Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and his street violinist girlfriend call it quits

Publish date: 2024-07-05

The Silicon Valley romance of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and his street violinist girlfriend  has come to an end.

Page Six reports that the 40-year-old tech billionaire has called it quits with Gabi Holzwarth, 26, with sources blaming the split on the increased pressures Kalanick has been facing at work due to his company's massive losses.

It was revealed on Thursday that the company lost over $1 billion in the first half of the year, a devastating blow for Kalanick, who founded the company in 2009 and has expanded operations to over 58 countries in the past five years.

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Cue the violins: Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, 40 and his violinist girlfriend Gabi Holzwarth, 26, have split after two years (couple above at the Vanity Fair Oscar party in February)

Cue the violins: Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, 40 and his violinist girlfriend Gabi Holzwarth, 26, have split after two years (couple above at the Vanity Fair Oscar party in February)

Hit a chord: Holzwarth (above in October 2014) was a street violinist who met Kalanick after venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar hired her to perform at a party

Hit a chord: Holzwarth (above in October 2014) was a street violinist who met Kalanick after venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar hired her to perform at a party

Holzwarth was a street-busker violinist in San Francisco a few years ago when she began to catch the eyes - and ears - of some of the most influential people in the tech world.

Recode wrote in a 2014 profile of the young musician that Brian Pawlowski, the Senior Vice President of NetApp, hired her to play a private party after he heard her outside a Trader Joe's in the city.

Venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar - whose fund has invested in Airbnb, Munchery and Uber - also caught Holzwarth playing on the streets, and he too had her play violin at a private event.

It was at that event that Pishevar introduced Holzwarth to Kalanick, and the two hit it off.

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The pair quickly took their romance public, with Holzwarth attending the Time 100 Gala in April of 2014 with Kalanick.

In the past few years the two have also been seen walking the red carpet at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner, Vanity Fair Oscar Party and the ultra-exclusive Met Ball, which they attended this past May. 

The careers of both took off during the relationship as well, with Holzwarth frequently hired to perform at events for the likes of BitTorrent, NetApp, Muchery, Samsung, LinkedIn and Google.

Uber meanwhile watched as its valuation continued to increase despite a number of legal setbacks, and just this month announced that they would start testing self-driving cars in Pittsburgh.  

Famous friends: Sources claim that Kalanick ended things due to increased pressure at work (l to r: Holzwarth, Kalanick, model Liu Wen, Wendi Murdoch and Christophe Artaux at a Met ball pre-party in 2015)

Famous friends: Sources claim that Kalanick ended things due to increased pressure at work (l to r: Holzwarth, Kalanick, model Liu Wen, Wendi Murdoch and Christophe Artaux at a Met ball pre-party in 2015)

Holzwarth also credited Kalanick with saving her life in a 2015 interview with Business Insider, revealing that she was working to overcome a decade-long battle with an eating disorder when the two first met.

She relapsed just a few months into their relationship, and at that point made the decision to explain her problem in detail to Kalanick.

'I told him absolutely everything and that I was 30 pounds underweight,'  said Holzwarth. 

'Then I wrote a Facebook post, it got hundreds of likes, it said "I’m going to have to stop playing gigs for a while, I have to recover." I was crying when I wrote it, feeling so relieved to have this out in the open.'

She said that Kalanick told her 'we're going to do this together' after she opened up, and would come home from the office on time or set aside his work if she needed help during those first few months.

'Travis, he's been so helpful in my recovery. He's been such a rock. That's a side that no one really sees about him,' she explained. 

Neither has commented on the split, but Holzwarth did post a video on Facebook playing a cover of the Bruno Mars song When I Was Your Man on her violin.

Mars wrote the song about the heartbreak he was dealing with after his lover got away, and his hope that his ex's new partner will be able to provide the love and support he could not in the relationship. 

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