Dan Gilbert, the founder of Quicken Loans, and Manoj Bhargava, the founder of 5-Hour Energy, are among two billionaires from Michigan that have joined Giving Pledge. Giving Pledge is an organization created by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to redistribute their wealth to charity.
Drake, the Canadian rapper signed by Li’l Wayne, is very active on Twitter. In one of his most recent tweets, he wrote “The first million is the hardest.” Multibillionaire oil executive T. Boone Pickens follows Drake on Twitter and decided it was a fitting time to respond by saying “The first billion is a helluva lot harder RT @Drake: The first million is the hardest.” Yup, you just saw it. Drake basically got served by an 84 year old man on Twitter. Drake responded to Pickens by saying “@boonepickens just stunted on me heavy.”
American automotive company V-Vehicle was denied a $321 million loan from the Department of Energy. V-Vehicle was founded by former Oracle vice president Frank Varasano. V-Vehicle raised venture capital from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and T. Boone Pickens. V-Vehicle is based in Monroe, Louisiana. The company raised $87.5 million through private fundraising and was promised $67 million from the state of Louisiana.
The Department of Energy denied V-Vehicle $321 million as part of the $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program set up by Congress. Car and Driver speculates that the reason why V-Vehicle may have been denied the loan because they are not involved with the UAW. The UAW has a strong lobby group in Washington. V-Vehicle has about 1,400 employees. [Car and Driver]
V-Vehicle is an automotive startup company based in San Diego, California. The vehicle company has raised $62.25 million and plans to raise an additional $4 million. The companies involved in the $62.25 million are Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. V-Vehicle will be building cars in the northeastern region of Louisiana.
V-Vehicle raised a previous round from T. Boone Pickens and has former Mazda design chief Tom Matano on their staff. V-Vehicle recently procured a facility that was owned by Guide Corporation. And Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was at the announcement ceremony of the plant opening. Jindal offered V-Vehicle $67 million as part ofa startup incentive package. Local governments provided an additional $15 million. V-Vehicle is aiming to raise about $50 million between equity and loans.
David Drummond, Google’s SVP of Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer is listed as one of the Board of Directors at V-Vehicle. Former Oracle executive and founding CEO of V-Vehicle Frank Varasano had invested $100 million of his own money into the company.
Kleiner Perkins partners John Doerr and Ray Lane also have board seats in V-Vehicle. James Davison, a trucking company leader is also listed as an investor.
In Louisiana, the company plans on developing a “green” car. Tesla should beware, they’re not the only ones in the electric car game.
[via Xconomy/alarm:clock]
