Qatar, VCs Pump $65M into Fisker

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Fisker Automotive has turned to the oil-rich Middle East for a cash infusion to develop a fuel-saving hybrid sports car, the Karma.

The Irvine, California, startup reeled in a $65 million Series C financing round led by a unit of the Qatar Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund based in Doha. Also participating were prior investors Palo Alto Investors and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

In a lawsuit filed in May, Tesla Motors charged that Fisker Automotive and its founding partners Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies and Fisker Coachbuild, with fraud and stealing trade secrets. Tesla, not realizing that Fisker was going to pursue its own vehicle, hired Fisker Coachbuild to help design and engineer its WhiteStar sedan model. The lawsuit charges that Fisker’s Karma is derived from the work it did on WhiteStar. Also named in the lawsuit was Fisker’s Chief Executive Henrik Fisker.

Tesla is backed by Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal and rocket builder SpaceX.

The Karma, using Quantum’s plug-in hybrid technology is scheduled to go on sale in the fourth quarter of 2009.

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