In 2019, the SPAC market caught fire, and not even a global pandemic could put it out. In fact, it only seemed to ignite it further. Last year, per the NYSE, 50 special purpose acquisition companies went public with health care at their center. While the trend has slowed somewhat in 2021, it has remained a popular way for fast-moving companies to reach the market.
Some of the year’s more notable mergers with Special Purpose Acquisition Companies so far include popular consumer DNA-testing company 23andMe, which billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s SPAC, Virgin Group, took public in February in a deal that raised the company’s value to $3.5 billion. In April, precision medicine company Tango Therapeutics came together with BCTG Acquisition Corp. in an agreement that saw leading healthcare investors pledging up to $186 million. In August, EQRx, whose mission is to make drugs affordable for people who need them, hit the Nasdaq in a SPAC merger with CM Life Sciences III, Inc. that provided the company with $1.8 billion in immediate cash.
Wanting to find out what is fueling the trend, BioSpace solicited the perspectives of a couple of executives who chose the SPAC route, including Sujal Patel, whose protein-mapping startup, Nautilus Biotechnology, joined the party in February. Nautilus merged with SPAC Arya Sciences Acquisition III in a deal that valued the company at $900 million and brought in just under $350 million in cash. Perceptive Advisors sponsored the transaction.
The interest in Nautilus’s single-molecule platform, which has the potential to unlock more than 95% of the proteome, was extensive.
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Source: Biospace