Grounded Closes $5M Seed and Opens Detroit Manufacturing Plant
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Grounded has closed a $5 million Seed round and is moving production into a 50,000 square foot facility. The move raises the company’s production capacity by 1,900 percent.
Existing backers Also Capital and The 81 Collection put in more money. Animal Capital, the Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund and a group of SpaceX alumni also joined.
The new capacity supports a vehicle agnostic box platform that carries the company’s software defined, modular vehicle architecture into the commercial fleet market. That is a larger market than the one Grounded started in, and it marks a shift from electric RV startup toward advanced manufacturing and fleet technology more broadly.
Fully electric RVs for direct to consumer buyers stay in the lineup. The added focus is on commercial and government fleets that want to electrify their operations.
Former SpaceX engineers founded the company, which operates from Detroit. Building an automotive business in Michigan gives it access to the supplier network already in place there.
Funds will go to the box platform manufacturing line, covering tooling, equipment and research, the larger production facility, and growth across the manufacturing, engineering and sales teams.
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