The American automotive technology startup Rivian has put $1.3 billion in new funding, the company announced. 

More About The Latest Funding 

The latest investment is the fourth round of capital declared by the company in 2019 alone, following previous announcements of $700 million led by Amazon, $500 million from Ford (which involves collaboration on electrical vehicle technology), and $350 million from Cox Automotive.

That is a lot of money, but Rivian’s not your normal startup, as it is trying to deliver fully-electric vehicles to market, adding the R1T pickup truck plus the R1S sport utility vehicle. 

Both of these are customer cars, which the company intends to bring to market commencing at the end of next year.

Furthermore, Rivian is additionally working with Amazon on all-electric delivery vans, of which the commerce giant has bought 100,000, with the purpose of beginning deliveries of the first of those in 2021.

Rivian’s latest monster round involves participation from Amazon and Ford Motor Company, along with supplies advised by T. Rowe Price Associates and BlackRock, the company stated in an announcement. 

It is not including any extra board seats connected to this funding, and it is not giving any further details on the particular funds involved in the investment at this time.

Adventure vehicles by Rivian | iTMunch

The Story of Rivian 

The company, established in 2009, has R&D types of equipment in several cities globally and further has a 2.6-million-square-foot manufacturing plant in Normal, Ill. 

It debuted last November its pickup and SUV at the LA Auto Show, and the vehicles will start with higher-end trim levels first, including up to 410 miles of the area on one single charge. 

Base charges for the R1T pickup begin at $69,000 before any tax credits are employed, while the R1S SUV starts at $72,500; Rivian has been accepting pre-order bookings, possible with a $1,000 deposit.

For a company that, in various ways, has shown to appear out of nowhere, Rivian’s capitalization and businesses make it one of the more significant existing contenders to take on Tesla, particularly in the truck and SUV categories.

This is true, even though Tesla has a more limited presence, with just the high-end Model X genuinely available to buy so far.

SEE ALSOCoral allocates $4.3M to create an at-home manicure machine

For more updates and the latest tech news, keep reading iTMunch.