Gritt raises $32M to deploy AI-powered robots for solar panel installation

Gritt, a robotics startup founded by Carnegie Mellon-trained roboticists Puneet Puri (CEO) and Vishal Dugar (CTO), exited stealth with $32M in total funding, including a $26M Series A led by Obvious Ventures with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investment.

The company’s systems use off-the-shelf hardware—such as rented skidders and robotic arms from Kawasaki—to automate tasks like unloading and positioning large solar panels with sub-millimeter accuracy, enabling crews to install 3,000 to 4,000 panels per day compared to 800 panels by a typical eight-person crew without the system.

Gritt has two systems currently deployed in the field and is contracted to help install 2.8 gigawatts of solar panels in the next 18 months, with customers including three of the top 10 U.S. power construction companies.

The startup plans to operate 48 systems within the next six months and aims to expand beyond solar panel installation to tasks like fastening panels, drilling posts, building racks, and tying rebar, enabled by advances in AI models that allow generalizable solutions across varied tasks.

Gritt competes with companies like Luminous Robotics, Cosmic, and China’s Trinabot, which build their own hardware, while Gritt focuses on leveraging off-the-shelf components and AI models to scale more efficiently.