Tesla co-founder joins TELO board timely guiding the company through its next development stage
EV manufacturer TELO gained significant support for its innovative mini-truck via a $5.4 million strategic funding round led by the venture capital firm and Accelerator Neo. Prior investor Spero Ventures and angel investors joined the round supporting TELO’s efforts to bring their innovative truck to market.
Jason Marks, Forrest North, and Yves Béhar co-founded the California-based company in 2022 to build the most cost-effective company on the market. With input from the innovative design studio fuseproject, the EV mini-truck startup set its sights on building working prototypes.
The founding team is a convergence of talent and experience. Marks previously was Chief Business Development Manager at National Instruments. North was Founder and CEO of Neptune Scooters and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at MLAB Ventures and Béhar is the Founder and CEO of fuseproject and previously Chief Creative Officer at Jawbone.
“Closing this fundraising round has further validated our prediction of where the EV industry is headed,” said CEO Marks. “We’re being extremely strategic with our investments and we’re grateful that Ali, Marc and our additional investors align with our unique approach in the industry.”
TELO’s funding announcement coincided with Marc Tarpenning, co-founder of Tesla, joining its board, having also participated in the latest funding round. His appointment is a major milestone for TELO, as Tarpenning, a Spero Ventures partner, will have a guiding role in the company’s important final development stage. TELO will focus on the virtual validation of the vehicle’s safety and also the development of a road-ready model.
TELO’s market strategy is to innovatively design an EV mini-truck that incorporates the best in electric and autonomous tech, using advanced driving and safety technologies. In addition to building the most size-efficient electric truck, it is tailored to be driven in urban environments that are not typically conducive to larger trucks, while also used for weekend adventuring.
Just last year TELO proved out its drivable chassis and recently finalized the roll cage for the truck to lead up to final prototype. Approximately 500 EV mini-trucks will be hand-built for customer use, followed by scale-up for manufacturing, having 2,000 pre-orders in hand.
