Announcing our investment in Grounded!
Advanced Manufacturing enabling the future of Commercial Mobility
I’m thrilled to announce our latest investment in Grounded, a Detroit-based advanced manufacturing and mobility startup founded by ex-SpaceX and TripleLift engineer, Sam Shapiro. You can read the announcement in TechCrunch here.
We’re excited to join Vijen, Alex, and The 81 Collection as part of this $3.5M pre-seed financing. Vijen, Alex, and The81 bring an incredible track record as builders of tech-enabled businesses across the country. They're the perfect partner to help take the company from its nascent electric RV beachhead to the leader in mass personalization of commercial vehicles.
This investment sits at the intersection of a number of macro trends we love, including:
Electrification of commercial vehicle fleets;
Increased connected vehicle adoption by enterprises; and
Reshoring of US manufacturing capability led by engineering talent from top tier venture-backed companies
And perhaps most excitingly, Grounded has already hit $3M in vehicle sales on <$1M raised to date with a clear path to 10x'ing that number in the coming years. They've established an initial beachhead in camper vans using their proprietary, modular vehicle upfitting system and are already expanding into work van opportunities like mobile medical clinics. The vehicle upfitting market has been growing quickly in recent years and is ripe for implementing a technology solution like Grounded has developed.
Our investment in Grounded perfectly encapsulates how we like to invest at Also Capital. Disciplined, concentrated bets in engineering-led cultures at the intersection of hard tech and large market opportunities. We first met Sam over 6 months ago, taking time to get to know him and the market opportunity. That early work served as inspiration for an April ABP piece I wrote on the potential for mass-personalization (https://www.alsoblogposts.com/p/dell-computer-and-mass-customization).
Also joining us were our friends at Side Door Ventures and Corey Moelis, rounding out a truly awesome group of early investors.
And yes...after spending the last 6+ months getting to know Sam, I DO see commercial van upfit potential EVERYWHERE now :)
Mike
