Joby Aviation, a California-based company developing all-electric aircraft for aerial ridesharing, has announced that Joby Aero has completed its previously announced business combination with Reinvent Technology Partners, a special purpose acquisition company that takes a ‘venture capital at scale’ approach to partnering with leaders and companies. Upon the completion of the transaction, RTP has changed its name to Joby Aviation, Inc. Joby's common stock and warrants will commence trading on the NYSE under the ticker symbols JOBY and JOBY WS, respectively.

“Aviation connects the world in critically important ways but today it does that at the expense of our planet,” says JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO at Joby. “By taking Joby public we have the opportunity to drive a renaissance in aviation, making emissions-free flight a part of everyday life. This is our generation's moonshot moment, and at Joby we're proud to be leaning in.”

Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder and co-lead director of RTP, adds: “With its advanced technology, we believe Joby is 'Tesla meets Uber in the air' and the clear leader in the eVTOL and aerial ridesharing space. We believe Joby is well-positioned with capital to be the first company to certification and commercialisation. Closing this business combination accelerates Joby's roadmap, and we look forward to supporting JoeBen and Joby's world-class team in executing on their vision.”

This transaction values Joby at $4.5 billion enterprise value, with proceeds raised plus cash on the balance sheet as of March 31, 2021 equaling approximately $1.6 billion. The proceeds are expected to fund Joby through initial commercial operations.