Hyperloop One lands ex-Uber CFO, $50M in funding

SAN FRANCISCO — Hyperloop One has added former Uber CFO Brent Callinicos to its team and $50 million to its coffers, company officials announced Tuesday.

While at Uber, Callinicos was credited with helping the ride-sharing giant raise more than $5 billion in capital. Uber is currently valued at $67 billion. Since leaving Uber in March 2015, the one-time Google executive has served on a variety of boards, according to his LinkedIn profile.

“I have always dreamed of having someone of Brent’s caliber and experience join our senior team," Hyperloop chairman Shervin Pishvar said in a statement. "I saw first hand his contributions to Uber when it scaled from 300 employees to 3,000-plus, launched hundreds of cities and raised billions of dollars. His experience will be invaluable as we prepare for the next stage in our funding and development.”

0 to 400 mph in mere seconds: Welcome to the age of hyperloop

This latest round of Hyperloop One funding was led by DP World Group of Dubai. That brings the total raise to $160 million, which includes cash infusions from Pishevar's Sherpa Capital.

DP World, which is led by Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, is one of the world's largest port operators. The outfit recently teamed with Hyperloop One on a feasibility study looking at how hyperloop could swiftly move cargo containers from ships directly to an inland depot. Sulayem will join Hyperloop One's board.

Hyperloop One launched in 2014 by former CTO Brogan BamBrogan and Pishevar, who was also an early investor in Uber. The hyperloop concept —sending people and cargo in pods stuffed into frictionless tubes at speeds up to 800 mph —was first proposed by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who is friends with Pishevar.

Hyperloop's consumer proposition is compelling, promising a 350-mile trek from Los Angeles to San Francisco in just 30 minutes. But concerns about passenger safety and engineering details suggest that a commercial application such as shuttling cargo is more likely to get traction.

Hyperloop One's executive coup and funding news represents a turn away from the negative publicity the company has received in the past months. After a splashy if short tech demo north of Las Vegas in the spring, Hyperloop One became embroiled in an ongoing lawsuit brought by BamBrogan and three other employees.

The quartet raised a range of complaints, from harassment to fiscal negligence, while Hyperloop One countersued that BamBrogan and others were threatening to steal company secrets and start a competing venture.

Follow USA TODAY tech reporter Marco della Cava @marcodellacava.