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EcoCoin Founder’s $1.9 Billion Uber Fortune Now Bigger than Travis Kalanick’s Stake

Last Updated
Mark Emem
Last Updated
  • Travis Kalanick now has fewer Uber shares than his fellow co-founder, Garrett Camp.
  • Camp is expected to launch his Eco cryptocurrency beginning mid next year.
  • Uber’s chair of its board is, however, playing contrarian with the stock.

Since the expiry of the lockup period last week, former Uber (NYSE: UBER) CEO Travis Kalanick has received the most attention after having disposed of a substantial stake. That does not mean he has been alone in exiting the mobility firm which has now lost nearly half its value since its IPO. For instance, the founder of the EcoCoin cryptocurrency Garrett Camp has disposed of hundreds of thousands of shares but has almost gone unnoticed.

According to an SEC filing , Camp, who also co-founded Uber with Kalanick, has sold 510,000 shares since the expiry of the lockup period on November 6th. Based on Thursday’s closing price of the share, this is a stake worth more than $13 million. Uber closed Thursday at a price of $26.02 per share.

Uber
Uber closed Thursday at $26.02 | Source: TradingView

Camp’s remaining stake in Uber is huge though as he has retained over 73 million shares. This is a stake worth over $1.9 billion at the current share price.

When Eco?

Camp announced plans for the EcoCoin cryptocurrency last year in March as an ‘easier, safer, and faster’ alternative to regular money. More than 20 months later, the cryptocurrency which is not to be confused with EcoCoin, a different entity, is yet to go live. A full launch is slated for the second half of next year.

Eco
Eco cryptocurrency could launch from mid next year | Source: Eco.com

Garrett Camp’s stake now bigger than Travis Kalanick’s

The stake Camp has sold is tiny relative to his more famous Uber co-founder. According to an SEC filing , Kalanick sold Uber shares every single day the stock market was open between the expiry of the lockup period and mid this week. Last week, Kalanick sold stock worth over $500 million. This week he has sold stock worth around $164 million.

Kalanick has, however, still retained a substantial stake in the ride-hailing firm. As of November 13th, he still held 71,662,486 shares in Uber. This is worth more than $1.8 billion. But his remaining is now smaller relative to Camp’s with the difference being nearly two million shares. The serial entrepreneur’s latest startup is a kitchen rental firm known as CloudKitchens.

Meet the Uber contrarian

While the two co-founders and directors of Uber have sold substantial stakes in the mobility firm, not everyone is following their course. Former chairman and CEO of aerospace and defense giant Northrop Grumman, Ronald Sugar, is bullish despite the heavy selling. Sugar, who was appointed as the chairman of Uber’s board of directors last year, bought 35,000 shares of the firm last week. Based on the SEC filing  he is the only Uber director to have done so since the lockup period expired.