Rivian spinoff Also raises $200M with DoorDash autonomous delivery deal
What's the deal? Also, an electric micromobility startup spun out of Rivian in 2025, has raised $200 million in a Series C round led by Greenoaks Capital, with DoorDash also participating.
The raise values Also above $1 billion and brings total funding to $505 million. Alongside the investment, Also and DoorDash have struck a multiyear partnership to develop autonomous last-mile delivery vehicles. DoorDash co-founder and head of its research lab, Stanley TangDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, will join Also's board as an observer.
Also was incubated inside Rivian starting in 2022 as an internal R&D project, before spinning out in March 2025 with $105 million from Rivian and venture firm Eclipse.
The Palo Alto, California-based startup's first product is a high-end consumer e-bike, the TM-B, which has completed manufacturing validation and is expected to reach early customers in late spring 2026. It also makes a four-wheeled, pedal-assist cargo vehicle capable of carrying more than 400 pounds of packages while fitting in a bike lane — a format Amazon has already ordered in the thousands.
Why now? The autonomous delivery race is intensifying. DoorDash already operates its own sidewalk robot, Dot, and has partnerships with Serve RoboticsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Coco Robotics, and Alphabet's WingDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → drone unit.
Also's small electric vehicle platform — with software-controlled speed and torque and no mechanical drivetrain — is well suited to autonomous adaptation. Strip out the pedals and what remains is a lightweight, low-speed electric platform ready for self-driving software.
The partnership gives DoorDash a hardware partner purpose-built for bike lanes and urban environments, which remain largely unsolved territory for autonomous systems.
What could go wrong? Autonomous last-mile delivery has proven far harder to scale than early optimism suggested — bike lanes, curbs, and unpredictable pedestrian behaviour remain genuinely difficult for computers to navigate. Also is simultaneously launching a consumer e-bike, scaling cargo vehicle production for Amazon, and developing autonomous delivery hardware for DoorDash — significant parallel execution risk for a startup less than two years old.
It is also unclear who will supply the autonomy technology: Rivian, DoorDash, or a third party.
The signal: The last mile of delivery — the short, expensive, labour-intensive leg from a local depot to a front door — is logistics' most stubborn unsolved problem. Also's dual play, consumer e-bikes and commercial autonomous delivery platforms built on the same underlying technology, reflects a bet that a single lightweight electric vehicle architecture can serve both markets. DoorDash's strategic investment and board seat signal it sees Also as a long-term hardware partner, not just an experiment. As labour costs rise and delivery volumes grow, the economics of autonomous last-mile delivery are only becoming more compelling.
Sources:
TechCrunch
The Tech Buzz
Transport Topics
Electric Vehicles
Bloomberg
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Also
J.V.
