Electric car startups raise $5bn to come to market
Electric car startups Rivian and Cruise have raised nearly $5bn (€3.8bn) to scale up for commercial production.
Electric pick up truck maker Rivian, which has a design centre in the UK, has raised $2.65bn (€2.18bn) in a fundraising round that brings the total investment to $8bn and values the company at $27bn. It plans to launch its first vehicle later this year,
At the same time, Cruise, now part of car maker General Motors (GM), has raised $2bn (€1.65) to commercialise its driverless electric car technology, bringing the valuation of the division to $30bn. As part of the deal, which also includes Honda, GM will also use Microsoft’s Azure cloud technology for its connected cars and autonomous driving systems.
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“Microsoft will help us accelerate the commercialization of Cruise’s all-electric, self-driving vehicles and help GM realize even more benefits from cloud computing as we launch 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025 and create new businesses and services to drive growth,” said Mary Barra, chairman and CEO of GM.
The Rivian financing was led by previous lead investor with funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates and included Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund as well as Fidelity Management and Research Company, Coatue and D1 Capital Partners as well as several other existing and new investors.
“This is a critical year for us as we are launching the R1T, the R1S and the Amazon commercial delivery vehicles. The support and confidence of our investors enables us to remain focused on these launches while simultaneously scaling our business for our next stage of growth,” said RJ Scaringe, CEO and founder of Rivian.
“We have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of 2021, and with it, the exhilaration of Rivian starting to deliver its revolutionary products to customers,” said Joe Fath, T. Rowe Price portfolio manager.
www.rivian.com; www.getcruise.com
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