TELO, producer of the electric TELO Truck, has received $5.4 million from a strategic funding round led by Ali Partovi of Neo, with additional investment from Spero Ventures and angel investors. The closing of this strategic raise signifies TELO’s continued business growth.
Coinciding with this news, TELO appointed Marc Tarpenning, co-founder of Tesla, to the company’s board recently. He will help guide the team in the final stages of TELO’s development. Also, as a Spero Ventures partner, Tarpenning participated in the just-announced strategic funding round. This infusion of funds will be used to continue the virtual validation of the vehicle’s safety and the development of a road-ready model.
“Small is the new big, even in pickup trucks,” says Partovi, the CEO of Neo. “I love backing founders like Jason and Forrest who have the vision to turn a massive industry on its head.”
This follows a $1.78 million pre-seed funding round announced at launch in June 2023, which was led by GoAhead Ventures, with additional investment from Underdog Labs, WorkPlay Ventures and Yves Béhar (co-founder and chief creative officer) as well as some angel investors.
“Closing this fundraising round has further validated our prediction of where the EV industry is headed,” says Jason Marks, co-founder and CEO of TELO. “We’re being extremely strategic with our investments, and we’re grateful that Ali, Marc and our additional investors align with our unique approach in the industry. With their support and funding, we’re even more excited and confident about the next phase for building the TELO Truck.”
A mini-truck with purpose, the TELO Truck has redesigned what an electric truck looks like by taking advantage of the best in electric and autonomous tech, using advanced driving and safety technologies. The TELO team has intentionally leveraged its funding to not only build the most size-efficient electric truck, but also offer solutions for drivers in urban environments that are not typically conducive to larger trucks. More than 2,500 pre-orders of the truck have been secured.
In late 2023, the team took the next step in its proof of concept with the development of a drivable chassis. Most recently, the team has continued to progress and completed the roll cage for the vehicle, an important step in leading up to a final prototype. Looking ahead, TELO will eventually hand-build the first set of vehicles (approximately 500) to deliver to customers and eventually scale for manufacturing for mass delivery.
