Going public through a special purpose acquisition company is officially mainstream. Special-purpose acquisition companies, once scorned by Wall Street guys as a less respectable way to go public, have been forming and going public at an unprecedented rate this year.
While last year was considered a record year for SSICOS, this year it has already broken the 2020 record.
And in the last year, the companies that go public are no longer the guys under the radar. Well-capitalized companies with brand recognition, such as genetic testing company 23AndMe and online real estate buying platform Opendoor, are among the companies that have gone public or have announced their intention to go public through a SPAC.
Here at Crunchbase News, we keep a list of the companies that have gone public this year. In the past, it has been made up mostly of IPOs, although there have been direct listings here and there. This year, we started tracking SSICOS that completed their mergers and started operating.
With SPACs forming and going public every day, it seemed prudent to keep track of the companies that had announced that they were also agreeing to go public through SPAC: SPAC’s announced goals, if you will. Therefore, we reviewed news reports and press releases and compiled a list of venture capital-backed companies that have announced that they will be merging with a SPAC. Companies reported to be in talks to go public through SPAC are not included in the list.
This article was last updated on September 30, 2021.
SoFi Announcement Date:
January 7, 2021
Acquirer: Social Capital Hedosophia Corp. V
Valuation: $ 8.65 billion, according to CNBC
Some investors: Third Point Ventures, SoftBank
Achronix Semiconductor
Announced Date: Jan 9
from 2021 Acquirer: Ace Convergence
Acquisition valuation: $ 2 billion, according to Bloomberg
Some investors: Battery Ventures, New Science Ventures
Bakkt
Announcement Date:
January 2021 Acquirer: VPC Impact Acquisition
Holdings Valuation: $ 2.1 billion
Some investors: Goldfinch Partners, M12
Proterra
Announcement Date: 12
January 2021 Acquirer: ArcLight Clean Transition
Corp. Valuation: $ 1.6 billion
Some investors: Tao Capital Partners, Daimler
Talkspace Announcement Date:
13
January 2021 Acquirer: Hudson Executive Investment Corp.
Valuation: $ 1.4 billion
Some investors: Spark Capital, Norwest Venture Partners
LiveVox
Announcement Date:
January 2021 Acquirer: Crescent Acquisition Corp.
Valuation: $ 840 million
Some investors: Lunsford Capital, R&D Bauer Ventures
EVGo
Announced Date: Jan 22
2021 Acquirer: Climate Change Crisis Actual Impact I Acquisition Corp.
Valuation: $ 2.6 billion
Some Investors: Vision Ridge Capital Partners
Date
Announcement: Jan 25
2021 Acquirer: TS Innovations Acquisitions
Corp. Valuation: $ 1.56 billion
Some investors: Lux Capital, RRE Ventures
Taboola
Announcement Date:
January 2021 Acquirer: ION Acquisition
Corp. Valuation: $ 2.6 billion
Some investors: Evergreen Venture Partners, Pitango Venture Capital
Nerdy
Announced Date: Jan 29
from 2021 Acquirer: TPG Pace Tech
Opportunities Valuation: $ 1.7 billion
Some investors: TCV, Learn Capital
Date
Playstudios announcement date: February 1, 2021
Acquirer: Acies Acquisition Corp.
Valuation: $ 1.1 billion
Some investors: Jafco Ventures
Announcement date of
Fall: February 1, 2021
Acquirer: Software Acquisition Group Inc. II
Valuation: $ 1.4 billion
Some investors: Bessemer Venture Partners, SK Holdings
Announcement date
from Microvast: Feb 1, 2021
Acquirer: Tuscan Holdings Corp.
Valuation: $ 3 billion
Some investors: IFC Venture Capital Group, CITIC Securities
Wheels Up
Date Announced: February 1
from 2021 Purchaser: Aspirational Consumer Lifestyle
Corp. Valuation: $ 2.1 billion
Some investors: Blue Ivy Ventures, Alpaca VC