It's interesting to see investors continue to pour lots of money into startups that classify their workers as independent contractors even though the risks of doing so are clear, immediate and growing[1][2]. The lines between employee and independent contractor are somewhat blurred in some cases, but given how important the cost shifting is to the economic viability of many of these companies, a lot of these investments are damn near binary. That's fine when you're investing a few hundred thousand or even a few million but not at all necessary in today's market when you're investing $40 million.
In this case, it's also somewhat ironic that Kleiner Perkins is the lead investor.
[1] http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-uber-lyf...