New reports from Bloomberg suggest that electric vehicles startup, Rivian is considering an IPO later this year to be publicly traded. The IPO is set at a valuation of about $50 billion.
As we have seen in recent weeks, several electric vehicle companies have started going public through reverse merger SPAC deals. Some companies that have made or announced plans for a SPAC deal recently are Fisker, Arrival, Lion Electric, Lordstown Motors, Proterra, and Faraday Future.
With the accelerated adoption of electric mobility seemingly speeding up by the day, Tesla was able to achieve records numbers through the tumultuous year that was 2020. Other EV companies recognized the rising trend in electric mobility in the stock market and decided to try and raise a substantial amount of money themselves. Although critism has fallen on some deals with companies that have little to no promise as far as revenue and production, it ultimately has been beneficial for the EV sector in raising additional funds towards the switch towards electrification.
One of the few electric vehicle startups that clearly needs no help when it comes to raising money is Rivian. The California-based automaker aquirred a $700 million Amazon-led round of funding in February 2019. Shortly after Ford jumped on board and invested $500 million into the EV startup. Following Ford’s investment, Rivian close a $350 million funding round adding Cox Automotive as an investor and closed 2019 out with a massive $1.3 billion round of funding.
2020 was no different for the automaker as it managed to raise another $2.5 billion from Tesla Invested T. Rowe Price Associates, along with its growing list of existing investors. It appears that this year will be no different as last month Rivian closed another massive funding round valued around $2.6 billion.
Now, new reports from Bloomberg suggest that Rivian is skipping the SPAC bandwagon and considering an IPO as early as September, at a valuation of about $50 billion: “Rivian Automotive Inc., the electric-vehicle startup backed by Amazon.com Inc. and Ford Motor Co., is looking to go public as soon as September at a valuation of about $50 billion and perhaps more, according to people familiar with the matter.”