An early Joby Aviation backer might soon be its biggest distributor in Saudi Arabia
Joby Aviation has reached a tentative deal with investor and Saudi Arabian conglomerate Abdul Latif Jameel (ALJ) to distribute up to 200 electric aircraft valued at about $1 billion over the coming years.
If finalized, the partnership could provide Joby with a fast path to monetizing its electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles in Saudi Arabia.
'A question that folks have asked is, how are you going to monetize, and how quickly is that going to happen?' Paul Sciarra, the executive chairman of Joby's board who's most known for co-founding Pinterest, told TechCrunch. 'And I think what this shows is that with direct sales, there is a way to get to scale earlier for lower cost by thinking about distributor partners in given geographies. And this is the first of what we hope are a number of announcements on that front.'
The two companies on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore a distribution agreement. And while an MoU is not exactly a signed and sealed deal, sources familiar with the agreement say they'll be able to share more concrete details later this year.
The deal would be among the first instances of an eVTOL startup landing a distributor partner for their aircraft. Joby also plans to own and operate its own aircraft in the U.S. and other markets, and partner with airlines and other carriers in countries like Japan.
Sciarra said ALJ is an ideal partner for a number of reasons, including the fact that the company's relationship with Toyota — which just closed the first $250 million tranche of its total $500 million investment into Joby — runs deep. ALJ became the exclusive distributor of Toyota in Saudi Arabia in 1955 and grew to be one of the world's largest independent Toyota and Lexus distributors. ALJ also participated in Joby's 2020 Toyota-led Series C funding round.
Beyond their mutual ties, Sciarra says ALJ has 'a lot of the infrastructure on the ground, not only for the sales process, but also for the support, pilot training, and maintenance.'
'That's all going to be critical to actually making sure that the sales are not just cut, but are successful over the long arc,' Sciarra told TechCrunch.
He noted that as an 80-year-old network of diversified businesses, ALJ is also close with the Saudi Arabian government and a number of potential customers, including restoration and tourism projects like the Red Sea Project and the AlUla Project.
Despite the promising partnership in Saudi Arabia, Joby's go-to-market strategy will still be to launch in Dubai next year, with a U.S. market to follow.
'What this shows is how we deepen the funnel beyond some of the initial markets,' Sciarra said. 'And this sort of structure, where we find the right local partner that can help us sell and support, is going to be a way that we get to geographies that may not be first on our list, but allow us to monetize them more quickly.'
Joby's deal with AFJ comes amid unprecedented levels of cooperation between the U.S. government and Saudi Arabia in the realms of AI, technology infrastructure, and energy. Last month, Saudi Arabian firm DataVolt agreed to invest $20 billion in AI data centers and energy infrastructure in the U.S., and American tech giants like Google, Oracle, Salesforce, AMD, and Uber have pledged $80 billion toward transformative technologies in both countries, according to the White House.
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