PARIS - Francois Pinault, the French billionaire who founded Kering, the group behind Gucci, has invested in a special purpose acquisition vehicle (SPAC) set up by former Credit Suisse boss Tidjane Thiam, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The investment by Pinault, first reported by Bloomberg, follows an eruption of new launches of SPACs or blank cheque companies in Europe after a boom in the United States.