Uber’s head of finance, Gautam Gupta, is leaving the company in July, The Wall Street Journal reports. TechCrunch has since confirmed this news with Uber. Gupta’s plan is to join another San Francisco-based startup as COO, but it’s not clear what that startup is. News of his impending departure comes as Uber has reported losses of $708 million.
In Q1, Uber’s revenue was $3.4 billion, an 18 percent increase from its last quarter. Uber suffered losses of $708 million, not including employee stock compensation “other items,” the WSJ reports. In the three months prior, Uber’s losses were $991 million, which means that its losses are narrowing. Uber has $7.2 billion in cash on hand, according to the report. Uber’s gross bookings are also up 9 percent.
“These results demonstrate that our business remains healthy and resilient as we focus on improving our culture, management and relationship with drivers,” an Uber spokesperson told TechCrunch. “The narrowing of our losses in the first quarter puts us on a good trajectory towards profitability.”
This means that in addition to looking for a number-two executive to team up with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, Uber will now also need someone to lead up its financial team. Uber, which has not had a chief financial officer since 2015 — when Brent Callinicos bounced and ultimately joined Hyperloop One — is now on the hunt for an official CFO. The company is specifically looking for someone with experience at a public company, or experience taking a company public.
It’s been a rough year for Uber, between allegations of sexual harassment and a series of departures of top-level people at the company. Yesterday, Uber fired Anthony Levandowski, the engineer accused of stealing thousands of documents pertaining to self-driving technology from Google. And just last week, Uber lost its general counsel for the Middle East, Europe and Africa.