Rivian plans to sell a portion of its $60 billion IPO directly to SoFi users

• Rivian plans to give retail investors the same access to its IPO that it gives to Wall Street.
• The electric vehicle startup plans to sell a portion of its IPO directly to SoFi users.
• That means retail investors that secure an allocation to the offering will pay the IPO price rather than the often higher price when it starts trading.

Rivian plans to sell a portion of its IPO directly to retail investors via SoFi's online brokerage platform, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The move adds to the growing trend of fintech companies attempting to level the playing field for retail investors by giving them the same access to IPO shares that institutional investors on Wall Street have. Most recently, Robinhood offered a portion of its IPO shares directly to users of its platforms.

"We currently anticipate that up to 0.5% of the shares of Class A common stock offered hereby will, at our request, be offered to retail investors through SoFi Securities LLC via its online brokerage platform. SoFi will be a selling group member," Rivian said in its SEC filing.

Rivian plans to sell 135 million Class A shares in its IPO, meaning 675,000 shares will be allocated to SoFi users.

Retail investors on SoFi's investment platform will be able to purchase a set amount of shares of Rivian stock at its IPO price, rather than after it begins trading.

That can lead to big gains for them if the IPO is well received by Wall Street and the stock price soars. But it's not a sure thing, as IPOs can also underwhelm and trade lower than their initial price on their first day of trades, like Robinhood did earlier this year.

Rivian is gearing up to go public later this month at a valuation of more than $60 billion, making the electric vehicle company more valuable than Honda.

The company is just beginning to make the first deliveries of its electric pick-up truck, which has received favorable reviews and is considered a serious competitor to Tesla's upcoming Cybertruck.