Rivian, an Amazon-backed electric car startup, has filed for an IPO, weeks ahead of its scheduled delivery of the first pick-up trucks to consumers.
Rivian, an electric car company funded by Amazon, has filed for an IPO just weeks before it hopes to deliver its first electric pickup trucks to consumers.
According to reports, the business, which was created in 2009 and is considered as a serious competitor to Tesla and has Ford as a major supporter, is seeking a valuation of more than $70 billion (£50 billion).
Rivian would not comment on the figure or specify when the company might be listed. The offering is led by Goldman Sachs.
Rivian has raised more than $10 billion in funding from investors like Amazon, Ford, T Rowe Price, and others, including a $2.5 billion investment led by Amazon in July and a $2.65 billion round in January, valued at $27.6 billion.
Delays in shipping
Rivian plans to begin shipping its first pickups in September, with an SUV following soon after. Rivian is building its vehicles in a former Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Illinois.
The epidemic and other circumstances have regularly delayed supplies, according to creator R.J. Scaringe, who admitted this in a letter to consumers last month.
“The pandemic has had an impact on everything from facility construction to equipment installation to vehicle component supply (especially semiconductors),” he added.
The company is also building 100,000 specialized delivery trucks for Amazon, the first of which will be added to the company's fleet this year and at least 10,000 of which will be on the road by the end of 2022.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his crew traveled to the launchpad in a Rivian car when their Blue Origin rocket launched last month.
Expansion
Rivian announced in July that it plans to develop a second plant in the United States, as well as a site in Europe.
An engineering branch in Woking, UK, handles "advanced concepts, body, and lighting," according to the company's website.
Rivian's $70 billion valuations would be higher than Ford's, making it one of the world's most valuable automakers.
It would, however, pale in comparison to Tesla, the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer, which is valued at around $700 billion.
Despite never having produced a vehicle, Lucid Motors, which recently went public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), is valued at over $34 billion, half the market value of General Motors.
Focus on the off-road
Rivian is seen as a strong contender in the burgeoning electric vehicle industry since, unlike Tesla, it focuses on “adventure” vehicles like trucks and SUVs that are designed to be driven off paved roads.
According to Dealogic, more than two dozen companies that make electric vehicles, batteries, and chargers have gone public or plan to go public through SPAC mergers.
However, the more rigorous process of a traditional IPO would allow Rivian and its existing investors to retain more control and ownership than a typical SPAC deal, in which the SPAC takes a significant portion of the company's ownership in exchange for expediting the company's listing on a stock exchange.
