Re:Build, the company behind Slate Auto, raises $2.1B to build more factories in the US
The Boston manufacturing accelerator got the money from General Catalyst and JPMorganChase and plans to launch more industrial startups.
Re:Build, a Massachusetts company that helps turn hardware ideas into products made at scale, has announced a $2.1 billion round. It was led by the venture firm General Catalyst and the Strategic Investment Group, JPMorganChase's direct investing arm. Other investors were not disclosed.
The money will go into more manufacturing capacity and new industrial startups. The company lists the areas itself: aerospace and defense, electrification, medical, energy, and robotics and automation.
Re:Build was founded in 2020 and is full of former Amazon people. Co-founder Jeff Wilke used to be Amazon's consumer business CEO, and chief digital and product officer Wei Gao spent years as an Amazon VP and technical adviser to Bezos. The company modestly calls itself America's answer to Shenzhen. Its network now employs more than 2,100 people and runs over 2.4 million square feet of manufacturing space.
Its best known graduate is Slate Auto. Wilke and his partner Miles Arnone came up with the idea of a cheap, bare bones electric pickup in 2022 and spun it out in 2023 to make fundraising easier. Slate has since raised at least $1.4 billion, including money from Bezos' family office.
Hardware is back in fashion, and investors are paying to have it made somewhere other than China.
Source: TechCrunch
Original source: Re:Build press release (US manufacturing accelerator)