A-list venture firm Benchmark Capital, under partner John Gurley, was lead Uber's Series A, $11 million round and then invested in later rounds. The $12 million it invested over time became valued at as high as $7 billion, records from its lawsuits with Uber revealed.
Benchmark sold about 14.5% of its stake to Softbank when Softbank bought in, but it also held on to a considerable stake. It still owns over 150 million shares, or 11% of the company.
As Business Insider previously reported, Gurley was one Kalanick's earliest advisors and then became one of the ringleaders that ousted him.
After that, he resigned from the board and Matt Cohler took his place and Cohler remains on the board today.