BlackRock (BLK) Investing $118 Million In Electric Vehicle Company Arrival

By Annie Baker ● Oct 14, 2020
  • Fund management giant BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) has invested $118 million in British electric vehicle company Arrival

Fund management giant BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) has invested $118 million in British electric vehicle company Arrival. Arrival — which launched five years ago — specifically focuses on commercial vehicles such as vans and buses.

At the beginning of the year, Arrival had announced that it raised €100 million in the form of strategic investment from Hyundai and Kia Motors. That round of funding was reportedly at a €3 billion valuation. Arrival also received an investment from UPS and it received an order for 10,000 Generation 2 electric vehicles from the logistics giant.

This week, Arrival said it is going to be building a small-scale “microfactory” in South Carolina for building as many as 1,000 battery-powered buses every year. Arrival will be investing $46 million to set up its first U.S. production facility in Rock Hill, South Carolina and it will employ about 240 people after the facility opens later next year, according to Forbes.

Arrival was founded in London in 2015 by Denis Sverdlov. Prior to launching Arrival, Sverdlov founded a company called Yota (4G network company in Russia) and sold it for $1.5 billion in 2012 to MegaFon.