Austin Russell will hold 104.7 million shares of Luminar after it goes public, a roughly 35% stake that’s worth about $1.1 billion at the company’s current valuation, according to a proxy statement filed Monday.
The Stanford University dropout is also expected to hold about 83% of the voting power at the driverless-car startup following its combination with special purpose acquisition companyThat will give him control over the election of board members and all other major decisions submitted to stockholders for approval.
Russell founded Luminar in 2012. The Orlando-based company makes light detection and ranging sensors, or lidar, that bounce lasers off objects to guide vehicles. The sensors are expensive, and Luminar has emerged from a crowdedLuminar’s backers include Peter Thiel, who awarded a then-17-year-old Russell a fellowship to help start the firm, and GoPro Inc. founder Nick Woodman.
Russell isn’t the only young entrepreneur to hit billionaire status through a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, merger this year. Thomas Healy, who was 28 when his Texas-based truck electrification startup Hyliion Inc.Such deals have proliferated in recent weeks, with more than $52 billion raised by 136 blank-check firms that have gone public this year on U.S. exchanges.