Startup Gritt Emerges From Stealth With $32M to Build Solar Power Plants With Robots

Robotics startup Gritt emerged from stealth on July 21, 2026, with $32M in funding. Its robots install solar panels at power plants in the US four to five times faster than conventional crews, and the company plans to automate the entire construction site.

What Gritt does

Gritt builds robots that take over the heaviest part of constructing solar power plants. The machines unload large-format glass panels, carry them to metal frames and position them with sub-millimeter precision. Workers only need to fasten each panel in place. The company was founded by roboticists from Carnegie Mellon University: CEO Punit Puri and CTO Vishal Dugar.

The focus on the "heaviest tasks" is no accident. Modern solar panels are bulky sheets of glass that installers carry and position by hand thousands of times per shift. Gritt hands exactly this routine to machines and leaves the final fastening to people.

Key facts, as reported by TechCrunch:

• The Series A round is $26M, led by Obvious Ventures, with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investments
• Including the seed round (First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, VSC Ventures), the company has raised $32M in total
• A crew of eight people installs about 800 panels a day; with Gritt's systems, 3,000–4,000
• Gritt has contracts to install 2.8 GW of solar panels over the next 18 months
• Its customers include three of the ten largest energy construction companies in the US

How much do the robots speed up installation?

Gritt's systems increase an installation crew's output four to five times. Eight people without robots install about 800 panels a day; with the robots, 3,000 to 4,000, according to TechCrunch. The company is not building exotic hardware from scratch. It assembles its systems from off-the-shelf components: rented skid steers and Kawasaki industrial manipulators. The key value is the software that controls this equipment in the field.

Gritt currently has only two systems deployed. Over the next six months, the company plans to grow its fleet to 48 machines, a 24-fold increase to serve the already signed contracts for 2.8 GW.

"Our thesis is that if we really want to speed up construction, we need intelligence that can work in an outdoor, chaotic environment,"

Punit Puri, CEO of Gritt, told TechCrunch.

Why Gritt is starting with solar plants

Solar power plants are a convenient proving ground for construction robots: the work is monotonous, repetitive and physically exhausting, and the volume of construction is growing. After panel installation, Gritt plans to automate adjacent operations: fastening panels, drilling for supports, assembling metal frames and tying rebar before concrete is poured. Hence the formula from TechCrunch's headline: solar plants first, everything else later.

What this means

The construction site is becoming the next big arena for applied robotics. Unlike a factory, it has no assembly line and no sterile conditions, and the winners will be the teams whose software can handle the chaos of a real build. If Gritt fulfills its 2.8 GW contracts, the solar industry will have a working recipe against labor shortages.

Frequently asked questions

How much has Gritt raised?

$32M in total: a $26M Series A led by Obvious Ventures with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investments, plus a seed round from First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures and VSC Ventures that makes up the rest.

How much faster are Gritt's robots than humans?

A crew of eight installers puts up about 800 solar panels a day. With Gritt's systems, the same crew installs 3,000–4,000 panels, a four- to five-fold increase.

Who founded Gritt?

The company was founded by roboticists from Carnegie Mellon University: CEO Punit Puri and CTO Vishal Dugar.