Solar-Based Gritt Raises $26M in Series A Funding Round

The round also saw participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investments, and support from previous investors First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures.

The company will use the funding to expand its operations and accelerate product development.

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Gritt's robotic arms and AI work with existing construction equipment like skid steers and forklifts. The system can pick up, place, assemble, and move materials with high accuracy, even on busy and constantly changing job sites.

The platform learns from every project, making it faster to train for new tasks. What once took months to teach can now be done in just a few days. Gritt also collects real time data on completed work, material movement, and site conditions, helping construction managers make better decisions.

The U.S. construction industry is facing a growing labor shortage, with more than 41% of its workforce expected to retire by 2031. At the same time construction productivity has fallen by 46%, even as AI and automation have improved efficiency in many other industries.

Construction sites are difficult to automate because of changing weather, uneven terrain, and complex job site conditions. Gritt addresses these challenges by combining it's own AI technology with practical robotic hardware to improve productivity.

In the future, Gritt plans to make its AI smart enough to help construction site supervisors manage projects more effectively. The system will track resources, predict potential problems, and help keep work on schedule.

The company's goal is to make construction safer and more efficient by replacing difficult and dangerous jobs with better roles for workers. It also aims to help contractors complete projects faster, and improve the overall construction industry.

"Every wave of automation started with someone willing to go where the work was hardest and least predictable," said Andrew Beebe, Managing Director at Obvious Ventures. "Gritt is bringing physical AI to the toughest construction sites in the world. Every site they deploy builds the flywheel that makes the system smarter, and more capable.

“Nobody is solving the repetitive, high-volume manual work that shapes the world’s infrastructure," said Vishal Dugar, CTO and co-founder at Gritt. “We need an intelligence layer that can complete dexterous tasks and make decisions in an environment that changes every hour. This is one of the most challenging frontiers in physical AI.”

"Every industry has embraced automation, but outdoor construction sites are exposed, with unforgiving terrain and variable weather. You can't tell a construction site to be less muddy or to stop snowing,” said Puneet Puri, CEO and co-founder of Gritt. “Gritt's physical AI is designed to work in this unstructured, outdoor world. Infrastructure is what moves civilization forward, and now Gritt can help build it faster — including solar arrays, data centers, bridges, and roads.”

About Gritt

Founded in 2024 by Vishal Dugar and Puneet Puri, Gritt is a robotics and AI company that helps automate construction work. Its technology attaches to common construction equipment and can perform labor intensive tasks, inspect work, and support project planning. Gritt's systems are already being used to build large scale solar projects in challenging outdoor environments.

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