EV charging company ChargePoint is “nearing a deal to go public through a reverse merger” that could value the company at more than $2 billion, according to Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter.
Campbell, California-based ChargePoint raised $127 million just last month, bringing its total funding to $660 million from investors including AEP, BMW, Braemar Energy Ventures, Chevron, Daimler, Clearvision, GIC, Linse Capital and Quantum Energy Partners. A month ago, the firm was valued at $1.37 billion, according to PitchBook.
ChargePoint’s network is one of the largest EV charging systems in the world with 114,000 charging points in Europe and America. The company was founded in 2007
The acquiring entity is Switchback Energy, a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that raised $300 million in an IPO last year. Switchback’s stock price and volume jumped higher on the news.
SPACs are back
Reuters defines a SPAC as “a shell company that raises money through an IPO to buy a private operating company.”
And going public through a SPAC is the exit method of choice these days for venture-funded startups, cleantech and otherwise. Aspiring auto makers such as Nikola, Canoo and Fisker, hungry for growth capital, have gone the SPAC route.
And two battery companies are set to go public via merger with a SPAC.
QuantumScape, a secretive, well-funded solid-state battery builder looking to win the EV drivetrain race is going public via a reverse merger with Kensington Capital at an enterprise value of $3.3 billion. The startup aspires to produce solid-state battery cells, “starting in 2024, for VW’s electric vehicles, and eventually for other carmakers,” as per reports.
QuantumScape is backed with more than $1 billion from investors including Volkswagen, Bill Gates through Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, the Qatar Investment Authority, Shanghai Auto, Continental AG, Prelude Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Capricorn Investment Group. QuantumScape raised another $500 million from institutional investors ahead of the SPAC merger news, led by Fidelity Management & Research.
Eos Energy Storage is a private zinc battery developer with the chance to go public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company.
B. Riley Principal Merger Corp II (BMRG), a special purpose acquisition company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and Eos have executed a letter of intent for a merger which would result in Eos becoming a publicly listed company.
Eos claims its zinc technology, twelve years in development, is a safe, scalable, and recyclable alternative to lithium ion.
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