Grounded in Detroit has closed a $5 million seed round and is moving production into a 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Detroit, the company announced. The financing and facility expansion will increase production capacity and support the launch of a vehicle-agnostic box platform that extends Grounded’s software-defined, modular vehicle architecture into a larger commercial fleet market for both electric and internal combustion engine vehicles.
Grounded in Detroit expands manufacturing and launches box platform
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 teams that will scale the company’s vehicle platform.
The new box line builds on Grounded’s existing software-defined, modular architecture for 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.
“This new facility is a turning point for Grounded,” says Sam Shapiro, founder and CEO of Grounded. “We built this company to bring smart, modular electric vehicles to the businesses and institutions that keep our cities running. With this expansion, we can finally build at the scale our fleet customers need and bring our platform to an entirely new class of commercial vehicles.”
“The economy is moving onto wheels,” says Nadia Meyer, chief product officer at Grounded. “We’re seeing notable growth across food and beverage franchises, field operations, public safety, and mobile health care. Our box platform embraces those use cases and speeds manufacturing to meet that demand and serve the sizable addressable market.”
Customers, hires and production timeline
Grounded lists customers including 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 represents the company’s shift 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 a company on the move, both literally and figuratively,” says Kevin Johnson, president and CEO of Detroit Economic Growth Corp. “This team emerged from Newlab with a bold idea and turned it into a business that now requires 50,000 square feet and 15 new jobs to support its growth. Our Retention Program made the connections that kept this exciting company in the city, adding another strong chapter to Detroit’s story as a leader in mobility.”
As Grounded scales commercially, it 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, according to the company.
For more information, visit groundedevs.com.
