Rivian, which operated in stealth mode for nearly a decade, continues to quietly fly under the radar as one of the most intriguing startups in mobility.
The average American has never heard of them, and probably will never hear of them until they launch their first electric vehicles next year.
They’ve raised a ton of money since their founding in 2009, and they’ve made some recent news as a possible pawn in a (possibly non-existent?) competition between Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
Rivian also has an interesting relationship with Ford. Ford invested over half a billion dollars in Rivian, despite (because of?) Rivian targeting Ford’s profit-center, the pick-up truck.
Nonetheless, Ford is building its Mustang Mach E on its own platform, and recently canceled a Lincoln vehicle that was supposed to be built on Rivian’s “skateboard” platform.
If you want to learn a bit more about Rivian and listen to highly-energetic take on why first Ford and now Amazon should buy Rivian, check out this video from HyperChange last year.
David Silver 