Xos Trucks Inc., a manufacturer of electric commercial vehicles, has raised $20 million in funding from investors including Build Capital Partners and Proeza Ventures, a mobility-focused venture capital firm backed by the Proeza Group, the company announced on Aug. 18.
Rodolfo Elias Dieck, managing director at Proeza Ventures, and Build Capital Partners’ Mark Lampert will join the board of North Hollywood-based Xos.
“We’re excited to continue growing our operations to provide best-in-class last-mile electric vehicles for our customers,” Dakota Semler, co-founder and chief executive of Xos Trucks, said in a statement. “It’s our goal to provide reliable, affordable and sustainable transportation as the volume of ecommerce demands are increasing and have accelerated during the pandemic.”
Xos will use the financing, which closed in early 2020, to expand operations and further scale production of the X-Platform, a modular platform designed to accommodate a variety of medium-duty bodies, wheelbase and range requirements up to 200 miles. Most often, it’s customized into Class 6 medium-duty step vans for light, short-range deliveries, according to the company.
Xos’ medium-duty electric delivery trucks have been in use on UPS routes in the Los Angeles area for eight months.
“As orders continue to come in on a monthly basis, we are excited to meet the overwhelming demand for both our medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks,” Xos Trucks co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Giordano Sordoni said in a statement. “This investment is critical to our team’s growth so we can scale to meet that demand.”
As part of the investment, Metalsa, a commercial vehicle component manufacturer owned by Proeza Group, has assisted Xos in the design of the X-Platform and is providing components to the chassis.
In addition to the Class 6 medium-duty step vans, Xos said it will continue developing the ET-One for production. The ET-One is a Class 8 heavy-duty truck that is capable of carrying 80,000 pounds with a range of 150 miles per charge.
“We’re thrilled to back an experienced, technical and mission-driven team that is one of the few with vehicles on the roads in customers’ hands, a strong pipeline of customers and an exciting slate of new vehicles in the works,” said Proeza Ventures’ Dieck in a statement.
