Benchmark principal Kris Fredrickson leaves for another firm

Amidst all the drama happening between former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Benchmark, Kris Fredrickson has left his role as principal at Benchmark to join Coatue Management, Recode reports. Benchmark has since confirmed Fredrickson’s departure on Twitter.

This comes shortly after Sherpa Capital founder and Uber investor Shervin Pishevar called out Fredrickson for “exacerbating the crisis facing” Uber after Gautam Gupta, its then head of finance, left. In Pishevar’s allegation, he said Fredrickson helped recruit Gupta to real estate startup Opendoor.

“Benchmark principal Kris Fredrickson helped recruited Gautam Gupta, the head of finance and effectively the acting Uber CFO, to another company where he owned shares without ever informing Uber in fact, Frederickson told his partner and Uber board member Bill Gurley six months earlier, but Gurley never told Travis Kalanick, exacerbating the crisis facing the Company in May 2017 when Gupta left,” Pishevar wrote last month.

Late last month, the lawsuit between Kalanick and Benchmark was sent to arbitration. Benchmark’s lawsuit against Kalanick alleges he violated his fiduciary duty and committed fraud by seeking to “increase his power over Uber for his own selfish ends.”

But, according to Recode’s sources, the talks between Fredrickson and Coatue began before all the drama went down between Benchmark and Uber. And at Coatue, Fredrickson will reportedly be upgraded to a partner role. In fact, sources say Fredrickson’s role was never supposed to last more than a year or two.

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