ALSO Raises $150M Series D to Scale Small-EV Platform

ALSO raised a $150M Series D led by Prysm Capital, with existing investors Eclipse and Greenoaks participating. Announced on August 19, 2026, the financing brings the Rivian-born electric-mobility company to $455M in cumulative disclosed funding.

The number is large for a company that became independent in 2025, but the investor thesis is larger than a premium e-bike. ALSO is building a vertically integrated technology platform for small electric vehicles that move people and goods, with consumer, commercial, and autonomous applications sharing the same underlying engineering.

That distinction matters because the last mile still uses too many car-sized tools for smaller-than-car jobs. ALSO is betting that automotive-style hardware and software integration can create a new transportation layer between conventional bicycles and full-size vehicles.

What Happened

Prysm Capital led the Series D after participating in ALSO's prior $200M Series C. Eclipse, which backed ALSO's original $105M spinout capitalization, and Greenoaks, which led the Series C, returned for the new round.

The round continues a fast capital build. ALSO launched from Rivian in March 2025 with $105M, then announced a $200M Series C in March 2026 led by Greenoaks with Prysm and DoorDash participating. TechCrunch reported that the Series C brought cumulative funding to $305M, so adding the new $150M produces a $455M disclosed total without double-counting earlier Greenoaks financing.

Fortune reported that the Series D values ALSO above $1B. The exact post-money valuation, security terms, and round-specific allocation of proceeds were not disclosed in the primary investor announcement, which means the clean story is capital and conviction, not financial detail that nobody outside the deal room can verify.

The Platform Behind the Round

ALSO started as a small-vehicle program inside Rivian in 2022 and became a standalone company in 2025. Its team develops motors, batteries, electronics, software, connected systems, and vehicle architecture in house, applying the vertical-integration model associated with modern EV companies to smaller form factors.

The first consumer proof point is the TM-B, a Class 3 e-bike starting at $3,500. ALSO's DreamRide system uses software-defined pedal-by-wire control rather than a direct mechanical connection between pedaling and propulsion, while modular top frames, removable batteries, navigation, security functions, and software updates make the product behave more like a connected EV platform than a conventional bicycle.

The TM-Q extends that architecture into a pedal-assist quad. Its commercial configuration is designed for dense delivery routes, where carrying capacity and curb access matter more than highway performance, while a consumer configuration shows how the same base can serve different jobs without forcing ALSO to reinvent every core system.

Why Amazon and DoorDash Matter

The strongest evidence for ALSO's platform thesis comes from commercial partners, not investor adjectives. Amazon agreed to purchase thousands of customized TM-Q cargo quads for delivery operations in the U.S. and Europe, and the vehicles can carry more than 400 pounds while fitting within a bike lane, according to TechCrunch's reporting on the program.

DoorDash added a strategic investment and a multi-year collaboration focused on autonomous delivery. Stanley Tang, DoorDash co-founder and head of DoorDash Labs, joined ALSO as a board observer, connecting the vehicle platform with a company that understands the operational mess of last-mile delivery in dense neighborhoods.

Those relationships do not guarantee scale, but they narrow the gap between a product concept and an operating market. Amazon provides a fleet customer for cargo vehicles, while DoorDash gives ALSO a partner with demand, delivery data, and a reason to make autonomy work in the road-adjacent spaces where vans are oversized and sidewalk robots can be constrained.

Leadership and the Rivian Connection

Chris Yu is ALSO's co-founder, CEO, and president. Before launching the company, he led future programs at Rivian and previously served as chief product and technology officer at Specialized Bicycle Components, a background that sits directly at the intersection of automotive development and bicycle product design.

RJ Scaringe serves as ALSO's chairman and is described in current reputable reporting as a co-founder, while continuing to lead Rivian. That connection gives ALSO more than origin-story polish because the companies have discussed shared technology, operating scale, retail presence, and fleet context, all of which can matter when a young hardware company moves from prototypes into customer service and production.

The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, with operations in Seattle and Taichung City, Taiwan. No current CTO was verified through authoritative sources, so the funding story should stay anchored to the leadership and roles that are publicly supportable rather than filling an org chart for cosmetic completeness.

What the $150M Signals

The Series D signals that growth investors are willing to keep financing a capital-intensive mobility thesis when it comes with reusable technology and credible commercial demand. Prysm, Eclipse, and Greenoaks are not backing a single bicycle model; they are backing the possibility that a common small-EV stack can support consumer rides, cargo fleets, and autonomous delivery systems.

That is also where the execution risk lives. Automotive-grade hardware costs money, a $3,500 starting price limits the initial consumer audience, manufacturing ramps punish small mistakes, and connected vehicles create service obligations long after the sale. Autonomy adds regulation, safety validation, and field operations to an already difficult hardware business.

Still, the market logic is hard to dismiss. E-commerce keeps adding pressure to the last mile, cities keep fighting congestion and curb scarcity, and moving every person or package in a full-size vehicle is economically clumsy. A vehicle that fits the trip can use less space and energy, but it must still meet the reliability, software, and service expectations that consumers and fleets learned from cars.

The Bigger Industry Shift

ALSO's Series D reflects a broader move away from treating micromobility as disposable hardware attached to a rental app. The next phase is increasingly about durable vehicles, integrated software, fleet economics, and specialized commercial use cases where smaller form factors solve a measurable operating problem.

ALSO has the capital, investor continuity, and early commercial partnerships to test that thesis at serious scale. The next evidence will not come from another funding headline; it will come from manufacturing quality, customer deliveries, fleet uptime, service performance, and whether the TM-Q can turn Amazon and DoorDash relationships into repeatable economics.

For now, the $150M Series D gives ALSO more runway to prove that small vehicles can support a large platform. The company has already answered the financing question, and the harder question now belongs to execution: can one vertically integrated stack make smaller-than-car transportation reliable enough for consumers, fleets, and autonomous delivery at the same time?