When Justin Kosmides co-founded Bloom in 2023, his goal was to create a lifeline for the mobility industry. He had watched countless e-bike and e-scooter companies collapse because they were unable—or unwilling—to outsource their hardest problems, such as logistics, manufacturing, and supply chain development. His vision was to persuade survivors and newcomers alike to let Bloom handle that work for them.
Then Donald Trump won re-election and began aggressively imposing tariffs on dozens of countries, partly to revitalize U.S. manufacturing. This supercharged a hardware scene that was already heating up domestically, and suddenly it wasn't just mobility companies looking to strengthen their domestic supply chains. Robotics startups, drone-makers, and many others began to emerge.
That shift created an opportunity for Detroit-based Bloom, but seizing it required a partial reinvention. Instead of performing some of those harder, behind-the-scenes tasks—a core part of the original plan—Bloom pivoted to a pure marketplace model, connecting buyers and sellers. It now focuses on building supply chain AI agents that customers use to find specific types of suppliers, parts, or manufacturing and engineering services.
The reinvention slowed Bloom's fundraising plans. But the company has now facilitated over 2,000 matches for more than 140 companies, and it aims to grow faster. In an interview earlier this year, Kosmides, Bloom's CEO, described his startup as an AI-driven version of what Alibaba did in China, where it created a marketplace for contract manufacturers.
Investors are finally buying in. On Wednesday, Bloom announced a $3.6 million seed round led by SNAK Venture Partners, a marketplace-focused investment firm. Also participating were Flyover Capital (an early-stage investor focused on flyover states) and deep tech firm Mana Ventures. Local backers included Detroit Venture Partners, Invest Detroit Ventures, and the Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund.
Kosmides, sounding relieved, said in the interview that he's "excited to be done with fundraising and get back to building."
No, then yes
SNAK first met with Bloom in April of last year, in the early stages of this reinvention. So early, in fact, that the firm passed on the chance to invest in the startup's pre-seed round.
"We liked the founder and the thesis and passed anyway: we wanted to see more traction," the firm wrote in a blog post. "We said so plainly and kept tracking the company."
Bloom kept in touch with SNAK as it worked through becoming a more software-focused startup. By May of this year, Bloom had made as much revenue in five months as it did in all of 2025. SNAK also said the number of memberships on its platform had grown fivefold "with low churn," meaning few customers were canceling.
"This is meant to reiterate that for us, a pass on pre-seed is not always a pass forever. We are fortunate to have a super focused thesis that allows us to track a small set of interesting early stage companies and build a relationship over time," the firm wrote.
Kosmides said the fundraising scene has been a bit ruthless for startups like Bloom. Proving your value to investors in a world where the leading AI models keep improving can be an uphill battle.
"To find investors to actually write a term sheet, not follow one, is getting harder and harder," he said. "That's just this new era that we're in, with everyone trying to figure out where the value is and how to capture it."