Gritt Exits Stealth to Automate Solar Infrastructure

Gritt has exited stealth mode following a $26 million Series A funding round led by Obvious Ventures, with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investment, according to TechCrunch. Including a seed round backed by First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures, the company's total funding stands at $32 million.

Founded by Carnegie Mellon-trained roboticists CEO Puneet Puri and CTO Vishal Dugar, Gritt is deploying AI-driven systems to automate labor-intensive construction tasks. Unlike competitors such as Luminous Robotics, Cosmic, and Trinabot—which build proprietary hardware—Gritt utilizes off-the-shelf equipment, including robotic arms from Kawasaki and rented skidders.

The company's current systems handle the unloading and positioning of glass solar panels with sub-millimeter accuracy. Puri told TechCrunch that while a standard eight-person crew typically installs 800 panels per day, the same crew using Gritt's technology can install between 3,000 and 4,000 panels daily. Gritt currently has two systems in the field and plans to operate 48 systems within six months. The startup is contracted to install 2.8 gigawatts of solar panels over the next 18 months, serving three of the top 10 U.S. power construction companies.

Beyond panel installation, Gritt intends to expand its capabilities to include drilling posts, building racks, and tying rebar. Puri noted that advancements in AI models allow the company to generalize tasks quickly; for example, a rebar tying demo took one day to develop after the system had been trained to stack cinder blocks. The company also aims to use its sensor suite to provide site management alerts, such as flagging missing inventory or weather risks.