Following the puck – Kiro’s ownership team at home in Formula E

“We’re coming at this with a fresh perspective and unconventional thinking,” explains Forest Road managing director Jeremy Tarica as he talks to Autosport Business about acquiring a Formula E team.

Tarica is the first to admit he does not have experience in the motorsport arena, nor, until buying ERT, had he much interest in it.

In October, The Forest Road Company – a Los Angeles-based investment firm – purchased 100% of ERT and rebranded as Kiro ahead of the current Formula E season.

Kiro is represented on the grid by David Beckmann and Dan Ticktum, with the latter claiming eighth place in the opening round in Sao Paulo in December.

But it is away from the track where Tarica and his colleagues have been busy expanding the ownership team while also bringing fresh ideas into the Formula E paddock.

“Right now, we’re a new entrant and as we work through performance and trying to get the best out of this new chapter, we’re focusing more so on the fandom and attracting new talent,” Tarica told Autosport Business.

“We’re coming at this with a fresh perspective and unconventional thinking. The reason we think the series is on a growth spurt is because they’re going to where the puck is going. The puck is going to electric vehicles.

“I think we could all realistically agree on that. The question is, when does that full adoption occur? And you could debate that forever, I’m sure. But that’s where the puck is going.”

Kiro announced in February that Atlanta Hawks owner Tony Ressler was among a number of new investors in the team who has sporting pedigree.

“There’s only amazing things to talk about with Formula 1, but you discuss growth in the F1 context, and I think there’s still growth there, it is the 800-pound gorilla,” said Tarica. “But when you look at relative growth rates, you see Formula E, as I believe right now, we’re the fastest-growing motorsport in the world.

“David Kaplan and Bennett Rosenthal are our two larger shareholders. Bennett owns Los Angeles Football Club, LAFC. We also have Tony Ressler, who owns an NBA team, and Mike Arougheti, those four guys founded a firm called Ares.

“They’ve invested in this team. They have all these unique insights from running big major league teams and even they are like: ‘wow, motorsport is a whole different beast!’”

Another name to come on board in February was Hollywood actor and Luther lead Idris Elba.

Maybe more of an unexpected addition to the investment team, Tarica explained how the Thor and Sonic the Hedgehog star ended up involved.

Idris Elba with Kiro Racing

Photo by: Kiro Racing

“It’s right now about finding who we term ‘podium people’ to bring in, that have the same drive and goals,” he added.

“I would say there’s a couple of things to unpack with celebrities. A lot of people, and I don’t want to say anything bad about any other people that have involved celebrities, but a lot of people give equity to celebrities because they want that endorsement.

“We fundamentally don’t believe in that. We believe that in order for you to have great engagement from someone like Idris, they need to have skin in the game.

“We have an existing relationship with Idris, and I was telling him about our buying of this team. He said: ‘no way, man. I have a ton of respect for what Formula E is doing.

“We said, okay, you tell us what you want to invest, and we’ll figure it out. He wrote a cheque and became a true co-owner of the team with us. We wouldn’t have had that if he wasn’t just organically drawn to motorsports and specifically drawn to the growth ahead for Formula E.

“We like to say we leave our ego at the door. We’re the first ones to admit we’re not motorsport experts, but we do have a lot of relevant commercial expertise and consumer business understandings and things that we can bring that will help.”

Part of that expertise led to Kiro linking up with YouTube star MrBeast – who, with over 375million, has the most subscribers on the platform.

Mr Beast Kiro with Kiro Racing

Photo by: Kiro Racing

Running parallel to Formula E’s Evo Sessions, in which 11 social media stars got their hands on a car from each of the teams on the grid, MrBeast created his own content with Kiro – even crashing out at the Miami International Autodrome.

“For us, it was very intuitive to bring in the most followed influencer in the world to try to bring awareness to Formula E,” said Tarica.

“We want to be doing things that make people aware of Formula E and become fans of Kiro.

“Creators, influencers, younger demos, excitement, making a product that is really unique and competitive and almost gamified. So you’re super engaged and glued to the screen when you’re watching it. That’s where the puck is going.

“So in general, having a younger demographic, a more mixed male-female ratio and finding growth, it is why you do things like a MrBeast, because the series embodies this philosophy of innovation.”