Travis Kalanick says only 1% of VCs are helpful, revisiting Uber board battle

Travis Kalanick has a new robotics venture, Atoms, which recently secured $1.7 billion in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Ben Horowitz joining the board. But the Uber co-founder is using the moment to reflect on his fraught history with venture capital.

In a podcast episode that aired over the weekend, Kalanick told host David Senra that his bar for a good VC is “do no harm,” yet only about 10% of investors meet that standard. He put the share of genuinely helpful VCs at just 1%, saying it is hard for them to add value when they are not deeply involved.

Kalanick’s skepticism is rooted in his time at Uber, where he raised roughly $15 billion in venture funding before a boardroom clash with Benchmark’s Bill Gurley led to his ouster in 2017. He still advises founders not to raise money from Benchmark, though the firm has continued to thrive, raising $2 billion across two new funds in June.

The comments arrive as Kalanick makes a comeback with Atoms, his latest startup after several ventures. He acknowledged that even the most helpful VCs face limits, but that does not soften his overall view of the industry.