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 corporations, in addition to from strategic and institutional traders for his three — and counting — startups. If the newest $400 million increase for his new enterprise Thoughts Robotics is an indicator, traders are nonetheless fortunately piling in.
Outsized raises for newly minted startups have grow to be extra frequent lately. However these hundred-million-plus seed rounds have typically been reserved for buzzy protection tech startups or AI corporations based by former OpenAI or Anthropic staff.
These supersized seeds definitely 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 12 months. The whole has since surpassed $300 million, with DoorDash amongst its backers.
Jiten Behl, associate at Eclipse and former chief progress officer at Rivian, has spent years watching and studying from Scaringe. His agency is now considered one of Scaringe’s largest backers, main rounds in each Additionally and Thoughts Robotics — Scaringe’s industrial AI and robotics startup that he additionally based final 12 months.
Storytelling and communication are considered one of his superpowers, based on Behl, who joined Rivian when the corporate had only a handful of staff.
“When RJ explains a sure difficulty, subject, alternative, imaginative and prescient, he simply has this very distinctive means to speak it so successfully, and it comes throughout so credible,” Behl mentioned. “He’s not making an attempt to undersell the issue or oversell the chance, and that’s an artwork.”
Scaringe is not the one serial entrepreneur to repeatedly appeal to huge quantities of capital, however founders who can increase 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 within the view of some traders TechCrunch spoke to, is that he’s capable of separate promoting the thought from promoting himself. “He’s very snug and assured in his personal persona, and he is not making an attempt to be an Elon,” Behl mentioned, noting that many have tried to make the comparability over time.
“It isn’t about him,” one other insider acquainted with Scaringe’s corporations informed TechCrunch. “Once you speak to him, he has enthusiasm in regards to the product that’s utterly exterior.”
In fact, there’s confidence and even somewhat ego, the identical supply mused, however “it does not weigh on you.” The supply additionally added that Scaringe has a singular means to make you are feeling like essentially the most particular particular person within the room — a sentiment others echoed.
Giving that type of undivided consideration to an investor, provider, or exec at a producer is a problem on the scale Scaringe is making an attempt. He’s working three corporations, usually touring between Palo Alto, Irvine, Rivian’s manufacturing unit in Regular, Illinois, and a second manufacturing unit quickly to open in Georgia. After which there’s household — Scaringe has three sons along with his ex-wife.
Joe Fath, one other associate 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 really nice engineer whereas additionally having an distinctive intuition for product design,” mentioned Fath, who beforehand labored at a serious Rivian backer, T. Rowe Value. “Only a few founders can function at that stage technically whereas additionally understanding what resonates emotionally with clients — each shoppers and business 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 especially notable and does not appear to be slowing.
Greater than $11 billion, and by far the biggest 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 corporate, initially referred to as Mainstream Motors, had existed since 2009. For years, Rivian operated as a small, unknown entity till its breakout second in late 2018 on 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 course. 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 12 months with a $1.3 billion spherical — its fourth in 2019 — led by funds and accounts suggested by T. Rowe Value Associates, with extra 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 acquired louder, Rivian closed one other $2.5 billion personal funding spherical led by Amazon’s Local weather Pledge Fund, D1 Capital Companions, Ford Motor, and funds and accounts suggested 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. At present, it stands at $18.2 billion, a major comedown that additionally displays the broader struggles of the EV sector.
The power to boost that a lot capital, regardless of these headwinds, is phenomenal. 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 to this point, with Thoughts Robotics shifting particularly quick: $115 million in its first 12 months, $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 just like the $5.8 billion three way partnership with Volkswagen Group 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 mentioned. “That is a query [that] already assumes that he is reaching his restrict. The factor is, he does not have a look at it that approach. His perspective is that there’s large worth to be created, there’s large impression to be created, and I simply must do it.”
Once you buy by means of hyperlinks in our articles, we might earn a small fee. This doesn’t have an effect on our editorial independence.
