Superlight, a commercial electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, has raised $21 million in an oversubscribed Series A co-led by Engine Ventures and 2150. The round brings total funding raised to date to £25 million. Proceeds will be used to complete the buildout of its United Kingdom manufacturing facility, fulfil initial sales in the UK and EU, and provide federalised vehicles for customer testing and US market entry.
Demand for middle mile logistics - the movement of goods between regional distribution centres and local sorting facilities - is surging, with the global market expected to reach $137.97 billion in 2026. Consumers' expectations for overnight delivery are pushing distribution centres into urban areas, making cargo volume and delivery efficiency increasingly critical for logistics providers. Despite this, the middle mile has seen little innovation: the majority of commercial EV investment has been directed at first mile tractor trailers and last mile light vans, while electric middle mile box trucks have continued to rely on the carryover design of diesel vehicles and a multi-party delivery process.
Superlight's OV-1 vehicle is designed from the ground up for the specific advantages of electric propulsion. Using a clean-sheet design, an all-digital powertrain, and aerospace design principles, the OV-1 achieves 50% more cargo capacity at 50% less energy expense than 7.5-tonne truck competitors, generates 73% in energy cost savings per pallet per kilometre, and is manufactured at one tenth of the capital required by conventional heavy industry truck manufacturing processes. The platform incorporates more than 70 proprietary inventions across design, materials, software, and battery technology.
Two software capabilities underpin Superlight's production and operations. SuperVisor is a digital twin of the company's factory that uses real-time data to monitor shopfloor production time, enable continuous improvement loops, and predict quality issues before they occur. Autonomous Logistics and Integrated Service is a smart servicing and maintenance assistant that draws on vehicle and fleet sensor data from the OV-1 to proactively optimise vehicle performance and driver behaviour.
Superlight has accrued more than 500,000 kilometres of powertrain mileage, including commercial pilots of the OV-1 in the United Kingdom by major e-commerce and ground handling providers. The team brings experience from Bentley Motors, DENSO, Porsche, Microsoft, and other automotive, aerospace, software, and battery systems organisations.
By harnessing the inherent advantages of electric propulsion and software-centric manufacturing, we're flipping the economics of commercial EVs, unlocking massive cost savings that also happen to provide significant environmental benefits. Our purpose-built EV platform enables transformative performance and safety advantages that can't be duplicated by retrofitting electric into legacy trucks. And unlike many manufacturers, Superlight owns the entire chain of designing, building and delivering its EVs, which allows us to provide unique vehicle features to continually optimise for innovation and efficiency.
Superlight is on a mission to modernise commercial trucks, a crucial component of modern society that has experienced surprisingly little innovation in nearly a century. By replacing legacy manufacturing and driving mechanics with a new architecture, the company has an opportunity to deliver massive performance, safety, efficiency and cost improvements to brands, fleet owners and transport companies, while at the same time wiping out particulate matter emissions.
