Proterra

EV buses/batteriesUSA

New to Unitard

💀 Dead / Bankrupt

Peak $4 BillionToday

~-95%

from peak

🦄
Became a unicorn
2018
📈
Peak valuation
$4 Billion ’21
💔
Became a Unitard
Aug 2023
💸
Last valuation
Wiped out

Capital raised

$1.34B

Total raised

$192K/day

Raised per day

Total raised averaged per day over approximately 19.1 years from founding to bankruptcy or shutdown. This is not measured cash burn. Methodology

Funding: Washington Post / Canary Media

Current status

Chapter 11 (Aug 2023); battery unit to Volvo

The rise & fall

7 moments · 2004–2024

The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.

2004

Founded in Golden, Colorado

Dale Hill starts building battery-electric transit buses long before the EV wave.

Wikipedia

2018

Joins the unicorn club

A Daimler-backed round makes the e-bus maker a unicorn.

TechCrunch

2021

The peak: ~$4B on the SPAC wave$4B

Lists on Nasdaq via ArcLight as electrified transit becomes national policy — President Biden even tours the factory, virtually.

Fortune

2022–23

Losing money on every bus

Manufacturing difficulties and supply snags keep the transit-bus line unprofitable while cash dwindles.

Canary Media

2021–23

From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2021–23

Glassdoor reviews located the trouble on the factory floor: employees described chronic parts shortages throttling production and a bus line that never turned a profit — then, after the IPO, waves of layoffs including deep engineering cuts, stock options gone worthless, and leadership that changed direction several times a year.

Aug 2023

Chapter 11 — joins the Unitard Club 💔

Files for bankruptcy with the stock down roughly 95% from peak.

Fortune

2024

Battery unit sold to Volvo

Volvo wins the bankruptcy auction for the Proterra Powered battery business for about $210M.

Canary Media

$3.8Bof peak value erased · 19 years

💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.

How it happened

Proterra was a maker of electric transit buses and EV battery systems, valued at ~$4B when it went public via SPAC in 2021. Manufacturing difficulties and cash constraints undermined its bus business, and it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2023; its battery unit was subsequently acquired by Volvo, with the stock down roughly 95% from peak.

After the IPO they recounted waves of layoffs — including deep engineering cuts — worthless stock options, and leadership that changed direction several times a year.

Source: Fortune/Canary Media