TELO Trucks, a company that has created an electric mini truck specifically engineered for American urban environments, has successfully closed an oversubscribed Series A funding round at $20 million. This significant investment was spearheaded by the renowned designer Yves Behar and Marc Tarpenning, a co-founder of Tesla and Venture Partner at Spero Ventures, lending considerable weight and expertise to TELO’s mission. Some of the additional investors included TO VC, E12 Ventures, Neo, Marc Benioff, Uncorrelated Ventures, Nova Threshold, MCJ, and a collection of other prominent investors.
TELO Trucks is carving out a distinctive niche in the automotive landscape with a groundbreaking category of trucks that adeptly addresses a vital need for practical functionality among both individual consumers and commercial fleets. Their flagship vehicle, the TELO MT1, manages to encapsulate the robust capabilities typically associated with a full-size crew cab work truck within the remarkably compact footprint of a two-door MINI Cooper. This ingenious design challenges conventional notions of truck utility and size.
This latest funding achievement follows TELO’s $6 million strategic Seed round, led by Neo, and its earlier $2 million Pre-Seed round, led by GoAhead Ventures, demonstrating a consistent upward trajectory in investor confidence and support.
A remarkable aspect of TELO’s journey thus far is its exceptional capital efficiency. Over the past three years, TELO has achieved what many in the industry deem extraordinary: they have developed and launched two fully realized pre-production prototypes with an investment of only $8 million. These prototypes have already garnered widespread critical acclaim from automotive media outlets, a feat that traditionally requires other automakers to expend in excess of $50 million to reach a similar milestone. This makes TELO arguably the most capital-efficient automaker to date. With the infusion of this new capital, TELO is poised to accelerate its efforts towards achieving full production readiness and meticulously meeting all federal requirements, ensuring the TELO MT1 is prepared to hit the roads safely and efficiently.
The market demand for TELO’s vision is demonstrably strong, with over 12,000 pre-orders already placed, representing a potential revenue of more than $600 million. This overwhelming response indicates that TELO has resonated deeply with American consumers who are seeking sensible, right-sized trucks that defy the prevailing trend of oversized, often impractical, and inefficient alternatives currently available. Measuring a mere 152 inches in length, the MT1 surprisingly offers the same truck bed length as a Toyota Tacoma and boasts an impressive towing capacity of 6,600 pounds, proving that compact size does not necessitate a compromise on performance.
The TELO MT1, an all-electric mini truck, is notably over five feet shorter than many of the most popular mid-sized trucks on the market today, and even two feet shorter than the “small trucks” that were common in the 1980s. As the world’s most efficient electric vehicle pickup, the TELO MT1 is thoughtfully designed to seat five adults comfortably. Its innovative five-foot bed can ingeniously extend to eight feet with the activation of a folding mid-partition, and once extended, it provides ample space to lay plywood flat on the floor, conveniently avoiding the wheel wells. The vehicle also comes equipped with all-wheel drive, ensuring reliable performance in various conditions, and boasts an impressive range of up to 350 miles on a single charge. Its compact dimensions and agile design also contribute to exceptional navigability, making it an ideal vehicle for the often-congested streets of high-density towns and cities.
KEY QUOTES:
“I have great confidence in the TELO team as we build a future-proof vision for mobility. The MT1 proves that innovation can deliver smarter design, greater practicality, and uncompromised capability, shaping how we’ll all move tomorrow.”
Yves Behar, co-founder of TELO Trucks
“TELO has the vision, product, capital efficiency, and manufacturing strategy to make the next great transportation company.”
Marc Tarpenning, Venture Partner at Spero Ventures
“Disciplined scale-up is the name of the game in auto manufacturing. Many companies have made the fatal mistake of scaling up too fast, with too few proof points of product-market fit. TELO, on the other hand, has a liquid and well understood bill-of-materials, and CAPEX-light manufacturing model that leans on blue-chip partners, and 12,000 reservations that get the company well past profitability. This team has shown that they can execute with scarce resources. We’re excited to see what they can do now with strong funding and long-term partners.”
Joshua Phitoussi, Managing Partner at TO VC
