Traders can’t appear to get sufficient of RJ Scaringe or his concepts.
In lower than a decade, the serial entrepreneur finest recognized for his EV firm Rivian has raised greater than $12.3 billion from enterprise capital companies, in addition to from strategic and institutional buyers for his three — and counting — startups. If the newest $400 million raise for his new enterprise Thoughts Robotics is an indicator, buyers are nonetheless fortunately piling in.
Outsized raises for newly minted startups have grow to be extra widespread in recent times. However these hundred-million-plus seed rounds have usually been reserved for buzzy protection tech startups or AI firms based by former OpenAI or Anthropic staff.
These supersized seeds actually 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 Also, which he based that very same yr. The full has since surpassed $300 million, with DoorDash amongst its backers.
Jiten Behl, companion at Eclipse and former chief progress officer at Rivian, has spent years watching and studying from Scaringe. His agency is now one among Scaringe’s greatest backers, main rounds in each Additionally and Thoughts Robotics — Scaringe’s industrial AI and robotics startup that he additionally based final yr.
Storytelling and communication are one among his superpowers, in accordance to Behl, who joined Rivian when the firm had only a handful of staff.
“When RJ explains a sure challenge, matter, alternative, imaginative and prescient, he simply has this very distinctive means to talk it so successfully, and it comes throughout so credible,” Behl mentioned. “He’s not attempting to undersell the issue or oversell the alternative, and that’s an artwork.”
Scaringe is not the solely serial entrepreneur to repeatedly appeal to large quantities of capital, however founders who can elevate billions throughout a number of ventures stay uncommon. A self-professed automotive fanatic who earned his doctorate in mechanical engineering from MIT, Scaringe joins a small cadre of entrepreneurs that features 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 distinction, at the very least in the view of some buyers TechCrunch spoke to, is that he is ready to separate promoting the thought from promoting himself. “He is very comfy and assured in his personal persona, and he is not attempting to be an Elon,” Behl mentioned, noting that many have tried to make the comparability over the years.
“It is not about him,” one other insider acquainted with Scaringe’s firms informed TechCrunch. “While you speak to him, he has enthusiasm about the product that is fully external.”
In fact, there is confidence and even a little bit ego, the similar supply mused, however “it would not weigh on you.” The supply additionally added that Scaringe has a novel means to make you are feeling like the most particular individual in the room — a sentiment others echoed.
Giving that type of undivided consideration to an investor, provider, or exec at a producer is a problem at the scale Scaringe is trying. He is working three firms, usually touring between Palo Alto, Irvine, Rivian’s manufacturing facility in Regular, Illinois, and a second manufacturing facility quickly to open in Georgia. After which there is household — Scaringe has three sons along with his ex-wife.
Joe Fath, one other companion at Eclipse, credit his open-mindedness and collaborative nature for serving to him appeal to funding and juggle these linked, but disparate companies.
He famous that Scaringe additionally “has the uncommon mixture of being a very nice engineer whereas additionally having an distinctive intuition for product design,” mentioned Fath, who beforehand labored at a significant Rivian backer, T. Rowe Value. “Only a few founders can function at that degree technically whereas additionally understanding what resonates emotionally with prospects — each shoppers and industrial consumers. That mixture is extremely unusual and has clearly been a part of what makes Rivian’s merchandise, and now Additionally and Thoughts’s, so differentiated.”
The tempo of Scaringe’s fundraising over the previous eight years is notably notable and would not appear to be slowing.
Greater than $11 billion, and by far the largest slice of VC and strategic capital, went into Rivian — most of it between 2018 and its blockbuster IPO in 2021. That is a startling timeline, particularly contemplating the firm, initially referred to as Mainstream Motors, had existed since 2009. For years, Rivian operated as a small, unknown entity till its breakout moment in late 2018 at the Los Angeles Auto Present, when it revealed prototypes of its all-electric R1T truck and R1S SUV.
The cash quickly flowed, and from each path. In early 2019 and simply a few months after that reveal, Rivian raised a $700 million funding spherical led by Amazon. U.S. automaker Ford would make investments $500 million and make plans to collaborate on a since-scrapped future EV program. Cox Automotive contributed $350 million. Rivian would shut out the yr with a $1.3 billion round — its fourth in 2019 — led by funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Value Associates, with further participation from Amazon, Ford, and funds managed by BlackRock.
In July 2020, Rivian raised $2.5 billion and one other $2.65 billion six months later. As whispers of an IPO obtained louder, Rivian closed one other $2.5 billion non-public funding spherical led by Amazon’s Local weather Pledge Fund, D1 Capital Companions, Ford Motor, and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Value Associates Inc. Third Level, Constancy Administration and Analysis Firm, Dragoneer Funding Group, and Coatue additionally participated.
Then the IPO got here. Rivian raised almost $12 billion in gross proceeds after locking in $78 per share. Its market cap hit $100 billion when it debuted on Nasdaq in November 2021. Right now, it stands at $18.2 billion, a big comedown that additionally displays the broader struggles of the EV sector.
The power to elevate that a lot capital, regardless of these headwinds, is distinctive. However Scaringe did not cease with Rivian. If something, the tempo has accelerated. Additionally and Thoughts Robotics have collectively raised greater than $1.3 billion thus far, with Thoughts Robotics shifting particularly quick: $115 million in its first yr, $500 million in March, and one other $400 million simply this week.
Rivian additionally continues to land notable backers by means of high-profile offers like the $5.8 billion three way partnership with Volkswagen Group and a robotaxi partnership valued at up to $1.25 billion with Uber.
“Now, the huge query is, how a lot can he do?” Behl mentioned. “That is a query [that] already assumes that he is reaching his restrict. The factor is, he would not take a look at it that manner. His perspective is that there is large worth to be created, there is large impression to be created, and I simply have to do it.”
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