IPO-pedia | Amazon-backed EV maker Rivian prices its IPO above top of range

Electric vehicle start-up Rivian Automotive plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq on November 10th. The company aims to trade under the ticker symbol “RIVN.”

Rivian had previously raised its expected price range to between $72 and $74, up from an initial range of $57 to $62. It priced its IPO on Tuesday at $78 a share above top of range.

According to Bloomberg, Rivian expects the IPO to bring in $11.9 billion. The $11.9 billion haul is the biggest first-time share sale this year as well as the sixth-largest ever on a U.S. exchange.

Based on the share count, Rivian is being valued at about $76.4 billion on a fully diluted basis that accounts for stock options.

Rivian, founded in 2009, design, develop, and manufacture category-defining electric vehicles (“EVs”) and accessories.

Rivian launched its R1T, a two-row, five-seat pickup truck, in September. It plans to launch an SUV, the R1S, in December. Wider sales of the truck and the SUV are expected to begin in December and January.

The pickup truck starts at $67,500 for a basic trim and can go 314 miles between charges. Rivian said it had 48,390 R1T and R1S preorders in the U.S. and Canada as of September.

Rivan also builds an electric delivery van for Amazon, referred to as the EDV, at the plant and has an contract to delivery 100,000 of them to the retail giant by 2025.

Like Tesla, Rivian is selling its vehicles directly to consumers, skipping dealership networks, and asking for a refundable deposit when people configure their vehicle on its website.

Rivian beat Tesla, GM and Ford to the market with an electric pickup, the R1T, which has received glowing early reviews.

Amazon and Ford Motor are among Rivian’s backers. The EV maker has raised $10.5 billion since 2019 after several investment rounds, with the latest a $2.5 billion funding round in July, led by Amazon.com’s Climate Pledge Fund, Ford, and T. Rowe Price funds, among others.

Amazon and Ford each own more than 5% of the company. Peter Krawiec, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide corporate and business development, sits on Rivian’s board.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Rivian has never made money, and doesn’t expect to turn a profit in the “foreseeable future” as it invests in its business.

Rivian lost $426 million in 2019, and went on to lose $1 billion last year. For the first six months of this year, Rivian lost $994 million.In 2020 the company’s net loss came to $1.02 billion.