Atoms names former Uber finance chief Gautam Gupta as CFO

Atoms appoints Gautam Gupta as chief financial officer

Atoms, Travis Kalanick’s robotics and industrial AI startup formerly known as CloudKitchens, has appointed former Uber finance chief Gautam Gupta as chief financial officer. Gupta announced the move in social media posts, only weeks after Atoms raised $1.7 billion.

Gupta spent more than four years at Uber, joining in 2013 after investing in the company in 2012 while he was a vice president at Goldman Sachs. He left Uber in July 2017, shortly after Kalanick resigned as chief executive.

The appointment extends a pattern of former Uber leaders joining Kalanick at Atoms. The company acquired mining autonomy startup Pronto earlier this year; Pronto is run by Anthony Levandowski, a former Uber and Google self-driving engineer.

A fundraise followed by finance leadership changes

The $1.7 billion round brought Uber back into Kalanick’s orbit as an investor. Uber has not disclosed its contribution, but The Information reported a $100 million investment, a figure also confirmed by TechCrunch.

Kalanick described the financing as “unfinished business” and said it would provide fuel for a bits-to-atoms strategy begun at Uber and continued at CloudKitchens. The round was detailed in Atoms funding for robotics expansion as Atoms prepared to pursue its next phase in robotics.

Gupta said A*, the venture capital firm he co-founded in 2020 after three years at Opendoor, invested in Atoms. He described it as the largest investment in the history of the fund and is stepping down from A* to assume the CFO position, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Industrial ambitions remain broad

Kalanick has said Atoms intends to work on mining, food and transportation. Public comments about the company have offered limited product detail, while emphasising the challenge of changing physical industries.

Gupta’s return gives Atoms a finance leader with direct experience working alongside Kalanick during Uber’s expansion. For businesses monitoring heavily funded industrial technology companies, the move is a practical signal to follow how leadership teams, acquisitions and capital deployment develop after a large round.