Biggest SPACs of 2021 and Planned for 2022

The SPAC boom shows no signs of slowing down.

In 2020, there were 248 SPAC IPOs, raising a total of $83 billion, or 46% of the proceeds raised by traditional US IPOs.

These figures were remarkable in isolation, but it appears that the end of year figures for 2021 will be twice as high. At the time of writing, at the beginning of November, the year to date total of SPAC IPOs is already 248, raising total funds of just under $140 billion.

What we may be witnessing, in fact, is not less a fad and more of a long-term secular trend.

Based on the current trend, SPACs will be generating a similar amount of proceeds as US IPOs within half a decade. It follows that the companies listing through this method will have an increasingly high profile.

Now is a good time to familiarize yourself.

We at DealRoom help clients with SPACs management and below, we look at the biggest SPACs of 2021 and those that are already in the pipeline for 2022.

1. Lucid Group

Ticker: LCID & LCIDW

IPO amount: $2.07B

In a year when Tesla Motors’ market capitalization passed the trillion dollar mark, it almost seems inevitable that the largest SPAC of 2021 is in sustainable mobility.

In July 2021, the Lucid Group merged with Churchill Capital Corp IV and began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

Until now, the company has focused on developing the technology that underpins electric vehicles but the proceeds from the SPAC listing will allow Lucid group to begin marketing its cars within the next year.

There are already more than 11,000 paid up reservations for its vehicles before they’re even produced, suggesting it won’t be too long before the Lucid range becomes a fixture on American roads.

2. Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc.

Ticker: DNA

IPO amount: $1.72B

When Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings - a company that made CNBC’s coveted Disruptor List a record five times - listed in September 2021, its shares opened at a price of $11.15 each, giving it a market capitalization of nearly $2.5 billion.

The SPAC listing was concluded after a merger with Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp, itself led by former MGM CEO, Harry Sloan. This is Sloan’s seventh high profile SPAC transaction.

Gingko was founded by a group of MIT scientists a little over a decade ago, and has the ability to design and print DNA, the building blocks that underpin all living things. 

3. Alight, Inc.

Ticker: ALIT

IPO amount: $1.03B

In July 2021, Alight, Inc. successfully closed a business combination with Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp. to list on the NYSE.

Alight is one of the leaders of the employee management industry, offering a range of integrated digital human capital and business solutions. It serves over 36 million employees and their family members, so possesses enormous reach.

The purpose of the listing was to provide the newly public company with enough funds to begin an acquisition spree. This makes it one to watch, as it seeks to address a growing global skills shortage, which is set to affect just about every industry in the years ahead.

4. Cazoo Group Limited

Ticker: CZOO

IPO amount: $805M

Despite being a year largely associated with a lack of mobility, we may well look back on 2021 as being the year of the motorcar. Cazoo is a UK-based eCommerce platform for second-hand cars. Its combination with AJAX allowed it to list on the NYSE.

In addition to offering an eCommerce platform, Cazoo reconditions cars that it buys from the (relatively cheaper) European market, before selling them at a healthy margin on the UK market.

It also has a monthly car subscription service, perhaps pointing to where the future of personal mobility is headed over the next decade or so.

5. Mirion Technologies, Inc.

Ticker: MIR

IPO amount: $750M

Mirion Technologies combined with Goldman Sachs-backed SPAC, GS Acquisition Holdings Corp II to list on the NYSE in June 2021.

Mirion Technologies was previously owned by British private equity firm, Charterhouse Capital, which bought it in 2015 for $750 million.

Since then, it closed a series of bolt-on acquisitions to diversify its portfolio of services, which now includes detection, measurement and analysis solutions for the nuclear, defence, and medical markets.

The money raised through the listing will allow it to make further acquisitions, as well as pay down some of the debt previous acquisitions incurred.

1. Terran Orbital

IPO amount: $1.8B

Expected: Q1 2022

Terran Orbital is a small satellite builder and operator. Its merger with the SPAC Tailwind Two Acquisition Corp will allow it to trade on the NYSE under the ticker LLAP. This is just one of a handful of space-related companies that plan to publicly list in 2022.

2. Faze Clan

IPO amount: $1B

Expected: Q1 2022

SPACs have been fertile ground for esports listings, and a proposed Faze Clan SPAC appears to be the latest.

The competitive esports group plans to merge with B. Riley Principal 150 Merger Corp. in early 2022 resulting in a market capitalization of around $1B and allowing the firm to access funds of nearly $300M.

3. Starry

IPO amount: $1.66B

Expected: Q1 2022

Starry, a US fixed broadband service provider, announced in October that it was to merge with FirstMark Horizon Acquisition Corp, a SPAC sponsored by an affiliate of New York venture capital firm FirstMark Capital.

The newly merged company will float on the Nasdaq and it is expected to raise around $200M for Starry to invest in infrastructure.

4. Polestar

IPO amount: $20B

Expected: Q2 2022

Yet another SPAC for an EV company. This time it’s Polestar, a Swedish electric carmaker whose seed investors include Leonardo diCaprio.

The newly listed firm will use the ticker PSNY and will enter an increasingly crowded field of EV makers on the US equities markets. The SPAC - Gores Group - is backed by well-known investor, Alec Gores.

5. Sonder

IPO amount: $1.8B

Expected: Q2 2022

San Francisco's short-term rental startup, Sonder, initially planned a $3.2B raise, but scaled back its ambitions owing to challenging market conditions.

Like Polestar, it is entering a SPAC combination with the Gores Group, and is expected to raise around $110M from the Nasdaq listing, expected in January 2022.

Considering a SPAC Listing

Whether you’re considering a SPAC listing or a traditional IPO, DealRoom offers a number of tailored solutions, whatever your industry.

Our virtual deal room and project management tools have been used in a number of prominent deals over the past decade, and have added significant value to each individual process.

Talk to us today about how our platform can make your SPAC or traditional IPO run more smoothly.