After a year-long hiatus from startup industry since his ouster from global cab hailing Uber’s CEO post, the infamous Travis Kalanick has announced his entry into the ecosystem again with the launch of a new fund.
Now the co-founder of Uber is starting a venture fund, 10100 to fund startups from India and China. Kalanick took his Twitter handle to announce his surprise re-entry.
Some news… pic.twitter.com/urFBrb9aCV
— travis kalanick (@travisk) March 7, 2018
The new fund, called “10100” (pronounced “ten-one-hundred”), will target job-creating companies in the real estate and e-commerce spaces. In addition to seeking to make money from investments, Kalanick said his new fund will also oversee his nonprofit work, concentrating on the future of cities and education.
The speculation of setting up a charitable foundation by Kalanick was circulated since his cashing up stakes in Uber when Japanese tech giant SoftBank closed a staggering $7 billion investment deal with the San Fransisco-based company.
The Uber co-founder and former CEO had acquired $1.4 billion in cash, increasing his total estimated net worth to about $4.24 billion.
The announcement from Kalanic has come on the heels of Uber’s current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s maiden two-day visit to India last week, which unveiled many future plans of the company.
In India, Uber rubs shoulder with the homegrown ride-hailing firm Ola. While SoftBank is a common investor in both cab companies, it is interesting to see how Kalanick uses his funds (largely gain from SoftBank) in Indian markets.
Earlier this month, a news of Kalanick’s coming back circulated across media, which reportedly said that he will join the board of California-based healthcare software startup Kareo Inc.
In June 2017, Kalanick had stepped down from Uber after a series of scandals involving alleged sexual harassment, flouting law enforcement, and an intellectual property lawsuit rocked the company.
The development was reported by CNBC.
