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A celebrity Fisker investor: Leonardo DiCaprio

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 16:10:37 +0000

Electric car company Fisker Automotive has a lot of investors — it’s raised a billion dollars in total. And turns out one of those investors is actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

Fisker says in a statement today that Leonardo DiCaprio is “an equity investor,” and he will also work with Fisker on marketing and promotion.

Fisker could use the help — the company has had its fair share of hurdles over the previous months and years. Though, a couple months ago, Fisker was able to close another $130 million in funding, and showed off its second car the Atlantic (formerly called Project Nina).

Fisker raised that money because the funds it was planning to use to build the Atlantic were going to come from the Department of Energy loan program, but the DOE stopped Fisker from drawing the remainder of those funds because Fisker didn’t meet the milestones for the loan.

As of May, Fisker says it had delivered 1,000 of its first car the Karma to customers in US and Europe, and that revenues for the first four months of 2012, “had exceeded $100 million.”

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Electric car maker Fisker valued at $2.2B?

Katie Fehrenbacher — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:48:59 +0000

Electric car maker Fisker Automotive has been sending around a picture of celebrity Leonardo DiCaprio driving the first Fisker Karma extended-range electric car; I first saw it on TMZ. But much more quietly, the company is in the process of raising yet another $200 million, according to Dan Primack at Fortune , and Primack says the round is being raised at a valuation of $2.2 billion.

The valuation seems somewhat reasonable given Tesla has a market cap of $2.5 billion. However, Tesla has produced and sold over 1,500 Roadster electric cars, has brick and mortar stores and is close to producing its second car: the electric sedan, the Model S. Primack says the $2.2 billion valuation is up from a valuation of $1.5 billion for its last round.

Fisker raised $100 million earlier this year, on top of the $1 billion in equity, loans and grants it has already raised. So if the company closes that $200 million, it will have raised about $1.3 billion in equity, loans and grants. Primack says the round is being marketed as a “pre-IPO” round, so Fisker will then be raising even more on the public market (if the IPO window opens back up).

Primack says Advanced Equities is Fisker’s largest shareholder with 14.61 percent, and Kleiner Perkins holds 12.61 percent. Kleiner Partner Ray Lane explained to me in an interview in July that one of his reasons for investing in Fisker was to “get the valuation high enough so you don’t get crushed on dilution.” He told me during that interview that he thought Fisker had the potential to be valued at something like Zynga, which recently was valued around $11 billion.

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Image courtesy of Fisker and Getty.

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Hollywood Encourages Voter Registration With… Sarcasm?

Liz Shannon Miller — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:13:33 +0000

This political cycle has seen an incredibly innovative use of online video, but they can’t all be winners. The latest Get Out the Vote initiative is a viral video produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company Appian Way and literally jam-packed with famous faces. But even though at least 10 Academy Awards have been won by those participating — well, most of them were won by Dustin Hoffman — the ad is still a major misfire.

What’s wrong here? Where do I start?

Tonally, it’s incredibly smug. I mean, sarcasm from Hollywood celebrities? Really? That seemed like a good idea? REALLY? I mean, for five minutes? REALLY? (This sarcasm is intentional, for the record.)
~~Seth Rogan~~ Jonah Hill and Sarah Silverman are the only ones who are actually funny.
Tobey Maguire looks like he’s moments away from crying.
Benicio Del Toro looks like the War on Drugs is being waged inside his liver at that very second.
The smugness quotient gets ramped up to a new plane of patronizing when we spend about thirty seconds being reminded that you have to register in order to vote. Leave us alone, Laura Linney! Leonardo DiCaprio just got done bugging us about this! God!
Oh, by the way, Leonardo DiCaprio does not have a watch (or a cell phone). Because HE IS TOO IMPORTANT TO KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS.
So if I send this to five of my friends, and they each send it to five of their friends, and then they send it to five of their friends… Oh, so THAT’S how viral video works? Thanks famous people!
And then the video’s stunning conclusion: Dustin Hoffman hits on Julie the 2nd AD while the crew laughs. To be fair, Julie is wearing a halter top on a film set. But still.

I feel passionately that voting is an important thing to do — it gives the average citizen a voice, and serves as a helpful reminder that we are all complicit in our government’s actions. So, my humble suggestion: send this link to your unregistered American friends. Not this video.

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