Travis Kalanick launches new venture fund ‘10,100’, to focus on India, China

Travis Kalanick, who was ousted from his role as the ride-hailing giant Uber's chief executive some nine months ago, has launched a new venture investment fund called Ten one Hundred or 10,100, which will look to invest in emerging technologies and start-ups in countries including India and China, as well as non-profit work.

Travis Kalanick

A large part of the investments from the fund will be focussed towards innovations in India and backing Indian startups.

''The over-arching theme will be about large-scale job creation, with investments in real estate, ecommerce and emerging innovation in China and India. Our non-profit efforts will initially focus on education and the future of cities,'' Kalanick wrote on Twitter early today.

Kalanick said he had begun to make investments and started working with entrepreneurs over the past few months as part of his efforts to move on from Uber, which he co-founded with Garrett Camp in 2009.

''Over the past few months I've started thinking about what's next. I've begun making investments, joining boards, working with entrepreneurs and non-profits. Today I'm announcing the creation of a fund called 10,100 (pronounced ten-one-hundred), home to my passions, investments, ideas and big bets. It will be overseeing my for-profit investments as well as my non-profit work,'' said Kalanick in a statement.

After keeping a low-profile for several months after his ouster from Uber, Kalanick re-appeared publicly a few weeks ago by joining the board of US-based medical office software venture Kareo, in which he's also an investor.

Kalanick's fund is in line with his belief that San Francisco, Beijing and Bangalore remain the major innovation hubs across the world and places where he is likely to make his bets.

In the latest announcement, Kalanick did not specify the size of his new fund nor share details on the number and size of investments the fund would look to make.

Kalanick resigned from Uber following a tumultuous period in which the firm was hit by several controversies and was accused of fostering a culture of workplace harassment and sexism, among other things. The controversies came to light broadly due to a blog post put out by former employee Susan Fowler and ultimately triggered an internal investigation that was conducted by former US attorney general Eric Holder.

Kalanick continues to hold a seat on the board of the ride-hailing giant. Recently, he agreed to sell a third of his 10-per cent stake in Uber to Japan's SoftBank Capital, as part of a massive secondary transaction. That deal was estimated to be worth roughly $1.4 billion.

Kalanick will reap a whopping $1.4-billion post that sale to Softbank and a consortium of investors who agreed to buy his equity valuing Uber at $48 billion, according to Bloomberg.

He has so far made angel investments in a slew of startups globally including software firm Pantheon, social media platform Blippy, online artwork community Deviant Art and medical startup Kareo, of whose board he is a member.

After helping make Uber one of the wealthiest technology startups globally, this year will see Kalanick back doing what he does best - building startups.