Coverage: Uber posts $708 million loss as finance head leaves

Uber reported a loss of $708 million in the first quarter, narrower than the $991 million reported the previous quarter, but its head of finance is leaving the ride service company.

Anita Balakrishnan of CNBC.com had the news:

Revenue grew 18 percent on a sequential basis to $3.4 billion.

“The narrowing of our losses in the first quarter puts us on a good trajectory towards profitability,” Uber said in a statement to CNBC.

But Guatam Gupta, the start-up’s head of finance, is leaving the company to join another San Francisco-based company.

CEO Travis Kalanick told CNBC in an emailed statement, “Gautam is a world-class financial talent. Over the last four years, he has been indispensible in helping build Uber from an idea into the business it is today. We couldn’t have done it without him, and I will miss his energy, focus and infectious enthusiasm. All of us at Uber wish him well in this next challenge.”

Gupta’s departure comes as Uber has been without a chief financial officer since 2015. Uber has also lost high-profile executives like self-driving head Anthony Levandowski, and president Jeff Jones.

Johana Bhuiyan of Recode reported that Gupta’s departure may delay the company’s IPO:

After its former CFO Brent Callinicos left Uber in 2015, Gupta became the top finance executive at the company. It’s not a great time for the ride-hail player to lose the person who would ostensibly steer the company through the IPO process, which people speculated could begin in the next two years.

That may be pushed back given the company’s many recent scandals, from a lawsuit brought against it by Alphabet to allegations of sexism at the company.

Uber is now looking for someone to fill the CFO role Callinicos left vacant. The company’s head of strategic finance Prabir Adarkar will be heading up the finance department in the interim.

“Gautam is a world-class financial talent,” Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said in a statement. “Over the last four years, he has been indispensable in helping build Uber from an idea into the business it is today. We couldn’t have done it without him, and I will miss his energy, focus and infectious enthusiasm. All of us at Uber wish him well in this next challenge.”

Biz Carson and Alexei Oreskovic of Business Insider reported that Gupta is becoming COO of another company:

Uber’s current head of finance, Gautam Gupta, is leaving Uber in July to join an unspecified startup. Gupta had been with Uber for four years, but was never officially given the CFO title. Gupta is moving to a startup in an unrelated field, where he’ll serve as COO, Uber said.

News of Gupta’s departure and Uber’s financial results were first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

Uber dominates the nascent industry for ride-hailing services, a business it pioneered. The San Francisco company has been valued at as much as $69 billion by private investors who envision Uber replacing taxi services throughout the world and extending its reach into same-day delivery and other businesses.

But Uber’s path to glory has hit some major bumps this year, amid reports of gender discrimination and sexual harassment, a string of executive departures and an acrimonious lawsuit by Waymo, the self-driving car firm spun out of Google, which has accused Uber of stealing its technology.

Uber began the search for a COO in March, after Travis Kalanick, the company’s embattled Chief Executive, acknowledged that he needed leadership help.