British electric vehicle startup Arrival secures $13.6bn valuation in New York
British electric van and bus startup Arrival secured $13.6bn (£9.87bn) valuation upon its listing in New York yesterday, despite being yet to begin production.
The firm, which is yet to turn a profit, went public on Nasdaq yesterday, raising around $660m in gross proceeds to ramp up the delivery of its electric vehicles and expand its network of factories.
It is expecting to begin trialling its vans with customers this summer, and will launch bus trials with UK transport operator First in the four quarter of this year.
Arrival is also planning to begin production of its buses in the fourth quarter, with its van product set to follow in the second half of next year.
The firm is the latest to go public through a special purpose acquisition company (Spac). The “blank cheque” funds list their shares on a stock exchange before acquiring a company and launching it straight onto the market.
Arrival, which has more than 1,800 employees based in the US, UK and Germany, secured the highest ever valuation for a British company making its debut on the New York Stock Exchange, according to the Times.
It is planning to use the proceeds from the listing to expand its network of “microfactories”, with the first set to be built in Bicester and two in the US in Rock Hill, South Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Denis Sverdlov, founder and chief executive of Arrival said: “Going public is an opportunity that will allow us to continue to scale globally, bringing these products to more and more cities and people.”