Rivian, the electric vehicle startup backed by Amazon, raised another $ 2.65 billion, reinforcing its position as one of the best-funded EV startups in the world.
The investment round was led by T. Rowe Price and included Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Fidelity Management and Research Company and the investment companies Coatue and D1 Capital Partners, along with “several other existing and new investors,” according with the startup.
The new money comes just six months after Rivian raised $ 2.5 billion and about a year after raising $ 1.3 billion. It has raised more than $ 8 billion to date.
It is difficult to say exactly how much Rivian has in the bank, since he has already spent a lot to hire a huge team and also develop at least three vehicles that we know. But after this new round of financing, the EV startup’s war chest is likely to rival that of China’s Nio, which also has billions of dollars in the bank after a series of recent increases. (A direct comparison here is difficult, however, as some Chinese startups like Nio have received government support.)
That money will be crucial as Rivian prepares to launch its first two electric vehicles later this year, the R1T pickup and the R1S SUV. Rivian is also working with Amazon to develop and deploy an electric delivery van, which was recently seen in the wild.
What is remarkable about Rivian’s ability to continue to raise huge sums of money is that the startup is doing this while keeping the company private. There was an incredible wave of new financing for the electric vehicle space last year, inspired in large part by Tesla. But much of this came through the so-called SPAC mergers (acquisitions for special purposes), in which publicly traded investment funds, but mostly inactive, absorbed companies like Canoo and Fisker.
Rivian is also supported by BlackRock, Soros Fund Management LLC and Ford, although the Detroit automaker was not named in the previous two rounds of financing. Rivian is working on an electric vehicle with Ford’s luxury brand, Lincoln, although a partnership with an SUV was already filed last year.