UK’s EV unicorn Arrival bags €279.3M from Westwood Capital; to cut down on cash burn | Silicon Canals

Image credit: Arrival

London-based Arrival, an electric van and bus startup, announced on Monday, March 13, that it has secured $300M (approximately €279.38M) in an equity financing line from Westwood Capital.

The company also announced an Extraordinary General Meeting of shareholders to vote on a number of resolutions, including a reverse stock split and capital reduction.

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Igor Torgov, CEO of Arrival, says, “I have come into the business as CEO at a critical time. Arrival has developed innovative technologies and know-how which position us strongly to address the considerable EV market opportunity.”

“We have now taken important steps to help us take advantage of this opportunity, including raising additional capital as well as placing a sharper focus on the key US market and driving significant efficiency improvements.”

“Looking forward, we will continue developing and validating our vehicles this year. We are also progressing with encouraging conversations with potential partners and investors to effect the next stage of the business plan – bringing Vans into production in Charlotte in late 2024,” adds Torgov.

Arrival: Everything you need to know

Founded in 2015 by Denis Sverdlov, Arrival is a technology company that develops a generation two electric vehicles (EVs). It develops software, materials, components, and scalable skateboard platforms and micro-factories that allow them to make vehicles and adapt to any mobility ecosystem.

The company’s new method uses Low CapEx, scalable micro-factories combined with in-house developed components, materials, and software, that enables the production of vehicles competitively priced to fossil fuel variants and with a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

Arrival has offices across the US, Germany, the Netherlands, Israel, Russia, and Luxembourg, and is a joint stock company governed by Luxembourg law.

What’s next for Arrival?

Arrival has made clear decisions to cut down on its workforce and revenue burn over the past few months.

The company is also focused on its US product strategy, prioritising the start of production of a purpose-built Class 4 XL Delivery Van in the Charlotte factory in late 2024, pending a capital injection this year to fund the programme.

Recently, Arrival claims to have achieved organisational savings that will extend its current cash resources into late 2023. Additionally, the company secured pledges for up to $350M in new capital and a deal to lower net debt by $121.9M.

Arrival’s key plans are:

• Reducing the investment amount needed to support the business this year by lowering its present, planned cash spend to no more than $35M/quarter
• Completing a 50 per cent decrease in its worldwide workforce in the first quarter to reduce the number of employees to less than 800 by the end of March 2023
• Building 10 Vans in the Bicester micro-factory to help its autonomous mobile robots and automated factory processes work together. By the end of 2023, these vehicles will also have travelled 250,000 kilometres on public roads to validate Arrival’s technical designs and parts.
• Improving the XL Van created especially for the US market. This product attracts higher average selling prices, margins, and tax credits than the L Van, and it will need a specialised capital increase to pay for manufacturing in the Charlotte plant. The goal is to start manufacturing in Charlotte by the end of 2024.