For a short second earlier within the ongoing pandemic, it appeared that there was an answer for the backlog of richly priced startups that wanted to offer their backers with liquidity: SPACs.
SPACs, or particular objective acquisition corporations, are paper corporations taken public with capital hooked up that then mix with a personal entity, successfully bootstrapping startups onto the general public markets.
That SPACs have a colorful history is to understate the case. However in 2020 to 2021, with startup capital flowing and high-profile backers aboard, some hoped that blank-check corporations would rescue unicorns from private-market illiquidity. It was to not be. Some startups did go public through a SPAC, sure, however few brand-name unicorns, and in lots of circumstances, the blank-check debuts resulted in worth incineration. Or worse.
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Current information — from Bird’s potential delisting and the BuzzFeed employee lawsuit to the newest from Latch (extra on that shortly) — has us questioning whether or not there actually is a backside to the mess that SPAC-led debuts left everywhere in the public markets. Then we wish to know who’s responsible. Fortunately, we have now receipts.
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