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Uber former CEO Travis Kalanick forms new venture

The beleaguered co-founder of the ride-hailing company is moving on to investments, with a new fund called 10100.

Dara Kerr Former senior reporter
Dara Kerr was a senior reporter for CNET covering the on-demand economy and tech culture. She grew up in Colorado, went to school in New York City and can never remember how to pronounce gif.
Dara Kerr
2 min read
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Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick leaves federal court in San Francisco after testifying in the Waymo v. Uber trial.

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Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has a new venture. It's a fund called 10100 that will focus on making for-profit investments, as well as some nonprofit work.

In an announcement on Twitter on Wednesday, Kalanick said he's been thinking over the past few months about what's next for him after Uber. 

"I've begun making investments, joining boards, working with entrepreneurs and nonprofits," he wrote. "Today I'm announcing the creation of a fund called 10100 (pronounced 'ten-one-hundred'), home to my passions, investments, ideas and big bets."

Last June, Kalanick was unceremoniously ousted from Uber, a company he co-founded nine years ago. During his reign at Uber, he was blamed for fostering a toxic corporate culture, which led to a slew of scandals that plagued the company for much of 2017. While he was in charge, the company was accused of everything from sexual harassment to stealing self-driving car trade secrets to devising a secretive software tool meant thwart the police.

Kalanick remains on Uber's board of directors, but after a consortium led by Japanese internet giant SoftBank Group made a deal to buy a 20 percent stake in the ride-hailing business in January his voting power became diminished. However, as part of the deal (which still hasn't officially closed), he'll also earn $1.4 billion -- that means he'll have a lot of money at his disposal for investing.  

Kalanick joined the board of a medical office software company called Kareo last week, according to Axios. And, going by his tweet today, he's been doing other work along those same lines. For his 10100 fund, Kalanick said he will focus on financing initiatives that create jobs.

"The overarching theme will be about large-scale job creation, with investments in real estate, e-commerce, and emerging innovation in China and India," Kalanick wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. "Our nonprofit efforts will initially focus on education and the future of cities."

Kalanick didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, and his representative declined to comment beyond what was announced on Twitter.

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