TechCrunch Mobility: Rivian’s savior

Source: TechCrunch

Earnings Season Spotlight

Rivian (Q4 & Full‑Year 2025)

• Takeaway: Software — specifically Rivian’s technology joint venture with Volkswagen Group — was the company’s savior in 2025. It will also buoy the company into 2026 (another $2 billion is expected from VW Group) as Rivian launches its most important product to date: the lower‑cost R2 SUV.
  Read the full analysis → Rivian was saved by software in 2025

• Cost‑of‑Goods Progress:

  • Automotive COGS per unit delivered: $100,900 in 2025, down from $110,400 in 2024.
  • The figure is still high but trending downward, meaning Rivian is losing less on each vehicle it sells.

• R2 SUV Outlook:

  • Supposed to be considerably cheaper (both production cost and price) than the flagship R1T truck and R1S SUV.
  • Production slated for the first half of 2026 (rumored for June).
  • Rivian’s 2026 guidance: 62,000–67,000 vehicles delivered — up to a 59 % increase from 2025’s 42,247 units (R1 consumer vehicles + electric delivery van).

• Market Reaction: Rivian’s stock jumped 27 % the day after earnings were released.

TechCrunch Event

A Little Bird

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Over the past 18 months, I’ve noticed a divergence in how Uber and Lyft are approaching autonomous vehicles (AVs). Uber is locking up AV partnerships with every player it can, while Lyft is trailing behind. Turns out, I am not alone in this observation.

Insiders have shared their puzzlement about why Lyft hasn’t been more aggressive on this front. They noted that Lyft is sitting on about $1.8 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash, and recently announced a new $1 billion share‑repurchase program that represents about 15 % of its market cap, per CNBC. That has some wondering why Lyft did not invest in parts of the AV value chain like Uber is doing, opting instead to buy shares back.

Meanwhile, these little birds also pointed to a few top executives who have departed over the past year:

• Aurélien Nolf – former VP of Financial Planning & Analysis and Investor Relations, now CFO of Navan.
• Audrey Liu – former Executive VP and Head of Rider & Community Safety, now at Adobe.
• Ameena Gill – former VP of Safety & Customer Care, now at rival Uber.

Got a tip for us?

• Email Kirsten Korosec at or reach her on Signal at kkorosec.07.
• Email Sean O’Kane at .

Deals!

Image credit: Bryce Durbin

Close followers of the mobility‑crazed years between 2015 and 2019 might recall how many lidar companies popped up during that time. Many of the dominant and buzziest ones have since shuttered, while some of the smallest players have hung on and expanded.

Take Ouster, for instance. I remember a tiny booth in the jam‑packed startups area (Eureka Park) at CES. Today the company is much bigger—thanks to scale, its 2022 merger with rival Velodyne, and its 2021 acquisition of Sense Photonics. And it doesn’t appear to be finished.

The company most recently acquired Stereolabs, a maker of vision‑based perception systems for robotics and industrial applications, for a combination of $35 million and 1.8 million shares.

As TechCrunch senior reporter Sean O’Kane notes, the deal is the latest step in a march toward consolidation among perception‑sensor suppliers. (Just last month, MicroVision bought the lidar assets of the buzzy‑but‑now‑bankrupt Luminar for $33 million.)

Other deals that got my attention

• Ever – the EV‑only marketplace

  • Raised $31 million in a Series A round led by Eclipse.
  • Other backers: Ibex Investors, Lifeline Ventures, and JIMCO (the investment arm of the Saudi Arabian Jameel family, an early investor in Rivian).
  • Source: TechCrunch

• Natilus – a San Diego‑based startup developing blended‑wing aircraft

  • Raised $28 million in a Series A round led by Draper Associates.
  • Other investors: Type One Ventures, The Veteran Fund, Flexport, New Vista Capital, Soma Capital, Liquid 2 VC, **VU