Irvine-based Fisker Automotive Inc., designer of an upscale hybrid sports car, has raised $65 million in one of the largest venture funding rounds seen in the county.
Fisker raised the money from an arm of the Qatar Investment Authority, the state-run investment fund of the Arab emirate, as well as prior venture capital investors Palo Alto Investors and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
“We are extremely pleased to have closed our financing round at this time, particularly in light of the current market conditions,” said Chief Executive Henrik Fisker, a former Ford Motor Co. designer.
The money is set to be used for development of the Fisker Karma, a luxury sports car with a combination electric and gas engine developed by Irvine’s Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc.
Fisker expects to start production of the car in late 2009 and make about 15,000 of them a year.
The latest funding pushes Fisker’s total raised to at least $75 million. Terms of its prior funding rounds haven’t been disclosed. An investment by Kleiner Perkins in January was reported to be more than $10 million.
The company, originally known as Fisker Coachbuild LLC, got early funding from a local, undisclosed real estate moneyman and Damon Shelly, owner of Shelly Automotive Group in Irvine, which has five auto dealerships.
The latest round ranks among the largest ever for an Orange County company, equaling what some promising technology startups have raised in several rounds.
The biggest local funding in recent memory was last year’s $100 million financing of Irvine-based Specific Media Inc., an online advertising startup.
Henrik Fisker, who’s designed BMWs and Aston Martins, started Fisker Automotive with partner Bernhard Koehler in 2005.
They left jobs at Ford Motor Co. to start the company.
Last year, Fisker and Quantum Fuel Systems formed Fisker Automotive, a joint venture using Quantum’s drive train technology and Fisker’s design.
