RJ Scaringe has raised more than $12 billion across three startups, and investors are still asking for more

Investors can’t get enough of RJ Scaringe or his ideas.

In less than a decade, the serial entrepreneur, best known for his electric car company Rivian, has raised more than $12.3 billion from venture capital firms as well as strategic and institutional investors for his three — and growing — startups. If the latest $400 million raise for his new venture Mind Robotics is any indication, investors are still happily piling in.

Outsized raises for fledgling startups have become more common in recent years. But those hundred million-plus seed rounds have typically been reserved for buzzy defense startups or AI companies founded by ex-OpenAI or Anthropic employees.

Those supersized seeds certainly didn’t target something as niche as an electric micromobility startup. Yet in 2025, Scaringe raised $105 million for just that—a startup called Also, which he founded that year. Since then, the total has topped $300 million, with DoorDash among the backers.

Jiten Behl, partner at Eclipse and former Chief Growth Officer at Rivian, has spent years watching and learning from Scaringe. His firm is now one of Scaringe’s biggest backers, leading rounds in both Also and Mind Robotics, Scaringe’s industrial AI and robotics startup, which he also founded last year.

Storytelling and communication are one of his superpowers, according to Bell, who joined Rivian when the company had just a handful of employees.

« When RJ is explaining a particular problem, topic, opportunity, vision, he just has this very unique ability to communicate it so effectively and it feels so credible, » Bell said. « He doesn’t try to understate the difficulties or exaggerate the possibilities, and that’s a whole art. »

Scaringe isn’t the only serial entrepreneur to repeatedly raise massive amounts of capital, but founders who can raise billions through multiple ventures remain a rarity. A self-proclaimed car enthusiast with a PhD in mechanical engineering from MIT, Scarringe joins a small team 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 Block) and Twitter.

The difference, at least according to some investors TechCrunch spoke with, is that he can separate selling the idea from selling himself. « He’s very comfortable and confident in his own persona and he’s not trying to be Elon, » Bell said, noting that many have tried to make the comparison over the years.

« It’s not about him, » another insider familiar with Scaringe’s companies told TechCrunch. « When you talk to him, he has an enthusiasm about the product that is completely external. »

Sure, there’s confidence and even a little ego, the same source reasoned, but « it doesn’t weigh you down. » The source also added that Scaringe has the unique ability to make you feel like the most special person in the room, a sentiment others echoed.

Giving that kind of undivided attention to an investor, supplier or manufacturer executive is a challenge on the scale Scaringe is attempting. He runs three companies, commuting frequently 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 sons from his ex-wife.

Joe Fath, another Eclipse partner, credits his open-mindedness and collaborative nature with helping him attract investment and manage these related but different businesses.

He noted that Scaringe also « has the rare combination of being a really great engineer while also having an exceptional instinct for product design, » said Fath, who previously worked for Rivian’s major backer, T. Rowe Price. « Very few founders can operate at this level technically while also understanding what resonates emotionally with customers – both consumers and trade buyers. This combination is incredibly unusual 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 has been particularly remarkable and doesn’t appear to be slowing down.

More than $11 billion and by far the largest share of venture capital and strategic capital has flowed into Rivian — most of it between 2018 and its blockbuster IPO in 2021. That’s a staggering timeline, especially considering the company, originally called Mainstream Motors, has been around since 2009. For years, Rivian operated as a small, unknown entity until its late 2018 breakout in Los Angeles Auto Show when it unveiled prototypes of its all-electric R1T truck and R1S SUV.

Money soon flowed in from all directions. In early 2019, and just a few months after that revelation, Rivian raised $700 million in funding led by Amazon. US automaker Ford will invest $500 million and make plans to collaborate on a then-abandoned future EV program. Cox Automotive contributed $350 million. Rivian will end the year with a $1.3 billion round — its fourth of 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 rumblings of an IPO grow louder, Rivian closed another $2.5 billion private equity 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 collected nearly $12 billion in gross revenue after hitting $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 decline that also reflects broader struggles in the electric vehicle sector.

The ability to raise so much capital despite these headwinds is extraordinary. But Scaringe didn’t stop with Rivian. If anything, the pace has quickened. Additionally, Mind Robotics has collectively raised more than $1.3 billion so far, with Mind Robotics growing particularly fast: $115 million in its first year, $500 million in March, and another $400 million just this week.

Rivian also continues to attract notable backers through high-profile deals such as its $5.8 billion joint venture with Volkswagen Group and a robotics partnership worth up to $1.25 billion with Uber.

« Now the big question is how much can he do? » Bell said. « It’s a question (that) already suggests he’s reaching his limit. The thing is, he doesn’t look at it that way. His perspective is that there’s tremendous value to be created, there’s tremendous impact to be created, and I just have to do it. »