Bloom, a Detroit start-up that wants to become an AI-driven Alibaba for American factories, has raised a $3.6 million seed round to expand a marketplace that connects drone, robotics and other hardware companies with US-based manufacturers, shippers and suppliers.
The round, reported by TechCrunch on 7 October, was led by SNAK Venture Partners, a marketplace-focused firm founded by longtime retail executive Sonia Nagar. Flyover Capital, an early-stage investor focused on the so-called flyover states, and deep-tech firm Mana Ventures also took part, along with local backers Detroit Venture Partners, Invest Detroit Ventures and the Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund.
Chief executive Justin Kosmides likens the company to an AI-powered version of Alibaba, which built a marketplace for contract manufacturers in China. Bloom's version is focused on the United States, where tariffs and a political push to bring production home have sent hardware start-ups looking for domestic suppliers.
From e-bikes to drones
Bloom did not begin life as a marketplace. Kosmides co-founded the company in 2023; TechCrunch's report also identified Hitesh Chudasama and Chris Nolte as co-founders. The original plan was to rescue the struggling light-electric-vehicle industry by taking on logistics, manufacturing and supply-chain work for e-bike and e-scooter companies, many of which had collapsed.
The founders came out of that world. Kosmides joined São Paulo-based Vela Bikes in 2020 to expand the brand internationally and helped move its production centre to Detroit, according to DBusiness. Nolte, of Brooklyn's Propel Bikes, has been an e-bike retailer since 2011. Bloom set up at Newlab in Detroit's Corktown neighbourhood, part of Michigan Central, next to the former Michigan Central Depot that Ford has been converting into a mobility innovation campus.
In a March 2025 profile, Newlab described Bloom as an operations-as-a-service platform for electric mobility that connected companies with suppliers, manufacturers and distribution partners for manufacturing, assembly, warehousing and logistics. "Not many of these products are actually made in the U.S.," Nolte said at the time.
The early model drew interest. DBusiness reported that Bloom's first fundraising, which began in late summer 2023, was oversubscribed, and that more than 25 mobility companies were exploring moving their manufacturing, logistics and service to the company. Newlab said in 2025 that MoonBikes had partnered with Bloom to relaunch in the US market, scaling its North American operations from Newlab at Michigan Central.
Then the market shifted. After Donald Trump's re-election and the broad tariffs that followed, aimed partly at reviving US manufacturing, demand began arriving from robotics start-ups, drone makers and other hardware companies, TechCrunch reported. Bloom dropped its plan to do hands-on back-end work itself and became a pure marketplace connecting buyers and sellers.
It now builds supply-chain AI agents that customers use to find suppliers, parts and manufacturing or engineering services. Customers post contract opportunities, suppliers bid on them, and Bloom handles quoting, booking and payment on the platform. Matches span contract manufacturing, assembly, design and engineering, freight, warehousing, repairs and hazardous-materials shipping.
Traction that won over a sceptical investor
The numbers behind the round are small but moving quickly. Bloom has made more than 2,000 matches for over 140 companies. By May 2026 it had generated as much revenue in five months as in the whole of 2025, and SNAK said memberships on the platform had grown fivefold with low churn.
SNAK's route to leading the deal is instructive. The firm first met Bloom in April 2025 and passed on its pre-seed round because it wanted to see more traction. It "liked the founder and the thesis and passed anyway," SNAK wrote, but kept tracking the company and returned as lead investor this time.
Kosmides said Bloom had other term sheets but chose SNAK as the investor "you want in your camp." He was frank about the funding climate, saying that finding investors willing to write a term sheet "is getting harder and harder," and that he was "excited to be done with fundraising and get back to building."
The company has not set out a detailed plan for the new capital beyond saying it wants to grow faster. The shape of the round is telling, though. Alongside a lead investor that specialises in marketplaces, half of the named backers are local Michigan investors, from Detroit Venture Partners and Invest Detroit Ventures to the Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund, while Flyover Capital concentrates on companies outside the coastal technology hubs. Together they amount to a bet that the Midwest's industrial base can be repackaged for a new generation of hardware companies.
Data is the core asset. About 30% to 40% of Bloom's information on providers comes directly from the companies themselves; the rest comes from public sources such as websites and from data generated as suppliers sign up and get matched. Each additional match gives the platform a clearer picture of which suppliers can actually deliver what.
One example shows how the model can redirect idle capacity. A Michigan contract manufacturer that once took odd jobs, including refurbishing Nest thermostats and Bird scooters and working on Chick-fil-A displays, now bids on drone assembly contracts through Bloom.
Taking on the parts marketplaces
Bloom is not the first company to try to digitise manufacturing procurement. Kosmides described Fictiv, Xometry and MacroFab as "yesteryear marketplaces" built for sourcing individual parts. Bloom argues it can handle more complex requests, such as a drone company that needs a single provider meeting many requirements at once.
That claim will be tested as the company grows. Hardware buyers care about certifications, capacity, lead times and quality records, and a marketplace that relies partly on public web data has to show that its matches hold up on the factory floor. A poor match can cost a start-up weeks of production time; a run of them would cost Bloom its credibility with both sides of the market.
Kosmides's thesis is that matchmaking and discovery are what is "truly missing" from US manufacturing. In other words, Bloom is betting that the capacity exists but is hard for a young company in a hurry to find, and that software can shorten the search.
Demand from drone and robotics makers is what pulled Bloom away from e-bikes in the first place, and US trade policy continues to push hardware companies to look for suppliers at home. With fresh capital and a lead investor that waited a year to back it, Bloom now has to show it can turn early momentum into a marketplace that both buyers and factories rely on.
