Travis Kalanick kicks off another round of VC bashing: ‘1% are helpful’

Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick is back in the spotlight, criticizing venture capitalists after securing $1.7 billion for his latest robotics venture, Atoms. He claims only around one percent of VCs actually provide meaningful value to founders, reigniting long-standing tensions between entrepreneurs and their financial backers.

Travis Kalanick, the controversial co-founder who was ousted from Uber in 2017, is once again taking aim at venture capitalists. Following the successful close of a massive $1.7 billion funding round for his new robotics startup Atoms, Kalanick publicly reflected on his complicated history with institutional investors, asserting that only a tiny fraction — roughly one percent — genuinely help the companies they back.

This isn't the first time Kalanick has sparred with the VC community. His turbulent tenure at Uber was marked by investor-driven board conflicts that ultimately led to his removal as CEO. His latest remarks suggest those wounds haven't fully healed, even as he continues to rely on large-scale venture funding to build his next chapter in tech.

Travis Kalanick, best known for co-founding Uber and being unceremoniously pushed out as its CEO amid a governance crisis in 2017, is once again making waves with pointed criticism aimed at the venture capital world. Speaking publicly after closing a $1.7 billion fundraise for Atoms, his new robotics-focused company, Kalanick claimed that the overwhelming majority of VCs deliver little real value to founders beyond a check.

Kalanick's skepticism toward investors is rooted in lived experience. His time at Uber became a cautionary tale about founder-investor dynamics, culminating in a board-orchestrated departure that left him publicly humiliated and stripped of day-to-day control over the company he built. Since then, he has remained a polarizing figure — admired by some for his aggressive growth tactics, criticized by others for the toxic culture that took root under his leadership.

His new company, Atoms, represents a significant bet on robotics and physical automation — sectors that are attracting enormous capital as AI capabilities increasingly extend into the physical world. The $1.7 billion raise signals strong institutional appetite for the space, even as Kalanick simultaneously disparages the people writing those checks. The apparent contradiction raises questions about how candidly founders can critique their own financial ecosystems.

Why it matters: Kalanick's comments, however provocative, touch on a genuine and growing debate in the startup world. Founders increasingly question whether traditional VC involvement adds strategic value or simply creates governance pressure and misaligned incentives. As alternative funding models — from sovereign wealth to corporate venture arms — gain prominence, the conventional VC-founder relationship is being renegotiated. Kalanick's high profile gives these critiques unusual visibility.

Whether his remarks are sincere reflection or calculated reputation-building ahead of Atoms' public profile expansion, they arrive at a moment when the startup funding landscape is being scrutinized more than ever. His ability to raise nearly $2 billion despite — or perhaps because of — his contentious history says as much about investor FOMO as it does about his own resilience.