Gritt, a construction robotics start-up developing what it describes as physical AI for infrastructure projects, has launched with $32.4m in pre-seed and Series A funding.
The total includes a $26m Series A led by Obvious Ventures, with Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investments also participating. Previous investors First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures also supported the funding round.
Gritt is developing robotic arms and AI that can be fitted to construction equipment such as skid steers and forklifts. The system can pick and place components, assemble elements, and transport materials.
Its machines are already operating on construction sites, with large-scale solar providing the first application for the technology.
Gritt adds robotics to existing construction equipment
The company’s systems are designed as attachments for machinery that contractors already own and their crews know how to maintain.
Outdoor sites remain difficult to automate because weather, terrain, logistics, and working conditions can change throughout the day. Gritt said its machines can adapt to these conditions and carry out repetitive movements with millimetre precision.
The systems are designed to operate on sites with workers under defined safety controls. According to Gritt, its technology has enabled the autonomous placement of tens of thousands of solar panels without any breakages.
The company did not name the contractors using the technology but said its machines are trusted by top-10 US construction companies, including contractors building large solar farms.
“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.
The company said the system learns from each deployment. According to the company, a task that initially took months to train can subsequently be learned in a matter of days.
Site data could support construction supervisors
As the machines work, they collect data on completed tasks, material movements, and site conditions. Gritt intends to process this information to help supervisors make decisions on active construction sites.
The company eventually plans to develop its decision-making intelligence layer to understand resource flows, anticipate problems, and make operational calls intended to keep projects moving.
“Nobody is solving the repetitive, high-volume manual work that shapes the world’s infrastructure,” said Vishal Dugar, CTO and co-founder of Gritt. “We need an intelligence layer that can complete dexterous tasks and make decisions in an environment that changes every hour.”
Large-scale solar is Gritt’s initial area of deployment. The company has also identified data centres, bridges, and roads as potential applications for the technology.
Gritt said its systems are intended to reduce the amount of dangerous and physically demanding work carried out manually. The company also cited labour availability as a concern, stating that more than 41% of the US construction workforce is expected to retire by 2031.
Its founding team includes robotics and AI specialists from Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
