(Reuters) – British electric vehicle startup Arrival said on Wednesday it has raised $118 million from U.S. funds manager BlackRock Inc <BLK.N>.
Five-year-old Arrival is focused on development of electric commercial vehicles, including vans and buses. It previously had raised $111 million from Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co <005380.KS> and sister company Kia Motors Corp <000270.KS>, as well as an undisclosed amount from United Parcel Service <UPS.N>.
Before the latest funding round, Arrival was valued at $3.3 billion by investor website PitchBook.
Arrival has an order for 10,000 electric delivery vans from UPS, with an option for another 10,000.
It is positioned as a potential rival to U.S. startup Rivian, which is backed by Ford Motor <F.N> and Amazon <AMZN.O>, among others, and is building 100,000 electric delivery vans for Amazon.
BlackRock also is backing Rivian.
(Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
