Uber is promoting Balaji Krishnamurthy, VP of strategic finance and investor relations, to CFO, replacing its current chief financial officer Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah.
Krishnamurthy has been with Uber for more than six years, spending most of his tenure at the company in investor relations. He frequently posts about the company’s self-driving efforts and has a board seat at AV company Waabi — so the appointment could be a sign of the company’s plans to expand its investments and driverless operations.
Indeed, on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Krishnamurthy he said the company would invest capital in its AV software partners, work with AV manufacturers by investing equity or through acquisition agreements, and “support our AV infrastructure partners.”
“With strong and growing free cash flow, over the next few years we will invest with discipline in many opportunities, including positioning Uber to win in an AV future,” Krishnamurthy wrote in a statement detailed the results of the fourth quarter of the company.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on the call that he was convinced self-driving vehicles would “unlock a multi-trillion dollar opportunity” for the company, adding that autonomy “fundamentally enhances” the strengths of the company’s platform.
“By the end of 2026, we expect to facilitate AV travel in up to 15 cities worldwide, with an almost even split of US cities and international cities. And by 2029, we plan to be the largest facilitator of AV travel in the world,” said Khosrowshahi.
Over the past two years, Uber has amassed partnerships with at least 20 autonomous vehicle companies in a variety of use cases, including curbside delivery robots, robotaxis and trucks. Waymo is perhaps its top partner with robotaxi joint ventures in Atlanta and Austin. It has also struck deals with Avride, UK-based Wayve, Chinese companies WeRide, Momenta and Volkswagen, among others.
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It has also made direct investments in AV startups. Waabi, for example, recently announced a $750 million Series C funding round that included an additional up to $250 million (if it hits certain milestones) from Uber to support the deployment of 25,000 or more robotaxis on its platform. Uber has also invested in Silicon Valley-based Nuro and Lucid as part of a deal to launch a premium robotaxi service.
Uber said revenue rose to $14.37 billion in the fourth quarter, up 20 percent from a year earlier, on strong demand for its food delivery service.
Mahendra-Rajah is leaving Uber after three years with the company.
