Superlight Secures $21M to Transform Middle Mile Logistics with Purpose-Built, Electric Trucks that Leverage Aerospace Design and Software-Centric Digital Architecture

With a ground-up, digital-first manufacturing process, the company produces commercial EVs with 50% more cargo capacity and 50% lower energy costs, resulting in 73% energy cost savings per pallet.

YATELEY, England & SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Superlight, a commercial electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, today announced it has raised an oversubscribed $21 million Series A. The round was co-led by Engine Ventures and 2150, and brings the company’s total funding raised to date to $33 million. Superlight will use the fresh capital to complete the buildout of its UK manufacturing facility, fulfill initial sales in the UK and EU, and provide federalized vehicles for customer testing and US market entry.

Demand for middle mile logistics – which involves transporting goods between regional distribution centers and local sorting facilities – is surging, with the global market expected to reach $137.97 billion in 2026. This is largely a result of consumers’ expectations for overnight delivery, which is driving distribution centers into urban areas. For logistics providers, maximizing cube volume cost and delivery efficiency has never been more critical, however the middle mile has long been overlooked from an innovation standpoint. For example, the majority of commercial EV investment has gone to the first mile (for tractor trailers or 18-wheel semis) and the last mile (for light vans or cargo bikes), with middle mile electric box trucks continuing to rely on the carryover design of diesel and cumbersome customer experience of a multi-party vehicle delivery process.

Superlight is building the only middle mile commercial vehicle designed explicitly for the advantages of electric. The company’s OV-1 vehicle is modular and customizable, employing a clean-sheet design, all-digital powertrain and aerospace design principles to:

• Achieve 50% more cargo capacity at 50% less energy expense than 7.5-tonne truck competitors
• Generate 73% in energy cost savings per pallet per kilometer
• Require 1/10th of the capital of conventional, heavy industry truck manufacturing processes

“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,” said Noamaan Siddiqi, co-founder and CEO of Superlight. “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 optimize for innovation and efficiency.”

Superlight has already accrued more than 500,000 kilometers of powertrain mileage, including with commercial pilots of OV-1 in the UK by major e-commerce and ground handling providers. The company’s ground-up production system is digital-first and AI-native, and includes two core capabilities:

1. SuperVisor, a digital twin of Superlight’s factory that uses real-time data to monitor shopfloor production time, enables continuous improvement loops at multiple levels and predicts quality issues before they occur.
2. Autonomous Logistics & Integrated Service, a smart servicing and maintenance assistant that uses vehicle and fleet data from sensors on OV-1 to proactively optimize vehicle performance and driver behavior.

“Superlight is on a mission to modernize commercial trucks, a crucial component of modern society that has experienced surprisingly little innovation in nearly a century,” said Israel Ruiz, President and General Partner at Engine Ventures. “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.”

Superlight is led by a team that brings deep automotive, aerospace, software and battery system experience from Bentley Motors, DENSO, Porsche, Microsoft and more. To date, Superlight has integrated 70+ proprietary inventions in design, materials, software and battery technology into its platform.

About Superlight

Founded in 2016 by Noamaan and Sheban Siddiqi, Superlight is a commercial electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer leveraging aerospace design principles and software-centric digital architecture to reimagine middle mile logistics. The company’s EVs provide 50% more cargo capacity at 50% less energy expense, and are manufactured, delivered and serviced via a digital-first production system that optimizes for capital efficiency and continuous innovation. Superlight is headquartered in the UK, with additional offices in Seattle, Washington. For more information, visit https://superlight.auto/.