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Today, auto industry stalwart announced a partnership with , an electric vehicle company headquartered in the greater Detroit, MI metro area. As part of the deal, Ford is making a $500 million equity investment in Rivian. The 鈥渃ompanies have agreed to work together to develop an all-new, next-generation battery electric vehicle for Ford鈥檚 growing EV portfolio using Rivian鈥檚 skateboard platform,鈥� according to posted to Ford鈥檚 website.

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Rivian has already designed two vehicles of its own, which the company plans to roll off assembly lines in 2020. It鈥檚 R1T all-electric pickup truck will feature a 400-mile range and can reach 60 miles per hour from a standing stop in three seconds. Its R1S SUV features similar specifications. That鈥檚 because they share the same underlying infrastructure, called a 鈥渟kateboard鈥� chassis, which unifies energy storage and the electric vehicle drivetrain in a platform which looks kind of like a skateboard.1

The cash infusion brings Rivian鈥檚 raised to $1.2 billion. In February, Crunchbase News reported on a $700 million equity round raised by the company; led that deal. Prior to the deal with Amazon, though, Rivian had from Standard Chartered Bank in May 2018. Crunchbase data of other, much smaller, debt financing events stretching back to 2011. Rivian Automotive was founded in 2009.

The half-billion dollar rounds hits a few trends head-on. First, the growth in corporate venture activity that Crunchbase News has tracked for some time (more here, here, and here). And it lands in the middle of the automotive revolution that is being fought by upstarts like Nio, middle-age players like Tesla, and incumbents like Ford.

You can鈥檛 turn on the game in 2019 without seeing ads for electric cars that lack a Tesla badge. No automaker wants to get left behind. So expect more of this sort of action in the future.

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