Travis Kalanick, co-founder and CEO of Uber has stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of the ride-hailing service late Tuesday night, following intense pressure from investors.
The 40-year-old CEO resigned after receiving a letter from some of the largest investors in the company including First Round Capital, Lowercase Capital, Menlo Ventures, Fidelity Investments and Benchmark Capital.
According to anonymous sources, the letter, titled “Moving Uber Forward,” asked that the CEO leave immediately but also help in the search for his successor as well as a chief financial officer, a position which has been vacant for a few years now.
In a statement from Kalanick, he said, “I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight,”
Kalanick will remain on Uber’s board and because of the way Uber’s voting shares are distributed, he and co founder Camp are likely to both exert considerable influence on major company decisions even without being part of senior leadership.
His departure comes at a time that Uber continues to grapple with a host of problems that range from a toxic and sexist work culture revealed in a blog post by former Uber engineer Susan Fowler in February, to pursuing aggressive business practices that often have skirted the legal line as well as a host of the company’s top executives who have either resigned or been fired since the beginning of the year.