The Daily Dish (09/15/21)
Fintech Company Pagaya Closing in on $9 Billion SPAC Merger
Pagaya Technologies, a Fintech platform, is nearing a $9 Billion SPAC deal with EJF Acquisition, with the deal being announced as early as this week. The deal also includes a PIPE investment of $200 million.
Pagaya, which operates from offices in New York and Tel Aviv, optimises financial transactions through its Artificial Intelligence platform. The company primarily targets companies in markets like consumer loans, auto finance, credit cards and real estate.
Pagaya is being led by co-founder and CEO Gal Krubiner, who stated that the company is looking to expand into mortgages and insurance products after the deal.
Pagaya is backed by investors that include the Singapore sovereign-wealth fund GIC Pte, former American Express CEO Harvey Golub and the venture capital arm of insurance company Aflac.
PropertyGuru Pushing Fintech Services Ahead of SPAC Listing
The largest online real estate marketplace in Southeast Asia is now aggressively looking to expand its Fintech services to tap into the rising demand for property across the region.
PropertyGuru plans to focus further products beyond its core property listing business and rolling out ancillary services such as mortgage and home insurance broking and data analytics.
The company believes that the fintech service segment is beginning to gain traction in Singapore. The firm launched a mortgage broking product at the higher of the pandemic and generated over $745 million in loans over 12 months.
PropertyGuru announced its plans to go public in July, through a SPAC merger with Bridgetown 2 Holdings, with the transaction valuing the combined firm at $1.8 billion and expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Reddit Reads
ACIC Shareholder Approve SPAC Deal with Archer Aviation
Approximately 96% of the votes cast at the special meeting voted to approve the deal. In connection with the vote, approximately 48.5% of the eligible shareholder exercised redemption rights. The deal will now generate around $857.6 million in gross proceeds as compared to $1.1 billion as announced originally.
SRNG Vote Passes, Will Publicly Trade as DNA from Friday
97% of Soaring Eagle Shareholders approved the merger with $1.6 billion being raised through gross proceeds. The deal represents the largest ever biotechnology transaction, but the $1.6 billion raised by the company is short of the initial deal which had announced $2.5 billion in gross proceeds.
Workhorse Gives up Lawsuit to Secure USPS Contract
EV company Workhorse Group has voluntarily dismissed its legal challenge against the US Postal Service (USPS), which has instead decided to award the multi-billion dollar contract to Oshkosh Defence for delivery vehicles.
The 10-year contract is expected to be worth more than $6 billion and accounts for delivery of between 50,000 and 165,000 vehicles.
While Workhorse had proposed an all-electric vehicle fleet, Oshkosh plans a mix of ICE-powered and EVs.
Lawyers for the Justice Department in July had filed a motion to dismiss Workhorse’s challenge, citing its ‘admitted failure to exhaust mandatory administrative remedies’.
