EV startup Harbinger’s obsession with simplicity fuels $100M Series B

It’s not an easy time to raise money for an electric car startup, especially given how many have failed or are close to failing. But Los Angeles-based Harbinger pulled it off with a hyper-focused approach to electrifying commercial trucking.

The prize is a $100 million Series B, led by Tesla investor Capricorn Investor Group and Leitmotif, a new US fund co-founded by Volkswagen’s former head of M&A. Also joining the round are Tiger Global and Mobility initiative organization ManivBoth were existing investors.

“We know how the EV space has gone. We know that it’s just covered in corpses from the last decade,” Harbinger CEO John Harris told TechCrunch in an interview. “So we really, really try to keep our scope very focused and have very high confidence in what we’re going to do before we say what we’re going to do.”

Established in 2022 A team of former Canoo and QuantumScape employeesHarbinger set out to develop a modular all-electric chassis for medium-duty trucks.

Then it’s… that, and only that.

Harbinger maintained his focus at a time when investors were throwing billions of dollars at startups that claimed they would build tens of thousands of EVs, or reshape transportation as we know it. Arrival, for example, started in a similar sector as Harbinger. But as it went public, Arrival claimed it would reinvent car manufacturing The so-called microfactoriesPlans to build buses, a ride-hailing car with Uber, and had Possibly even working on an airplane.

Arrival is now bankrupt. Harbinger, meanwhile, has closed a Series B and is on track to enter production.

“Harbinger is this amazing team of very seasoned operators, with a lot of scar tissue and relevant experience from their previous roles,” Leitmotif co-founder Jens Wiese, a former VW executive, said in an interview. “They’re just laser focused on this segment and getting the product right.”

Harris said that focusing on one product not only allowed his startup to survive, it helped make the product better.

As an example, Harris points to the battery packs that power the Harbinger’s chassis. Instead of packaging in stamped steel, which needs to be welded together – and can leak that damages the battery – Harbinger invested in a 6,500 ton press that uses high pressure to punch the entire enclosure.

Harbinger was only able to invest in such a specialized piece of equipment because it didn’t have to spread the cost over multiple other products, Harris said. The result: battery pack enclosures that are only one-twentieth the cost of normal.

Such investments have allowed Harbinger to make its chassis more affordable from the outset without relying on massive size to reach attractive unit economics.

And since Harbinger is primarily selling to CFOs of fleet companies, Manive managing partner Michael Granoff says it’s an exciting proposition.

“In the segment they’re going after, they don’t replace their fleets very often, and when they think about it, they’ve been doing it for several years – and the math becomes so compelling that it’s inevitable,” Granoff said.

Granoff believes in Harbinger’s opportunity so thoroughly that his firm has invested more in the startup than any other company. Harbinger’s Series B is the only investment round joining Manive’s second fund that the firm did not lead.

“We’ve basically already provided attractive unit economics, and that’s why people come in who wouldn’t normally be in this space, [investors] Like a tiger,” Harris said. “We have industry-leading unit economics, if you ignore Tesla, but I expect we’ll have better margins than them, probably in another 12 to 18 months.”