Buyers can’t appear to get sufficient of RJ Scaringe or his concepts.
In lower than a decade, the serial entrepreneur best possible identified for his EV corporate Rivian, has raised greater than $12.3 billion from project capital corporations, in addition to strategic and institutional buyers for his 3 — and counting — startups. If the newest $400 million elevate for his new project Thoughts Robotics is a trademark, buyers are nonetheless fortunately piling in.
Oversized raises for newly minted startups have grow to be extra not unusual in recent times. However the ones hundred-million-plus seed rounds have in most cases been reserved for buzzy protection tech startups or AI corporations based by means of former OpenAI or Anthropic staff.
The ones supersized seeds surely weren’t flowing towards one thing as area of interest as an electrical micromobility startup. And but in 2025, Scaringe raised $105 million for precisely that — a startup referred to as Additionally, which he based that very same yr. The overall has since surpassed $300 million, with DoorDash amongst its backers.
Jiten Behl, spouse at Eclipse and previous leader expansion officer at Rivian, has spent years gazing and studying from Scaringe. His company is now one in every of Scaringe’s greatest backers, main rounds in each Additionally and Thoughts Robotics — Scaringe’s business AI and robotics startup that he additionally based final yr.
Storytelling and conversation are one in every of his superpowers, in step with Behl, who joined Rivian when the corporate had only a handful of staff.
“When RJ explains a definite factor, matter, alternative, imaginative and prescient, he simply has this very distinctive skill to be in contact it so successfully, and it comes throughout so credible,” Behl stated. “He’s no longer seeking to undersell the trouble or oversell the chance, and that’s an artwork.”
Scaringe is not the one serial entrepreneur to again and again draw in huge quantities of capital, however founders who can elevate billions throughout a couple of ventures stay uncommon. A self-professed automotive fanatic who earned his doctorate in mechanical engineering from MIT, Scaringe joins a small cadre of marketers that incorporates Tesla CEO and SpaceX co-founder Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anduril and Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, and Jack Dorsey, who based Sq. (now referred to as Block) and Twitter.
The adaptation, a minimum of within the view of a few buyers TechCrunch spoke to, is that he is in a position to separate promoting the theory from promoting himself. “He’s very at ease and assured in his personal persona, and he isn’t seeking to be an Elon,” Behl stated, noting that many have attempted to make the comparability through the years.
“It isn’t about him,” every other insider acquainted with Scaringe’s corporations advised TechCrunch. “Whilst you communicate to him, he has enthusiasm concerning the product this is totally exterior.”
After all, there’s self assurance or even a little bit ego, the similar supply mused, however “it does not weigh on you.” The supply additionally added that Scaringe additionally has a singular skill to make you are feeling like probably the most particular individual within the room — a sentiment others echoed.
Giving that roughly undivided consideration to an investor, provider, or exec at a producer is a problem on the scale Scaringe is making an attempt. He’s operating 3 corporations, regularly touring between Palo Alto, Irvine, Rivian’s manufacturing unit in Commonplace, Illinois, and a 2nd manufacturing unit quickly to open in Georgia. After which there’s circle of relatives — Scaringe has 3 sons along with his ex-wife.
Joe Fath, every other spouse at Eclipse, credit his open-mindedness and collaborative nature for serving to him draw in funding and juggle those attached, but disparate companies.
He famous that Scaringe additionally “has the uncommon aggregate of being a in reality nice engineer whilst additionally having an outstanding intuition for product design,” stated Fath, who up to now labored at a big Rivian backer T.Rowe Worth. “Only a few founders can function at that degree technically whilst additionally figuring out what resonates emotionally with shoppers — each customers and industrial consumers. That aggregate is amazingly unusual and has obviously been a part of what makes Rivian’s merchandise, and now Additionally and Thoughts’s, so differentiated.”
The tempo of Scaringe’s fundraising during the last 8 years is especially notable, and does not appear to be slowing.
Greater than $11 billion, and by means of a ways the most important slice of VC and strategic capital, went into Rivian — maximum of it between 2018 and its blockbuster IPO in 2021. That is a startling timeline particularly taking into consideration the corporate, first of all referred to as Mainstream Motors, had existed since 2009. For years, Rivian operated as a small, unknown entity till its breakout second in overdue 2018 on the Los Angeles Auto Display, when it printed prototypes of its all-electric R1T truck and R1S SUV.
The cash quickly flowed, and from each route. In early 2019 and simply a few months after that expose, Rivian raised a $700 million investment spherical led by means of Amazon. U.S. automaker Ford would make investments $500 million and make plans to collaborate on a since-scrapped long term EV program. Cox Car contributed $350 million. Rivian would shut out the yr with a $1.3 billion spherical — its fourth in 2019 — led by means of price range and accounts urged by means of T. Rowe Worth Pals, with further participation from Amazon, Ford, and price range controlled by means of BlackRock.
In July 2020, Rivian raised $2.5 billion and every other $2.65 billion six months later. As whispers of an IPO were given louder, Rivian closed every other $2.5 billion non-public investment spherical led by means of Amazon’s Local weather Pledge Fund, D1 Capital Companions, Ford Motor and price range and accounts urged by means of T. Rowe Worth Pals Inc. 3rd Level, Constancy Control and Analysis Corporate, Dragoneer Funding Crew and Coatue additionally participated.
Then the IPO got here. Rivian raised just about $12 billion in gross proceeds after locking in $78 in line with proportion. Its marketplace cap hit $100 billion when it debuted on Nasdaq in November 2021. Nowadays, it stands at $18.2 billion lately, an important comedown that still displays the wider struggles of the EV sector.
The facility to lift that a lot capital, in spite of the ones headwinds, is outstanding. However Scaringe did not prevent with Rivian. If the rest, the tempo has speeded up. Additionally and Thoughts Robotics have in combination raised greater than $1.3 billion up to now, with Thoughts Robotics shifting particularly speedy: $115 million in its first yr, $500 million in March, and every other $400 million simply this week.
Rivian additionally continues to land notable backers thru high-profile offers just like the $5.8 billion three way partnership with Volkswagen Crew and a robotaxi partnership valued at as much as $1.25 billion with Uber.
“Now, the large query is, how a lot can he do?” Behl stated. “That is a query [that] already assumes that he is achieving his prohibit. The article is, he does not take a look at it that approach. His standpoint is that there’s large price to be created, there’s large affect to be created, and I simply need to do it.”
Whilst you acquire thru hyperlinks in our articles, we would possibly earn a small fee. This doesn’t have an effect on our editorial independence.
