Carvana has an option to invest in Slate Auto, the electric vehicle startup backed by Jeff Bezos, according to documents obtained by TechCrunch.
Paperwork filed with Delaware’s division of corporations shows the online used car retailer received a warrant to buy shares of the startup in 2025 — around the same time Slate Auto was starting to raise its $650 million Series C funding round.
It is unclear whether Carvana has exercised that warrant or how many shares it is allowed to buy. Carvana declined to comment, and Slate Auto did not respond to requests for comment on the deal.
The deal with Carvana comes as the retailer looks for ways to expand into new car sales, according to Wall Street Journal. The company has reportedly purchased a number of Stellantis dealerships across the United States. Asked about new car sales on a recent earnings call, CEO Ernie Garcia III told analysts to “stay tuned.”
Slate Auto is also weeks away from announcing final pricing and taking the first non-refundable pre-orders for its low-cost EV, which is expected to start in the mid-$20,000s. Slate said it will deliver its first vehicles by the end of this year.
Similar to Tesla and other all-electric car companies like Rivian, Slate says on its website that it “will not have brick-and-mortar dealerships.” The company has said it will sell vehicles directly to customers, but hasn’t offered many details about how it plans to handle the logistics of the car-buying experience. Selling through Carvana’s brick-and-mortar dealerships could help alleviate some of those logistics headaches while also raising the startup’s profile.
Slate has commented on its investors since coming out of stealth last year, shortly after TechCrunch first revealed that Bezos and Guggenheim Partners CEO Mark Walter were backing the company. Slate revealed in April that Walter’s company TWG Global led its Series C round, making the entrepreneur one of the startup’s largest shareholders.
Walter also owns a significant stake in Carvana. He owns 8% of the company’s Class B common stock and 1% of the total voting power. Only Garcia III and his father, Ernie Garcia II, have more control.
It’s possible that Carvana has already disclosed some details about Slate’s connection to investors without naming the startup.
In March, Carvana revealed in a regulatory filing that it had received a warrant to buy shares of a “privately held consumer products company” in June 2025. Carvana did not name the company, but said the total value of the warrant was $1.5 million at the end of 2025 and that it “vests in installments through 2029 based on mutually defined performance targets.” Carvana noted that Walter has “a material ownership interest in the issuer of the warrants.”
Carvana did not say whether this was a reference to Slate or another company in Walter’s portfolio.
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