Rivian, an electric vehicle startup backed by Amazon.com and Ford Motor that aims to put an electric pickup and SUV in production this year, announced a $2.65-billion investment round led by T. Rowe Price.
Rivian, one of the rivals of Tesla, has raised $8 billion since the start of 2019. The California company’s new valuation with this latest investment is $27.6 billion.
“This is a critical year for us as we are launching the R1T (pickup), the R1S (SUV) and the Amazon commercial delivery vehicles,” Rivian Chief Executive Officer R.J. Scaringe said in a statement.
Rivian has said deliveries of pickups would start in June, while those of SUVs would begin in August. Launch editions of the vehicles are priced at $75,000 and $77,500, respectively, with a 300-mile (480 km) driving range for both.
Amazon ordered 100,000 electric vans from Rivian. The first Amazon vehicles go into production at Rivian’s factory in Normal, Illinois in late 2021, with all deliveries to be completed by 2024.
Tuesday’s funding round also includes Fidelity Management and Research Company, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Coatue and D1 Capital Partners. Several other existing and new investors will also participate.
Rowe Price led a $2.5 billion funding round into Rivian last July.
Other previous investors in Rivian include Soros Fund Management, BlackRock and Saudi auto distributor Abdul Latif Jameel (ALJ).
