For a relatively unknown boutique bank, Raine has some very high-profile backers. The New York City–based merchant bank (the kind of place that invests in companies rather than issues you checkbooks) is on track to raise $500 million from investors like former Facebook president Sean Parker, Google’s recently demoted CEO Eric Schmidt, and former News Corp. COO Peter Chernin. Raine’s founders also come with an impressive pedigree, including former Goldman Sachs partner Joe Ravitch and Ari Emanuel (the Jeremy Piven–from-Entourage Rahm brother, not the bioethicist). Rahm also happens to sit on Raine’s board of advisers. So what’s with all the bold-faced names for a bank you’ve probably never heard of? Raine’s first two investments were Vice magazine and Jagex, an online games developer and publisher. We’re pretty sure all of those people would be on Vice’s “Don’t” list. So it seems more likely the deep-pocketed techies showed up en masse for Raine’s upcoming third investment: OpenSky, an online social-shopping service. Countdown to someone calling OpenSky the next game-changing Groupon in three, two …
