Bloom raises $3.6M to match hardware companies with U.S. suppliers

Why it matters

Bloom's seed round backs its move from hands-on mobility operations to a broader marketplace for domestic hardware production. Its challenge is making supplier discovery lead to repeat business across manufacturing, logistics and repair.

Detroit-based Bloom raised $3.6 million in seed funding to expand its marketplace for hardware companies looking for U.S. manufacturers and operational services. The round, led by SNAK Venture Partners, backs Bloom, whose CEO and co-founder Justin Kosmides has changed its operating model once: Bloom began by taking on supply-chain work for mobility companies, then shifted toward matching buyers with providers. TechCrunch reported the round on October 7th, 2026.

Flyover Capital, Mana Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, Invest Detroit Ventures and the Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund also participated. Bloom was founded in 2023 by Kosmides, Chris Nolte and Hitesh Chudasama, whom Bloom's press page identifies as CTO and co-founder as of October 7th, 2026.

Kosmides came to Bloom after nearly a decade in investment banking at Barclays and operating experience at Vela Bikes. At Vela, he helped move e-bike assembly from China to Detroit, work that exposed the tangled manufacturing, logistics and supplier problems Bloom initially set out to solve for other mobility businesses. Nolte brought a different view of the same market: he founded Propel Bikes, an electric-bike retailer, and made factory visits while working in the industry. Both had encountered these supply-chain problems before Bloom set out to connect other companies with providers.

From service provider to marketplace

Bloom's first model involved doing some of the operational work itself. Kosmides told TechCrunch that e-bike and e-scooter companies had struggled with logistics, manufacturing and supply chains, and Bloom aimed to take those jobs off their hands. The opportunity extended beyond mobility: drone and robotics companies also needed domestic production and operational support, while tariffs and interest in U.S. manufacturing put more focus on where hardware gets made.

Bloom responded by shifting toward a marketplace. Customers can post work, while suppliers can bid; Bloom supports matching, quoting, booking and payment. Its categories stretch beyond contract manufacturing and assembly to engineering, freight, warehousing, repairs and hazardous-materials shipping. Bloom is also developing AI-driven supply-chain agents to help customers find suppliers, parts and services, though the funding announcement does not establish how much of the workflow those tools currently automate.

The range makes supplier data and matching more complicated than they would be for a marketplace focused on a single manufactured part. Kosmides has contrasted Bloom with parts-focused marketplaces such as Fictiv, Xometry and MacroFab, arguing that hardware buyers may need a provider across several requirements, not just a single part, as TechCrunch reported. Bloom is trying to handle a wider procurement problem: finding a provider that fits a customer's requirements across production and the work surrounding it. The model depends on having accurate information about provider capabilities and capacity, and on making reliable matches across different service categories.

Kosmides told TechCrunch that Bloom combines public information, such as providers' websites, with data supplied directly by companies; he put the company-supplied share at roughly 30% to 40%. Bloom's company materials say it has made more than 2,000 matches for more than 140 companies. Those figures describe activity, but do not by themselves show order size, repeat purchasing or how much work is completed through the marketplace.

Kosmides told TechCrunch about one Michigan manufacturer that had taken on odd jobs, including refurbishing Nest thermostats and Bird scooters and working with Chick-fil-A displays, before it began bidding on drone-assembly contracts. Hardware companies can access providers without assembling their own supplier networks, while manufacturers get a route to work they may not reach through conventional sales channels.

The traction behind the round

SNAK first met Bloom in April 2025, while Bloom was still working through its shift in strategy. SNAK passed on the pre-seed round, saying it wanted to see more traction, and continued tracking Bloom. By May 2026, Bloom had generated as much revenue in the first five months of the year as it had in all of 2025, according to SNAK as reported by TechCrunch. SNAK also said platform memberships had grown fivefold, with low churn.

Those are investor-reported indicators, not a revenue breakdown. The comparison points to growth but gives no dollar baseline, while the membership claim does not specify the starting count or the period measured. After passing on the pre-seed, SNAK's decision to lead this seed round shows it sees enough progress in Bloom's marketplace pivot to invest. The round gives Kosmides and his co-founders capital to build on that shift and expand beyond their original mobility customer base.

Kosmides described fundraising as increasingly difficult for startups competing for investor attention while AI models improve and investors debate which businesses have durable value. After securing the round, he told TechCrunch he was "excited to be done with fundraising and get to back to building." Bloom now needs to expand its provider network and make discovery and matching reliable enough to bring hardware companies back for repeat work.