Re:Build, which spun out Slate Auto, raises $2.1B

Re:Build, the Massachusetts-based manufacturing accelerator that spun out EV startup Slate Auto in 2023, has raised $2.1 billion

The company said Tuesday that it will use the funding to “expand Re:Build’s capacity to manufacture hard tech products and launch new industrial startups,” which will “ensure the most innovative products can be made in America for generations to come.” The investment was led by General Catalyst and JPMorganChase’s Strategic Investment Group. Other investors weren’t disclosed.

The funding round comes as increasing attention and capital is flowing to the idea of building up manufacturing and supply chains in the United States, especially as a hedge away from China.

“We started Re:Build because the deindustrialization of America is an economic failure and national security risk,” Re:Build co-founder Jeff Wilke said in a statement. “This capital allows Re:Build to go faster and further than would otherwise be possible, and build a great manufacturing business and a platform for American industrial leadership. The products and companies emerging from our ecosystem prove we can help restore America’s industrial might.”

General Catalyst’s CEO Hemant Taneja echoed those sentiments in a statement, saying, “General Catalyst has long believed that rebuilding American industrial capacity is one of the most important economic and national security imperatives of our time.”

Taneja added: “To compete with China, re-industrialize the U.S., and revitalize the towns and jobs that have been left behind, we need platform companies that can operate at genuine scale — and we need our innovation ecosystem to learn how to build hardware again.”

Founded in 2020, Re:Build bills itself as “America’s answer to Shenzhen,” and it has numerous ties to Amazon. It was co-founded by Wilke, who was Amazon’s former commercial CEO. Wei Gao, a longtime Amazon VP and technical adviser to Bezos, is Re:Build’s chief digital and product officer. Multiple other Re:Build executives also worked for the e-commerce giant.

Re:Build claims to have “launched hundreds of products and production systems” over its six-year existence. The company tends to operate two ways: It enters partnerships with industrial companies to “design, engineer, and manufacture products at scale across verticals including aerospace and defense,” and it incubates startups in “critical, underserved markets.”

Re:Build says its network of companies employs more than 2,100 people in the U.S. and houses more than 2.4 million square feet of manufacturing capacity.

Wilke and his co-founder Miles Arnone came up with the idea of Slate Auto in 2022 and decided to spin it out in order to help it attract more capital. The company has since gone on to raise at least $1.4 billion, including funding from Bezos’ family office, in an attempt to build an ultra-low-cost, bare-bones pickup that can be customized to a customer’s liking.

Source: techcrunch.com