- General
- August 7, 2018
- 4 minutes read
Otto co-founder Lion Ron is returning to Uber to run its trucking business
image credit : Flickr/DLD Conference On the heels of an Otto co-founder just taking on $40 million investment for an…
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| image credit : Flickr/DLD Conference |
On the heels of an Otto co-founder just taking on $40 million investment for an autonomous trucking startup just 3 months after launch, Another of the company’s co-founders has now been reported to be returning to Otto owner Uber to lead its freight business.
As reported by Bloomberg, Ron has agreed to return to Uber after stated “intense negotiation” just months following his exit from the company after it settled a lawsuit with Waymo concerning trade secrets allegedly stolen by Otto co-founder and then CEO Anthony Levandowski.
The negotiations involved includes Uber having to revisit and make changes to the terms of its Otto acquisition which happened 2 years ago at a then value of $680 million of which most was not eventually paid out following the exit of several key employess and forfeiting of vested shares.
Ron’s return marks a good one for Uber to up its autonomous trucking efforts taking on competition with other firms in the space with Ron’s experience and expertise in the sector boosting its efforts.
2 of Otto’s co-founders including Levandowski himself have gone on to launch other startups focused on the self driving truck industry with co-founder Don Burnette heading a startup which just raised $40 million in a round led by Battery Ventures and Levandowski also launching a new autonomous trucking project dubbed Kache.ai although its operations and focus haven’t yet been fully revealed t public eye.
As part of the deal, Otto shareholders will be getting equity stakes in a standalone Uber Freight unit majorly owned by the ride-hailing company. Levandowski who was fired from the company last year last year is said to be selling his new Uber Freight to an undisclosed VC firm and other shareholders.
“Over the past year, Uber Freight has become one of our fastest-growing and most promising businesses. To further enable Freight’s growth, we are setting it up to operate as an independent business unit within Uber, and more than doubling our investment going forward,” Uber said in a statement, not stating how much it plans on putting into Uber Freight as part of the new terms. “Lior Ron, who helped lay the groundwork for the strong momentum we’re seeing today, will rejoin Uber to lead the team.”
