Rivian, an electric bakkie, is starting a new round of financing which, according to Bloomberg, will be valued at an impressive $ 25 billion.
Rivian is a fundraising machine
Since arriving on the scene in late 2018 with the unveiling of its R1T and R1S electric trucks, Rivian has managed to raise an impressive amount of money from major investors.
In February 2019, Rivian led a $ 700 million round led by Amazon, and Ford invested $ 500 million just two months later in launching the electric pickup.
The company also added Cox Automotive as an investor in September with a round of $ 350 million.
It ends its 2019 with a massive $ 1.3 billion round of funding in December.
In 2020, the company returned to the bank and managed to raise another $ 2.5 billion from existing investors and also T. Rowe Price, a major investor in Tesla.
That brought the amount Rivian raised to more than $ 5 billion in just two years.
Rivian worth $ 25 billion?
Now the company is apparently going back to the pit with a new round of financing that is about to close, according to a new report from Bloomberg:
“Several existing Rivian investors are taking part in the round, which will bring in several billion dollars, the people added, asking not to be identified because the case is private.”
Although the exact amount to be raised is not known, the report states that it would put the company’s valuation at around $ 25 billion, although it had not yet delivered a product.
In comparison, Ford, which is an early investor in Rivian, is valued at $ 33 billion.
Electrek’s Take: I would actually invest at that price
While $ 25 billion may sound expensive for a business that has yet to deliver a product, I think it can be a good price.
You have to take into account all the critical partners that Rivian has acquired, especially Amazon and the fact that the retail giant has placed a large order of 100,000 vehicles with the company.
Although we do not have the data, I am prepared to bet that Rivian’s R1T and R1S orders look good, and I would not be surprised if they are backordered in 2022.
Although they have already experienced delays and have not yet had to deliver a vehicle, I think they are in the best position to bring an electric bakkie into production this year.
The betting odds even reflected that when a betting website started betting on the race to deliver an electric pickup.
In a world where every EV company wants to make a SPAC deal to be public, Rivian seems happy to stick with venture capital and stay away until he delivers a product. I respect that.
However, I would not be surprised if they publish later this year or early in 2022 after the delivery of the R1T / R1S and the Amazon delivery agency.
By that time, Ford’s stake in Rivian could be strangely worth more than its own market capitalization.
FTC: We use revenue to earn automatically affiliate links. More.
Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.