Why We Invested in Harbinger Motors: A “Clean-Slate” Approach to Electrifying Commercial Vehicles
Photo credit: Harbinger
By: Ryan Clinton, Managing Partner at Ridgeline
We are very proud to have co-led Harbinger Motors’ $60M Series A round alongside THOR Industries and other industry leaders who are all committed to sustainability through mobility transformation.
At Ridgeline, our relationships provide us with the earliest access to great companies and founders, and Harbinger is an excellent example of that strength. John Harris, co-founder and CEO of Harbinger, and I worked together at Anduril Industries as early employees. He was one of the smartest people there, responsible for designing and bringing to production the products that were core to Anduril’s success. When he decided to leave Anduril and build Harbinger, I was honored to be one of the first people he called. What was most interesting to me on that first call was that it appeared that John had identified what felt like a completely underserved segment of the market—one that his and his co-founders’ backgrounds were perfectly suited to tackle. Their mission was extremely well-aligned with our thesis, serving both the supply chain and mobility industries with their EV chassis. We aim to invest in the platforms and technologies that can modernize foundational industries—in success, Harbinger will do exactly that.
Harbinger Motors is working to decarbonize last mile delivery by transforming medium-duty commercial and specialty vehicles through its electrified chassis, powertrains, and battery technologies. Harbinger's chassis is specifically designed to support multiple variations of cab and body combinations to include step-vans, cabbed box trucks, tow trucks, RVs and others. This combined with their key partnerships with industry leading body builders and upfitters opens the door to a multitude of custom purpose-driven complete vehicle solutions to be delivered to their customers. Their offerings boast an impressive 250-mile range on a single charge and can be rapidly recharged in under an hour.
Purely from an investment point of view, we see the opportunity in this sector as massive for two key reasons. Firstly, there's a dearth of competition in the medium-duty segment today. The majority of the attention we’ve seen about electrifying commercial vehicles has been focused on the light-duty segment or long-haul trucks. There are only a handful of players targeting this space, and no clear winner has emerged. Secondly, electrifying medium-duty vehicles aligns with the emissions reduction goals of many corporations that have logistics at the core of their operations. Many companies have committed to reducing their carbon footprint, but with alternative solutions like sustainable aviation fuel and electrified long-haul trucking still in their infancy, the medium-duty segment offers the most actionable path for these corporations to make meaningful progress toward their environmental objectives.
Unencumbered by the Status Quo
We invested in Harbinger so early that at first glance, the company was really just three founders, a clear vision, and some very detailed plans, but we saw so much more there. The founders were seasoned experts who had figured out how to revolutionize an industry, and it showed in the thoughtfulness of their approach and projections. We knew they would succeed where others had failed. Eighteen months later they proved us right. They’ve assembled a best-in-class team, built a fully scalable vehicle, and secured a base of world-class customers and partners that all see Harbinger as the future of the industry.
As is the first order of business for all great companies, Harbinger focused on bringing in the right talent. It’s clear to me that the strength of the company’s vision is what enabled them to inspire so many members to join the endeavor. They’ve brought on key former executives from Tesla, BMW, SpaceX, Google, Apple, Faraday, etc. The strength of this team comes through in the quality of vehicle that they’ve produced. The company just recently moved into new offices where they will build their alpha and beta vehicles over the next two years. We continue to be floored by how their operations have consistently delivered ahead of schedule and under budget.
I believe that Harbinger’s ability to deliver a lot of these early wins is grounded in their “clean-slate” approach to the vehicle. They’ve brought a lot of their design in-house and have shaped the chassis for today's needs. Among other things, this has already resulted in extending vehicle lifetime, creating a better and safer experience for drivers, while also equipping their vehicles for autonomous driving when that day comes.
Most of Harbinger’s competition is simply trying to force-fit electrification into existing vehicle designs and technology. This ends up being not only costly and ineffective but also creates some tech debt out of the gate. At Harbinger, they think of electrification as just the starting point. So, they think in terms of how to build the best electric vehicle and not simply how to make today’s vehicles electric. It’s a subtle nuance, but one that has made all the difference in the company’s success to date.
A Bright Future: Harbinger's Role in a Re-Imagined Medium-Duty Segment
As the company’s board director, Ridgeline will be partnering with the company to scale the business and be the "connective tissue" between Harbinger and Ridgeline’s anchor LPs, some of the company’s strongest potential customers.
In success, I see Harbinger electrifying not only a segment of vehicles but also a very visible segment of our collective “everyday” lives. Since delivery fleets will get electrified en masse, the impact will be different than seeing the occasional Tesla on the road. It could touch every delivery truck we see in our neighborhoods. Soon we might just start to think of delivery vehicles as electrified. In a lot of ways, success at Harbinger could also be the first major signal that the supply chain is being decarbonized.
“We aim to invest in the platforms and technologies that can modernize foundational industries—in success, Harbinger will do exactly that.”
Learn more about Harbinger at harbingermotors.com. For more news about Ridgeline and our portfolio companies, subscribe to our quarterly newsletter below!