EV startup Rivian raises another $2.5b from T. Rowe Price

EV company Rivian has raised $2.5bn through investment firm T Rowe Price and is set to build 100,000 electric delivery vehicles for Amazon in 2021, with plans to launch an SUV and pickup truck. Investors in the start-up’s latest funding round included Amazon, Baron Capital, BlackRock, Fidelity Management and Research and Soros Fund Management. Ford has already invested $500m in Rivian and announced joint EV developments, and Amazon invested $700m at the beginning of 2019. Rivian’s factory is a former Mitsubishi facility in Illinois.

Associated Press

Electric vehicle startup Rivian says it has raised another $2.5 billion in funding from accounts advised by investment firm T. Rowe Price.

The company has a contract with Amazon to build 100,000 electric delivery vans starting next year at its factory, a former Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Illinois. Rivian also is rolling out a pickup truck and an SUV for sale to consumers next year.

The company said Friday that investors in this round include Soros Fund Management, Coatue, Fidelity Management and Research, and Baron Capital Group. Amazon and hedge fund BlackRock have invested previously and also are part of this round, Rivian said.

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The new investment won't bring any more seats to the Rivian board, the company said.

In April of 2019, Ford invested a half-billion dollars into Rivian and said the companies would work jointly to develop electric vehicles. That deal was in addition to a $700 million investment from Amazon that was announced in February of 2019.

Most of Rivian's operations are in San Jose and Irvine, California, but it also has a large engineering and administrative office near Detroit. The company employs about 2,300 people.