Published: March 5th, 2021
The San Francisco-based partner discusses the appeal of SPACs for technology companies and the continued prominence of Silicon Valley as a tech center.
There’s been a “revolution in how the market and technology companies view SPACs,” said John Olson, a partner at Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian LLP in San Francisco, on this week’s Drinks With The Deal Podcast. Combining with a special purpose acquisition company has made going public a real option for companies that probably would have been unable to complete an IPO, Olson said.
Investment banks and accounting firms have traditionally shied away from doing IPO work for companies with significant growth potential but not current revenue, but going public via a de-SPAC merger is an option for such entities, especially in sectors such as electric mobility and nascent markets such as telemedicine, Olson said. He nonetheless thinks the current level of SPAC activity is unsust
ChargePoint Becomes the World’s First Publicly Traded Global EV Charging Network
CAMPBELL, Calif. ChargePoint Holdings, Inc. (the “Company” or “ChargePoint”), a leading electric vehicle (“EV”) charging network, today announced that Pasquale Romano, President and CEO, and the ChargePoint executive leadership team will virtually ring the Opening Bell® at the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”), following completion of its previously announced business combination with Switchback Energy Acquisition Corporation, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company with a strategic focus on the energy value chain, which closed on February 26, 2021. Shares of common stock and warrants of the new combined company will be traded under the ticker symbol “CHPT” and “CHPT.WS” respectively.
Just five months after its previous financing, digital lending platform Blend said Wednesday it raised $300 million in a funding round that nearly doubles its valuation to $3.3 billion and was led by Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian LLP and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC.