While big electric trucks stumble, startup Telo is betting small is beautiful. The California company just closed a $20 million Series A round co-led by Tesla co-founder Marc Tarpenning and designer Yves Béhar to bring its bite-sized MT1 electric pickup to city streets by late 2026. With the Cybertruck flopping and Ram canceling its EV plans, Telo thinks urban dwellers want something that can actually park in downtown San Francisco.
The electric truck revolution is hitting some serious speed bumps. Tesla's Cybertruck is proving to be a commercial bust, Stellantis just axed the Ram 1500 EV entirely, and even Ford's F-150 Lightning sales keep sliding. But while the giants stumble with oversized EVs, a California startup thinks it's cracked the code with something radically different - a truck so small it could park in a Mini Cooper's shadow.
Telo just announced it's closed a $20 million Series A funding round for its MT1 electric pickup, a vehicle that CEO Jason Marks describes as built for "trucks for the downtowns of cities." The round was co-led by some serious automotive pedigree: Tesla co-founder Marc Tarpenning and renowned designer Yves Béhar, both of whom helped launch the company back in 2022.
The funding also pulled in Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and early-stage funds like TO VC, E12 Ventures, and Neo. It's a modest war chest by automotive standards - competitors like Slate Auto have raised over $700 million, while spectacular failures like Fisker, Canoo, and Lordstown Motors all burned through hundreds of millions before collapsing.
But Telo's playing a completely different game. "Our whole ethos is, what does it take to get to unit profitability as quickly as possible," Marks told TechCrunch during a call from the company's San Carlos facility - which happens to share a backyard with the original Tesla headquarters.
The MT1 isn't trying to haul boats or tow RVs. Instead, it's laser-focused on urban drivers who need truck utility but don't want to circle the block for 20 minutes looking for parking. The vehicle starts at around $41,000 and promises something remarkable for its size - seating for five with a full 5-foot bed, squeezing out an extra half-foot compared to trucks like the Rivian R1T or Ford Maverick.
More impressive is the promised 350-mile range from a 106kWh battery pack. That's legitimately competitive with the best EVs on the market and solves one of the biggest pain points for city dwellers who can't charge at home every night. Marks says they achieved this by trading off performance metrics like 0-60 times to optimize the battery packaging in what's essentially a Mini Cooper footprint.
