Rivian Announces $1.3 billion Funding Round
Electric vehicle startup Rivian Rivian has closed an investment round of $1.3 billion, with the financing to be led by funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.
Amazon, Ford Motor Company and funds managed by BlackRock also participated in the round.
“This investment demonstrates confidence in our team, products, technology and strategy – we are extremely excited to have the support from such strong shareholders,” said Rivian Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe.
The investment announcement is Rivian’s fourth of 2019. In February, Rivian announced a $700 million funding round led by Amazon. In April, Rivian announced that Ford Motor Company invested $500 million and that the companies would collaborate on a vehicle project utilizing Rivian’s skateboard platform. In September, Cox Automotive announced its $350 million investment in Rivian, complemented by plans to collaborate on logistics and service. In addition to these investments, in late September, Rivian announced it was collaborating with Amazon on the development of an electric delivery van utilizing Rivian’s platform technology and that 100,000 of these vans had been ordered with deliveries starting in 2021.
Starting with a clean sheet, Rivian has developed its vehicles with adventurers at the core of every design and engineering decision. The company’s launch products, the R1T and R1S, deliver up to 400+ miles of range and provide a combination of performance, off-road capability and utility. These vehicles use the company’s flexible skateboard platform and will be produced at Rivian’s manufacturing plant in Normal, Ill., with customer deliveries expected to begin at the end of 2020.
While Tesla is the best-known maker of electric vehicles, China and Europe are pushing automakers to roll out EVs, and Ford, General Motors and others have announced plans to spend billions of dollars developing the vehicles.
Amazon, which has relationships and deals across the auto industry, ordered 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from Rivian. The first Amazon vans will be built at a former Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Illinois, starting in 2021.
Ford invested $500 million in Rivian in April and plans to help it begin production in Normal in 2020.