. His physical artificial intelligence startup, Atoms, has raised $1.7 billion in a major funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
The investment consolidates several hidden operations and marks a new chapter in the life of the former Uber CEO. Ben Horowitz joined the Atoms board of directors, which is somewhat of an unfinished business since Kalanick's blog post in 2011.
Atoms has focused its strategy on specialized machines designed to perform specific tasks, rather than stylish humanoid constructs. While many AI startups are chasing general-purpose humanoid robots, Kalanick's firm believes that industrial labor requires equipment built specifically for that purpose.
The company is deliberately working in capital-intensive physical sectors such as mining, heavy transport, construction, and commercial food production. Kalanick views this move as the culmination of a decade-long transition from digital data to physical atoms. He describes these automated installations as atom-based computers. According to Kalanick, heavy manufacturing acts as the processing unit, commercial real estate provides physical storage, and transportation logistics functions as the main network.
The company's main goal is to digitize and automate critical supply chain tasks that pure software code cannot solve on its own.
The funding round consolidated three separate operating units under a single equity structure. The first, Atoms Food, includes Kalanick's previous venture in the form of CloudKitchens. This food segment utilizes automated culinary platforms like Lab37 and software systems such as Otter.
The second unit, Atoms Mining, deals with autonomous heavy machinery in remote mining locations. This activity directly relies on Atoms' recent acquisition of Pronto, which specializes in autonomous equipment and was founded by former Uber engineer Anthony Lewandowski. The third unit, Atoms Transport, functions as a flexible base for industrial robotics, helping move goods through complex logistical hubs. Together, these three areas form a comprehensive system for automating physical production from scratch.
The $1.7 billion investment signals high confidence from major venture capital players. In addition to lead investor Andreessen Horowitz, well-known firms such as Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, K5 Global, Abstract, Chemistry, A*, and SV Angel have joined. Notably, Uber itself acted as a direct equity investor. With this support, Kalanick closes the loop with the taxi company he helped found in 2009 and left in 2017.
In addition to equity capital, Atoms also secured large debt loans from major financial institutions, including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Barclays, providing the company with significant debt leverage to finance expensive equipment. The company plans to use the $1.7 billion to accelerate machine assembly, increase field deployments, and attract highly skilled engineers. Labor shortages and rising costs are becoming increasingly serious problems for global supply chains, creating strong demand for reliable automated physical systems.
Ben Horowitz emphasized that specialized industrial machines are much better suited for operation in complex environments than humanoid robots. Atoms is focused on physical AI, prioritizing work over consumer electronics. The company hopes to demonstrate that the digitization of physical labor will be the catalyst for the next industrial revolution.
The tech startup Genius AI has raised $44 million in investment to capitalize on the growing demand in the personal interaction-focused service economy. With this Series D funding round, the company's valuation reached $1.15 billion.
Venture firm Lux Capital led the round. Other investors included Bessemer Venture Partners, Imaginary Ventures, L Catterton Growth, 2048 Ventures, and StepStone Private Ventures. These funds will allow Genius AI to shift its focus from beauty booking software to autonomous artificial intelligence tools for a wider range of in-person services.
The company, formerly known as GlossGenius, was founded in 2015 by identical sisters Danielle and Leah Cohen-Shohet. They initially created GlossGenius to help salon owners, aestheticians, and spa operators manage their daily operations. Danielle independently learned programming and wrote the initial code, and over time, the software became a dominant force in the market, helping small businesses process payments, book clients, and promote their services.
The company is now changing its name to Genius AI, signifying a broader mission. As Genius AI, the platform will support all in-person professionals. It is planned for use in medical spas, physical therapy centers, fitness studios, injections, and health clinics.
The physical service economy in the United States includes about eight million businesses generating over $2 trillion in annual consumer spending. Although studies show that business owners spend nearly 36% of their working time on administrative tasks, Genius AI aims to completely eliminate this bureaucratic burden. The platform goes beyond simple assistance tools and transforms into an autonomous AI agent capable of handling complex tasks end-to-end, freeing up business owners to interact with clients.
The company demonstrates impressive growth and operational scale. Currently, the system is used by over 125,000 businesses across half of the US zip codes. Genius AI reports that its platform is approaching $200 million in annual revenue. To date, the company's tools have helped clients save over 112 million hours of administrative work. To deepen penetration into the healthcare sector, the company has added full HIPAA compliance, allowing physical therapists and clinical specialists to securely store sensitive patient data. This gives Genius AI a significant advantage over traditional tools lacking privacy protection. As artificial intelligence automates office work, human care becomes even more valuable, as skilled professionals like masseuses and trainers provide care that computer code cannot replicate. The new funding is planned to be used to expand software development and increase the engineering team.
Gritt has successfully raised $26 million in investments that will be used to scale infrastructure automation using artificial intelligence. Obvious Ventures led the round, with participation from Union Square Ventures, Active Impact Investments, and existing investors, including First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures.
With this new injection of capital, Gritt's total funding has reached $32.4 million. The company plans to use the acquired capital to expand its operations and further develop an intelligent robotic platform designed for complex outdoor construction environments.
Founded by Punith Puri and Vishal Dugar, Gritt develops robotic systems to automate construction equipment. Its AI-based system can autonomously perform tasks such as material handling, assembly, placement, inspection, and project planning. Gritt's technology integrates with existing equipment on sites, allowing contractors to apply automation to their machinery and ensuring safe collaboration between robots and humans.
CEO Punith Puri noted that automating outdoor construction is more complex due to changing weather conditions, terrain specifics, and other unforeseen factors. He emphasized that their 'Physical AI' is specifically designed for such tasks, enabling the acceleration of construction for solar, bridge, and road projects, as well as large infrastructure projects like data centers, with robot support.
The company's platform continuously improves through learning from every completed project. Tasks that previously required months of system setup can now be adapted in just a few days, allowing robots to perform high-precision work on various construction sites. In addition to automation, Gritt collects real-time data from sites, including information on completed work, material movement, and changes in site conditions. This information helps project managers make faster decisions and optimize schedules.
The company has already implemented its systems in several large American construction firms involved in industrial-scale solar panel installation. According to Gritt, their robots have independently installed tens of thousands of solar panels without a single failure. Demand for automation is supported by industry challenges: it is expected that over 40% of the US construction workforce will retire by 2031, and the sector's overall productivity is declining, forcing companies to turn to AI and robotics to solve labor shortages.
Obvious Ventures stated that Gritt is creating a new category of physical AI by implementing intelligent automation in one of the most demanding industrial environments. Investors believe that the company's ability to learn after each deployment gives it a long-term competitive advantage. Gritt's long-term goal is to transform AI into a comprehensive object condition analysis platform that tracks resource usage, identifies potential workflow obstacles, and assists project managers in making real-time decisions. Ultimately, the startup aims to reduce manual labor for construction workers and allow contractors to accelerate the implementation of large-scale infrastructure projects, believing that intelligent robotics will become an integral part of modern construction.
