Electric Truck Maker Harbinger Raises $240 Million as It Expands Into Defence

Tiger Global, Capricorn's Technology Impact Fund and Ridgeline, an investor that focuses on defence, co-led the round. Earlier backers also returned, including FedEx, Maniv, Greycroft and Leitmotif, a venture firm backed by Volkswagen. The round comes almost exactly a year after Harbinger's $160 million Series C, which FedEx led and which came with a first truck order from the shipping company.

Harbinger has now raised more than $650 million in total, according to Bloomberg News, which first reported the round.

The funding is a test of investor appetite for commercial electric vehicle companies at a time when US demand for electric trucks has been uneven and several start-ups in the sector have failed. Harbinger's founders came from two of them: they were former employees of Canoo, the electric vehicle maker that has since gone under, and of battery developer QuantumScape. They founded the company in 2022 around a single electric truck chassis.

That focus has widened since. Harbinger bought Phantom AI, which makes autonomous driving technology, started developing hybrid emergency vehicles and has shown a driverless hybrid-electric platform for the military. Ridgeline's role as a co-lead and the move into defence put Harbinger among a growing group of vehicle and autonomy companies chasing military budgets.

FedEx remains its anchor commercial customer. The shipping company recently placed its first large order, for 2,000 trucks valued at more than $300 million. Paul Melander, FedEx's senior vice president of safety and transportation, has joined Harbinger's board.

Harbinger has not said publicly how it will split the new money between its truck, energy storage and defence work.