Slate Auto Raises $650M for Budget Electric Truck

Slate Auto closed a $650 million Series C to advance production of its budget electric pickup truck, priced to start in the mid-$20,000s, with first deliveries targeted for later this year. The round was led by TWG Global, the vehicle for Mark Walter, Guggenheim Partners founder and Los Angeles Dodgers owner, and financier Thomas Tull. Slate did not disclose the full investor roster or a new valuation, though the company was last valued at $1.2 billion as of January 2025, suggesting the raise likely repriced that figure upward. The Jeff Bezos-backed startup spun out of Re:Build Manufacturing last year; both Walter and Tull were prior investors in that parent entity, indicating the round drew heavily on an existing network rather than new institutional capital. The affordable-EV segment has struggled with margin compression and production risk, so the mid-$20,000 price point will be the key operational test: whether Slate can maintain unit economics at that entry price while scaling from a standing start.