Grounded, a Michigan-based advanced manufacturing and mobility company specializaing modular electric vehicles, today announced it has closed a $5 million seed round and is moving production into a 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Detroit.
The expansion increases Grounded’s production capacity by 1,900% and will support the launch of a new vehicle-agnostic box platform that extends the company’s software-defined, modular vehicle architecture into a larger commercial fleet market of both electric and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.
The seed round will fund three areas of expansion: standing up the box platform manufacturing line, including new tooling, equipment and R&D; building out the larger Detroit production facility; and growing the manufacturing, engineering, and sales team responsible for scaling the company’s vehicle platform.
The new box line builds on the software-defined, modular architecture Grounded developed for its existing van-based vehicles. Its adaptive customization technology allows a common vehicle platform to be configured for a wide range of applications, giving fleet operators purpose-built vehicles without requiring Grounded to engineer an entirely new vehicle for every use case.
Grounded said its electric fleet vehicles customers include Colgate, Nokia, Coffee Fellows, Wayne State University Medical, PetEvolution and Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies, with vehicles supporting applications ranging from mobile medical and dental services to food service and other field operations.
The expansion marks the next phase in Grounded’s evolution from an electric RV startup into a broader advanced manufacturing and fleet technology company. Grounded will continue building fully electric RVs for direct-to-consumer customers while increasing its focus on commercial and government fleets seeking to electrify operations without sacrificing the flexibility of purpose-built vehicles.
Grounded is also expanding its commercial leadership as it scales. The company has hired Drew Snow, formerly of Adrian Steel, as Director of International Sales to help grow the company’s fleet business and bring its modular electric vehicle platform to customers across new markets.
Grounded will begin production at the new Detroit facility in August 2026, with capacity ramping through 2027 to support existing commitments, the new box platform and a growing pipeline of enterprise and municipal fleet customers
