Investors can’t seem to get enough of RJ Scaringe or his ideas.
In less than a decade, the serial entrepreneur best known for his electric vehicle company, Rivian, has raised more than $12.3 billion from venture capital firms, as well as strategic and institutional investors for his three (and counting) startups. yes the last Increase of 400 million dollars For his new company Mind Robotics is one indicator, investors are still happily jumping in.
Outsized raises for startups have become more common in recent years. But those hundred million-plus seed rounds have typically been reserved for defense tech startups or AI companies founded by former OpenAI or Anthropic employees.
Those big seeds certainly didn’t flow toward something as specific as an electric micromobility startup. And yet, in 2025, Scaringe raised $105 million for exactly that: a startup called Alsowhich he founded that same year. Since then, the total has exceeded $300 millionwith DoorDash among its sponsors.
Jiten Behl, a partner at Eclipse and former chief growth officer at Rivian, has spent years watching and learning from Scaringe. His company is now one of Scaringe’s largest backers, leading rounds in both Also and Mind Robotics, Scaringe’s industrial AI and robotics startup that he also founded last year.
Storytelling and communication are one of his superpowers, according to Behl, who joined Rivian when the company had just a handful of employees.
“When RJ explains a certain topic, opportunity or vision, he has this unique ability to communicate it so effectively and make it seem very believable,” Behl said. “You don’t try to underestimate the difficulty or exaggerate the opportunity, and that’s an art.”
Scaringe isn’t the only serial entrepreneur to repeatedly attract huge amounts of capital, but founders who can raise billions across multiple companies remain rare. Scaringe, a self-proclaimed enthusiast who earned his PhD in mechanical engineering at MIT, joins a small group of entrepreneurs that includes Tesla CEO and SpaceX co-founder Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anduril and Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, and Jack Dorsey, who founded Square (now called Block) and Twitter.
The difference, at least in the opinion of some investors TechCrunch spoke to, is that he can separate selling the idea from selling himself. “He’s very comfortable and confident in his own personality, and he’s not trying to be an Elon,” Behl said, noting that many have tried to make the comparison over the years.
“It’s not about him,” another source familiar with Scaringe’s companies told TechCrunch. “When you talk to him, he shows a completely outward enthusiasm for the product.”
Of course, there is trust and even a little ego, the same source reflected, but “it doesn’t weigh on you.” The source also added that Scaringe also has a unique ability to make you feel like the most special person in the room, a sentiment that others echoed.
Giving that kind of undivided attention to an investor, supplier or manufacturer executive is a challenge on the scale Scaringe attempts. He runs three companies, and often travels between Palo Alto, Irvine, Rivian’s factory in Normal, Illinois, and a second factory soon to open in Georgia. And then there’s family: Scaringe has three children with his ex-wife.
Joe Fath, another partner at Eclipse, credits his open-mindedness and collaborative nature with helping him attract investment and juggle these connected, yet disparate, businesses.
He noted that Scaringe also “has the rare combination of being a great engineer and at the same time having an exceptional instinct for product design,” said Fath, who previously worked at T.Rowe Price, a major Rivian backer. “Very few founders can operate at that level technically and at the same time understand what resonates emotionally with customers, both consumers and business buyers. That combination is incredibly rare and has clearly been part of what makes Rivian’s products, and now Also and Mind’s, so differentiated.”
Scaringe’s fundraising pace over the past eight years is particularly notable and does not appear to be slowing down.
More than $11 billion, and by far the largest portion of venture capital and strategic capital, went to Rivian; most of it between 2018 and its successful initial public offering (IPO) in 2021. It’s a surprising timeline, especially considering that the company, initially called Mainstream Motors, had been around since 2009. For years, Rivian operated as a small, unknown entity until its breaking moment in late 2018 at the Los Angeles Auto Show, when it revealed prototypes of its all-electric R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV.
Money soon flowed in and from all directions. In early 2019 and just a couple of months after that revelation, Rivian raised a $700 million funding round. led by Amazon. American automaker Ford would invest $500 million and make plans to collaborate on a future electric vehicle program that has already been scrapped. Cox Automotive contributed $350 million. Rivian would close the year with a $1.3 billion round – the fourth in 2019 – led by funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, with additional participation from Amazon, Ford and funds managed by BlackRock.
In July 2020, Rivian raised $2.5 billion and another $2.65 billion six months later. As rumors of an IPO grew louder, Rivian closed another $2.5 billion private funding round led by Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, D1 Capital Partners, Ford Motor, and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. Third Point, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Dragoneer Investment Group, and Coatue also participated.
Then came the IPO. Rivian raised nearly $12 billion in gross profits after locking in $78 per share. Its market capitalization reached $100 billion when it debuted on the Nasdaq in November 2021. Today, it stands at $18.2 billion, a significant drop that also reflects the broader struggles of the electric vehicle sector.
The ability to raise that amount of capital, despite those obstacles, is exceptional. But Scaringe didn’t stop with Rivian. If anything, the pace has accelerated. Also and Mind Robotics have together raised more than $1.3 billion so far, with Mind Robotics moving especially fast: $115 million in its first year. $500 million in March, and another $400 million this week alone.
Rivian also continues to land notable backers through high-profile deals such as the $5.8 billion joint venture with the Volkswagen Group and a robotaxi association valued at up to $1.25 billion with Uber.
“Now the big question is: How much can he do?” Behl said. “That’s a question that already assumes he’s reaching his limit. The thing is, he doesn’t see it that way. His perspective is that there’s enormous value to create, enormous impact to create, and I just have to do it.”
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