Ford Backed Rivian IPO Nets $11.9 Billion For Startup, Beating Estimates

November 10, 2021 7:11 am

Back in February, Ford Authority reported that Ford-backed EV automaker Rivian was aiming to go public as soon as September with a valuation of $50 billion. Then, in May, the company announced that it was eyeing a $70 billion dollar valuation for its initial public offering (IPO). That number jumped up to $80 billion in August but was scaled back to its original expected value of $50 billion earlier this month before jumping back up to $65 billion earlier this week. Now, the wait and speculation are finally over, as the Rivian IPO has helped the upstart company raise a whopping $11.9 billion, according to Bloomberg.

That is enough to make the Rivian IPO the biggest of the year so far and the sixth-largest in U.S. history, giving it a fully diluted valuation of $76.4 billion. Rivian sold a total of 153 million shares at $78 each, which was higher than the most recent estimate of $72-$74 and its original target of $57-$62. It’s a truly meteoric rise after the company was valued at around $27.6 billion back in January following a $2.65 billion funding round.

Of the 153 million shares sold, Rivian plans to allocate around 7 percent to eligible U.S.-based customers who pre-ordered a vehicle before September 30^th, while 0.4 percent will go to SoFi Securities LLC’s online brokerage platform in an effort to attract retail investors.

Prior to its IPO, Rivian had already raised $10.5 billion through multiple fundraising rounds, with financial backing from Amazon, Ford, and a number of other established companies. Ford has invested in the company multiple times, including an initial investment of $500 million back in 2019 and an additional $902 million in Q1 of this year, giving it a five percent stake.

The company recently began production of its first vehicle – the R1T – and has been investing heavily in ramping up production after receiving 55,400 pre-orders for the pickup and the R1S SUV, as well as an initial order of 100,000 delivery vans by Amazon.

Rivian’s IPO filings revealed that the automaker lost $994 million in the first half of 2021 – up from $377 million a year ago – which it attributed to costs associated with ramping up production. However, the company was able to record revenue over a three-month period that ended in September.

We’ll have more on Rivian’s IPO very soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for more Rivian news and ongoing Ford news coverage.

By Brett Foote

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.