Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick begins new endeavor: a ‘job creation’ fund
Nine months after Travis Kalanick was forced to resign from Uber Technologies Inc., he has a new project on the way: a job creation fund called 10100, named after his home address in Los Angeles.
On Wednesday Kalanick tweeted that his “Ten One Hundred” fund, intended for “large-scale job creation,” will focus on real estate, e-commerce and innovations, especially in emerging economies such as those of China and India.
“Our non-profit efforts will initially focus on education and the future of cities,” said Kalanick, saying that the fund was home to his “passions, investments, ideas, and big bets.” It all seems quite vague at the moment and it seems Kalanick isn’t ready just yet to provide further details.
Kalanick has been quiet since a tempestuous time leading up to his exit at Uber, although he did appear in court in February to testify in the case involving allegations of Uber stealing trade secrets from Google LLC owner Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving car company, Waymo. That case ended with Uber paying a settlement of $245 million.
It seems that Kalanick has plenty of money to throw around for his new scheme. This year he sold 29 percent of his Uber shares, which reportedly gave him $1.4 billion. According to Forbes, his current net worth is around $4.8 billion.
It’s too early to say what he’s going to do with his new fund, but by the sounds of it, the focus on education and job creation will be tilted toward humanitarianism. Uber’s rise as a ride-hailing company has not come without criticism for the number of people it has put out of work, not to mention all the controversy over a toxic work environment and more recently issues surrounding low pay.
Image: Adam Tinworth via Flickr
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