Rivian, the company that is poised to be the first electric vehicle manufacturer to launch an electric pickup truck, has confidentially filed for an IPO, reportedly seeking an $80Bn valuation before having shipped a single truck. Backed by the likes of Amazon and Ford, Rivian poses a real threat to other electric vehicle manufacturers (looking at you Elon), and thus, this bizarre valuation might just justified in the eyes of investors.
The EV maker is looking to take the traditional IPO route. This is a little unexpected, as recent years have been dominated by SPAC led IPOs, which allow companies to bypass the gargantuan amount of paper work involved in a normal public listing.
This announcement does not come as a surprise, as a report by Bloomberg back in February had claimed that Rivian might seek to file for an IPO by September.
The company has massive interest from the investment world already, having raised almost $10Bn over its lifetime. With the IPO (which is scheduled for some time near the end of the year), Rivian, an already well funded company, will be adding more capital to its name, as it grows closer and closer to finally launching its much awaited product.
Amazon, which is one of the biggest backers of the EV manufacturer to be, has already ordered hundred of thousands of its vehicles, to add to its own delivery fleet. The e-commerce giant already owns up to 10% of the company.
However, not everyone feels the same way about this new announcement. Elon Musk, the biggest name in the electric vehicle market and chief competitor of Rivian (with the Cybertruck) expressed his disregard for this news, tweeting:
Don’t want to be unreasonable, but maybe they should be required to deliver at least one vehicle per billion dollars of valuation *before* the IPO?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 28, 2021
Nonetheless, as Rivian goes closer and closer to not just the IPO but also the launch of its vehicles, tremors are bound to ripple in the electric vehicle market, which has been dominated by Tesla for a long time now.
