Leadership Change And Financial Context
Uber said it is promoting Balaji Krishnamurthy, its vice president of strategic finance and investor relations, to chief financial officer, replacing Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah, who is leaving the company after three years.
Krishnamurthy has worked at Uber for more than six years, spending most of that time in investor relations. He also holds a board seat at autonomous vehicle company Waabi and has posted publicly about Uber’s driverless strategy. The appointment comes as Uber reported fourth-quarter revenue of $14.37bn, up 20% from a year earlier, driven by strong demand for its food delivery business.
Signals On Driverless Strategy
On Uber’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Krishnamurthy said the company plans to invest capital in autonomous vehicle software partners, work with vehicle makers through equity investments or offtake agreements, and support infrastructure partners tied to autonomous systems.
In a statement accompanying the results, he said that with large and growing free cash flows, Uber will invest across multiple opportunities, including efforts to position the company for an autonomous vehicle future.
Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi told investors that autonomous vehicles could “unlock a multitrillion-dollar opportunity” for Uber and said autonomy would amplify the strengths of the company’s platform. He said Uber expects to be facilitating autonomous trips in as many as 15 cities worldwide by the end of 2026, split roughly evenly between the United States and international markets. By 2029, he said the company intends to be the largest facilitator of autonomous vehicle trips globally.
Partnerships And Investments
Over the past two years, Uber has built partnerships with at least 20 autonomous vehicle companies across uses that include sidewalk delivery robots, robotaxis, and trucking. The company operates shared robotaxi services with Waymo in cities such as Atlanta and Austin and has also reached agreements with firms including Avride, UK-based Wayve, WeRide, Momenta, and Volkswagen.
Uber has also made direct investments in autonomous vehicle startups. Waabi recently announced a $750m Series C round that includes up to an additional $250m from Uber if certain milestones are met, tied to plans to deploy 25,000 or more robotaxis on Uber’s platform. Uber has also invested in Nuro and in Lucid as part of a plan to launch a premium robotaxi service.
Executive Transition
Mahendra-Rajah is departing after three years in the role. Krishnamurthy’s promotion places an executive closely associated with Uber’s autonomous vehicle strategy in charge of the company’s finances as it continues to expand those partnerships and investments.
Featured image credits: Flickr
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