ATOMS, the robotics and industrial-automation company founded by Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, has raised $1.7 billion in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Uber, Bain Capital, Fifth Wall and other institutional investors.
The financing will support ATOMS’ work across food, mining and transportation, while expanding the infrastructure behind ProKitchens in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Poland and the Netherlands. Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz will also join the company’s board. WebDisclosure
Automation in food preparation is part of a wider attempt to move robots into complex everyday work. Humanoid systems have already demonstrated food handling and kitchen tasks under AI control, while newer robot models can learn manipulation skills from enormous collections of human video. Research is also improving how robots plan their next movements without stopping.
ATOMS says investment in hardware automation and physical workflow management should improve efficiency across ProKitchens’ network of commercial kitchens.
The announcement describes expansion plans and expected operational benefits, not measured productivity gains from newly deployed automation.