When Puneet Puri set out to solve one of construction's oldest problems—the grueling, often dangerous work of assembling infrastructure outdoors—he didn't want to reinvent the machines already on site. Instead, the robotics veteran decided to make them smarter.
Gritt, the Belmont, California-based startup Puri founded, emerged from stealth in July 2026 with $32.4 million in funding to deploy AI-powered robotic systems on utility-scale solar construction sites. The company's approach is deceptively simple: modular robotic arms that attach to existing equipment like skid steers and forklifts, transforming ordinary machinery into precision tools capable of assembling solar arrays with what Gritt claims is millimeter-level accuracy.
The $26 million Series A was led by Obvious Ventures, with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investments. First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures also contributed follow-on investment.
It's a bet that construction robotics doesn't require an entirely new fleet—just better ways to use what's already there.
The Unstructured Problem
Outdoor construction resists automation in ways factory floors don't. Weather shifts. Ground conditions change by the hour. Materials arrive in unpredictable configurations. These are precisely the conditions where traditional robotics falters, and where Gritt believes its AI-driven perception systems can excel.
"Outdoor construction work is unstructured, unpredictable, and physically demanding," Puri said. His background suggests he understands the challenge: degrees from Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute and Stanford's Graduate School of Business, plus prior experience building inspection drones.
The company says its systems have autonomously placed tens of thousands of solar modules across active projects without a single breakage—a claim that, if validated at scale, would address one of the industry's persistent cost drivers. Union Square Ventures noted in its investment announcement that Gritt "is currently contracted for another 2.8 gigawatts" with leading U.S. contractors, though the firm has not named specific customers.
Perhaps more telling is the speed at which Gritt's systems reportedly adapt. The company cited one instance where its robots learned rebar tying "in about a day" through over-the-air software updates—a timeframe that, even allowing for some founder optimism, hints at the potential of learning-based approaches in construction.
Tailwinds and Headwinds
The timing could hardly be better for solar construction automation. The Energy Information Administration projects that utility-scale solar will remain the fastest-growing generation source through 2027, with capacity additions continuing to break records. In Texas alone, solar generation is expected to surpass coal output this year. First-quarter 2026 installations reached 7.8 gigawatts, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, increasingly driven by data centers hungry for renewable power purchase agreements.
Construction labor, meanwhile, presents a grimmer picture. U.S. construction productivity has declined more than 30% since 1970, according to an analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond published last August. Aging workforce demographics compound the pressure.
But Gritt isn't operating in a vacuum. Built Robotics has already deployed autonomous pile-driving and trenching systems with major engineering, procurement, and construction firms. Sarcos and RE2 have piloted robotic module installation solutions backed by Department of Energy funding. Cosmic Robotics and Libra Robotics are developing their own solar-focused systems.
The question isn't whether construction robotics will arrive—it's whose approach will prove scalable.
Beyond the Solar Farm
Gritt's ambitions extend past photovoltaic arrays. The company plans to expand into data center construction and broader infrastructure projects, including bridges and roads. It's assembled a team with robotics and AI pedigrees from Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Google X, and Tesla's Optimus program—the kind of résumé collection that impresses investors but still needs to prove itself on muddy job sites.
CTO Vishal Dugar, who previously worked on autonomous trucking and self-piloting aircraft, framed the technical challenge in operational terms. Construction sites require "an intelligence layer that can complete dexterous tasks and make moment-to-moment decisions as the environment changes hourly," he said.
Andrew Beebe, managing director at Obvious Ventures, pointed to what he called Gritt's "deployment flywheel"—the idea that each installation teaches the AI systems lessons that transfer to the next site, building a generalized understanding of construction work.
The company claims its systems deliver four times the output of conventional construction with no additional labor—vendor-reported figures that haven't been independently validated. Still, if Gritt can demonstrate even a fraction of that productivity gain across diverse projects, it may validate a theory that's been percolating in venture circles for years: that construction, one of the last major industries to resist digitization, is finally ready for transformation.
Gritt won a Grand Prize in the Department of Energy's American-Made Solar Prize competition in September 2024, providing early validation and likely some useful connections. But competitions are one thing. Scaling robotic systems across weather, terrain, and the inevitable chaos of real job sites? That's where most construction tech ventures stumble.
For now, Gritt has capital, contracts, and a technology thesis that at least makes theoretical sense. Whether those translate into a durable business will depend less on the elegance of the robotics and more on something decidedly unglamorous: reliability in the field, day after day, across projects that don't care how smart the AI is when a thunderstorm rolls in at 3 p.m.
