Infinite Machine raised a16z-led $9M to sell Americans a $10,000 design-first scooter

Infinite Machine designs premium electric scooters in New York, outsourcing components and manufacturing overseas.

$9M seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz's American Dynamism team (October 2024)

Joseph Cohen, who spent a decade running the no-code website startup Universe, founded Infinite Machine with his brother Eddie and revealed the metallic, cyberpunk-styled P1 in 2023, turning heads with a look no scooter on the US market had.

The category was a graveyard: Revel had abandoned its NYC scooter business for a Tesla ride-hail fleet, Gogoro avoided the US entirely, and even Piaggio's electric Vespa had failed to make an impact. Cohen called Infinite Machine 'not a consensus bet' and argued the failures were free learnings — 'we get to hire their best people, and we get to build and use all their infrastructure that already exists.' Andreessen Horowitz's American Dynamism team, better known for defense bets like Anduril and Skydio, led the $9M seed with Adjacent and Necessary Ventures; general partner David Ulevitch cited 'futuristic urban transit' with 'form, function and sustainability.'

The bet is design, not technology: Cohen's pitch is product sensibility missing from 'these plastic things that look like printers.'

It inverts the failed Bird and VanMoof playbook — no subsidy racing, no owned factories, direct sales with hand delivery at tiny initial volumes.

a16z's American Dynamism leading a consumer vehicle deal signals its American-hard-tech thesis stretching beyond defense into everyday transit.

Attacking a graveyard category can work if you import the lessons free: premium pricing first, outsourced manufacturing, and a renamed form factor.

As of October 29, 2024, Infinite Machine was prepping production and initial deliveries of the $10,000 launch-edition P1 for 2025, deciding later whether to bring manufacturing in-house at its 13,000-square-foot headquarters across the river from Manhattan.