SPACInsider

This week, on a SPACInsider Podcast Replay, we revisit a September 2024 discussion from the beginning of the current SPAC cycle.

SPACInsider founder Kristi Marvin was joined by Ed Kovary, Head of SPAC Capital Markets at BTIG, Nick Skibo, Managing Partner at Gritstone Asset Management, and Dimitre Genov, Managing Director at Brookline Capital Markets. Together, the panel brought perspectives from the banking, investing and advisory sides of SPAC transactions.

They discussed the resurgence of anchor investors, how market participants were adapting as the previous cycle wound down, and the early signs that a broader reset was...

This week, we speak with Dr. Wasiq Bokhari, CEO of quantum computing firm Pasqal, to discuss its $1.98 billion combination with Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp. II (NASDAQ:BBCQ).

Quantum computers are plugged in and doing real commercial work, but, how can you get them to collaborate with CPUs and GPUs on a single problem? Pasqal believes it may have the answer.

Wasiq explains how the company has worked to build a full-stack approach to commercializing quantum solutions and where it has already demonstrated quantum advantage.

He also gets into how it is developing software to make...

This week, we speak with IQM CEO and Co-Founder Jan Goetz, and Peter Ort, CEO and Co-Chairman of Real Asset Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:RAAQ) about their $1.7 billion dollar combination, announced in February.

As more quantum computing companies go public via SPACs, the industry is going global.

Jan explains why IQM has based its own business model on selling quantum computing hardware and why he believes this enhances the company’s pipeline over time.

Peter lays out the Real Asset’s team long engagement in the quantum computing space and why it chose IQM as t...

This week, we speak with Carlos Domingo, Founder and CEO of Securitize. Securitize is working to close a business combination with Cantor Equity Partners II (NASDAQ:CEPT).

As the use of stablecoins spreads, the opportunity to create digital tokens of other assets is spreading as well. For public investors, there will soon also be an opportunity to invest in one of the companies making that process happen.

Carlos discusses how Securitize has driven key partnerships with financial institutions into a profitable position within the tokenization space, and why Cantor Equity Partners II’s structure was a maj...

This week, on a special edition of the SPACInsider Podcast, we speak with Vik Mittal, managing member of Meteora Capital and Ivan Deryugin, head of research for the Americas at United First Partners. Together we discuss why the digital asset treasury strategy quickly turned from a SPAC-favorite play to falling out of favor over the past year.

Ivan gets into the numbers on how some of these deals have become misaligned, particularly as crypto prices dropped. Vik shares his perspective as a both a PIPE investor in some of these transactions and as a SPAC sponsor searching...

This week, we speak with Richard Taylor, Co-founder, CEO and Chairman of ONE Nuclear and Dan Hennessy, Chairman of Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. VII (NASDAQ:HVII). The two announced a $1.1 billion combination in October.   Energy demand is ballooning and the clock is ticking to keep up. That has led ONE Nuclear to a multi-technology approach to get more capacity online as fast as possible.   Richard lays out why his company has designed its plants to use natural gas first before converting to nuclear and how its partnerships with third parties have accelerated that plan.   Dan explains why he believes ONE Nuc...

This week, we speak with Stuart Brazier, CEO of Advanced Inhalation Rituals, or AIR, to discuss his company’s $1.7 billion combination with Cantor Equity Partners III (Nasdaq: CAEP).

SPACs often bring companies from emerging technology sectors into the public markets, but sometimes it is their role to list companies that have already established themselves, albeit in something of a niche. 

Stuart explains how the AIR’s profitable position in the high-margin hookah-shisha market gave it options on how to come public, and why it chose the SPAC route for that journey. How is this lifestyle brand...

This week, we speak with Greg Twinney, CEO of General Fusion, and Chris Sorrells, CEO and Chairman of Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III (NASDAQ:SVAC). The two announced a $724 million combination in January.

Fusion technology may sound like the future, but it is set to come to the public markets very soon. Greg explains General Fusion’s path to expand its technology beyond its first plant into commercialization in the 2030s, and what advantages fusion power plants can provide over nuclear fission reactors.

Chris lays out why now is the right time to bring General Fusion...

Titanium, copper and water. What do they have in common? All will be products of one of the latest companies to head to the public markets via a SPAC transaction.

This week, we speak with Key Mining founders Cesar Lopez and John Ryan as well as Compass Digital Acquisition Corp. CEO Tom Hennessy to break down their $303 million business combination.

Cesar and John discuss how they brought together a signature titanium mining project in Chile with a water desalination project that is set to support it. They lay out why they are combining these two...

The past year has seen a raft of crypto treasury companies go public via SPACs. Could the next entrant be the one to consolidate the field?

This week, we speak with Adam Back, CEO of Bitcoin Standard Treasury and Sean Bill, who serves as the company’s Chief Investment Officer. The two discuss their company’s $4 billion combination with Cantor Equity Partners I (NASDAQ:CEPO), announced last July.

They discuss why the Cantor team was a good fit for their goals of bringing innovative Bitcoin-based financing structures to the market, and why they believe Bitcoin Stan...

The work of maintaining and supplying the US armed forces is now front and center in the daily news, but Precision Aerospace & Defense has been long been carrying out a strategy to acquire critical manufacturers and suppliers in this area. Now, it is taking that platform to the public markets in a SPAC deal.

This week, we speak with Brent Borden, CEO of Precision Aerospace & Defense Group and Adam Gishen, CEO of FACT II Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:FACT). The two announced a $310 million business combination last December.

Brent explains how his company has selected with un...

SPACs have populated the public markets with a variety of quantum computing hardware technology companies, and now one is poised to list the first quantum software company.

This week, we speak with Dr. Joe Fitzsimons, CEO of Horizon Quantum, and Harry You, Chairman of dMY Squared Technology Group, Inc (OTC:DMYY). The two announced a $546 million combination in September.

Joe explains how Horizon is endeavoring to create the first universal operating system for quantum computers and why that presents both challenges and opportunities while these machines are still in the error correction phase.

Ha...

The Winter Olympics and the World Cup are not the only international competitions kicking off this year. The Enhanced Games is gearing up for a May debut as well, with the injection of some SPAC cash and potentially some other performance enhancing substances.

This week, we speak with Maximilian Martin, CEO and Co-founder of The Enhanced Games. It announced a $1.3 billion combination with A Paradise Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:APAD) in November.

Max explains why he has endeavored to create this new competition where athletes may use banned, but otherwise legal substances to up their game, and...

Quantum computing companies have been among the highest performing de-SPAC sectors in years. And, SPACs have made a major impact on quantum computing by being the listing and financing mechanism for a large portion of the publicly traded cohort.

But, the market wasn’t always so bullish on quantum.

This week we return to a conversation we had with Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave (NYSE:QBTS) in February 2025.

At the time, Quantum computing stocks had just begun their recent revival and Alan helped break down the ups and downs of the previous years as...

This week, we speak with Xanadu founder and CEO Dr. Christian Weedbrook and Bill Fradin, CEO of Crane Harbor Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:CHAC). The two announced a $3.1 billion business combination in November.

Is it possible to build a business model that combines features of Amazon Web Services, NVIDIA and a biotech drug developer? Well, Xanadu aims to find out, and it is funding that path via a SPAC.

Christian explains how Xanadu differentiates itself from other players in the quantum computing space by focusing on specific hardware advantages as well as a software approach that all...

It is rare to find a SPAC deal that launches hundreds or even thousands of mergers in the future, but this one might be it. Teamshares has built a system for the programmatic acquisition of EBITDA-positive businesses that are typically too small to meet the criteria of private equity buyers. Now, it aims to accelerate these efforts with a $746 million combination with Live Oak Acquisition Corp. V’s (NASDAQ:LOKV).

This week, we speak with Teamshares CEO Michael Brown along with Live Oak V CEO Rick Hendrix and CFO Adam Fishman. Michael explains how the company has honed...

This week, we speak with Asheesh Birla, CEO of Evernorth. Evernorth is a crypto treasury focused on XRP, a cryptocurrency that is used in decentralized financial structures and payments. It aims to power that endeavor through its business combination with Armada Acquisition Corp. II (NASDAQ:XRPN), announced in October.

Crypto treasury deals were one of the major themes of 2025 SPAC dealflow, but they are far from being all the same.  Asheesh explains how the company plans to leverage its XRP holdings to generate yield over the long term and how XRP’s unique appeal in international markets present...

Driverless trucks have officially made it to the road and everyday operations of many shippers, but there is still plenty of room for innovation in the field. For instance, if there is no driver, why keep the driver’s compartment at all?

This week, we speak with Roozbeh Charli, CEO of Einride, which is introducing fully cabless autonomous trucks into customer fleets and accelerating that rollout through its business combination with Legato Merger Corp. III (NYSE:LEGT).

Roozbeh explains how Einride has sped up commercialization by integrating autonomous operations into its existing fleet electrification services, an...

In this episode, we examine how the SPAC market evolved in 2025 and what sponsors, issuers, and investors should be thinking about as the calendar turns to 2026.

Joining the discussion are Ed Kovary, Head of Capital Markets at BTIG, and Jerry Serowik, Head of Capital Markets at Cohen & Company, two firms that were among the most active in the SPAC ecosystem in 2025.

Drawing on firsthand experience, the conversation covers how deal structures, investor expectations, and sponsor strategies shifted over the course of the year and how capital markets conditions shaped issuance and deal execution.

...

With Matt George, CEO of Merlin Labs

Many firms chasing autonomous ground-vehicles have relied on SPACs to reach the public markets, and now Merlin Labs wants to bring autonomy to the skies. The Boston-based startup is developing an AI-powered “pilot,” the Merlin Pilot, designed to manage full “takeoff-to-touchdown” flights across a wide range of aircraft, from light planes to heavy transports.

This week, we talk with Merlin Labs CEO Matt George about why the company sat out the first wave of SPAC-driven aerospace mania, and why partnering with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. IV (Nasdaq: BACQ) feels like the righ...

With Ranjeet Sundher, CEO of Tactical Resources, and Kanishka Roy, CEO and Chairman of Plum Acquisition Corp. III

SPACs have played a big role in the race to develop US-based sources of rare earth materials, but few available target companies are within a few years having an operational mine. Tactical Resources aims to be the exception.

This week, we speak with Ranjeet Sundher, CEO of rare earth miner Tactical Resources, and Kanishka Roy, CEO and Chairman of Plum Acquisition Corp. III (OTC:PLMJF). They came together in a $589 million business combination announced in August.

Affordability has become a major theme of 2025 and of all the areas where technology has sped up processes and brought down costs, housing has been a stubborn exception.

One company that is trying to bring a new technology-based approach to this is BOXABL, and it has partnered with a SPAC to accelerate that vision. This week, we speak with Galiano Taramani, founder and co-CEO of BOXABL and Larry Swets Jr., CEO of FG Merger Corp. II (NASDAQ:FGMC). The two announced a $3.5 billion combination in August.

Galiano explains how BOXABL has found an edge in how...

Presidio CEO Will Ulrich and EQV Ventures CEO Jerry Silvey Discuss Their $664 Million Combination

How do you build a fast-growing oil and gas company without drilling single hole and without planning to at any point in the future? That may sound like a riddle, but it’s actually a business model that public investors will soon be able to invest in.

This week, we speak with Will Ulrich, CEO of energy firm Presidio and Jerry Silvey, CEO of EQV Ventures Acquisition Corp. (NYSE:EQV). The two announced a $664 million combination in August.

Will expla...

Infleqtion CEO Matthew Kinsella on the Business of Quantum Sensing and the Road Ahead (CCCX)

With capital pouring into quantum computing, the question is no longer if it will arrive, but what other parts of the quantum world are already here?

This week, we speak with Matthew Kinsella, CEO of Infleqtion. It announced a $1.8 billion business combination with Churchill Capital Corp. X (NASDAQ: CCCX) in September.

Infleqtion has already commercialized a line of quantum sensing devices for defense applications, which has put it ahead of many in the quantum pack in terms of revenue.

A conversation on nuclear’s next wave with Giordano Morichi of Terra Innovatum and Gus Garcia of GSR III Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: GSRT)

Developers of small, modular nuclear reactors have been among the most prized stocks of 2025 given their potential to be big players in the energy mix as data center demand booms. This demand is massive, but when it comes to nuclear reactor design, Terra Innovatum believes it’s a matter of the smaller the better.

This week, we speak with Giordano Morichi, Chief Business Development Officer and Head of Investor Relations at Terra Inno...

This week, we sit down with Dynamix Corporation (NASDAQ:ETHM) CEO and Chair Andrejka Bernatova, who is about to list her third SPAC in the past four years with one business combination already completed and another pending.

She tells us how it has been quite the ride through the last two SPAC cycles and where she thinks SPACs at times went wrong during the last one. Right now, she is focused on completing Dynamix’s combination with crypto treasury firm The Ether Machine.

She explains why her team zeroed in on Ethereum as the cryptocurrency with th...

SPACs have been highly active lately in taking public a new generation of nuclear technology companies, but in order for those companies to meet the power demand being driven by the boom in datacenter deployments, they are going to need a steady supply of uranium.

This week, we speak with Mark Mukhidja, CEO of uranium mining firm Eagle Energy Metals, and Chris Sorrells, Chairman and CEO of Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. II (NASDAQ:SVII).

The two announced a $312 million dollar combination back in July that would create a unique stock that is a pure play o...

This week, we return to the subject of autonomous trucking with a SPAC target that already logged months of its trucks operating autonomously in an industrial setting with rollouts on public highways and defense applications inbound.

That company is Kodiak, which announced a $2.6 billion combination with Ares Acquisition Corporation II (NYSE:AACT) in April. Kodiak CEO Don Burnette joins us to explain how the company has sought to blaze a trail to commercialization for the company while burning a fraction of the R&D cash that some of its peers have to get to this same point.

In this SPACInsider Podcast REPLAY, we go back to January 2022 when the abrupt end of 2021’s SPAC euphoria was setting in, and new strategies were needed to weather the storm.

We sat down with Niccolo de Masi of the dMY SPACs to get his takes on how SPACs were going to roll with the punches and his own vision for when a refreshed SPAC cycle would reemerge.

Now that SPACs are back, which of these predictions came to fruition and what lessons from the down market have teams brought into the new cycle?

Gi...

An in-depth discussion with Sebastian Bea, President & Head of Investments at ReserveOne, and Vik Mittal, Managing Member at Meteora Capital Partners

If there has been one hot summer trend among SPACs, it has been the crypto treasury business combination.

To help better understand this new genre of SPAC deal, we sat down with Sebastian Bea, President and Head of Investments at ReserveOne, which announced a $1 billion combination with M3-Brigade Acquisition V Corp (Nasdaq: MBAV) last month.

We're also joined by Vik Mittal, Managing Member at Meteora Capital Partners. They discuss why this particular play...

What many of the biggest trends in emerging technology today have in common is that they require significantly more electricity and reliable means of receiving it efficiently.

This week, we speak with Simon Irish, CEO of nuclear plant developer Terrestrial Energy, and Shawn Matthews, CEO and Chairman of HCM II Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:HOND). The two announced a $1.3 billion combination in March.

Terrestrial Energy is developing designs for small modular nuclear reactors that produce heat for industrial clients along with power. Simon explains why he believes this approach is tailor-made for the demands of the...

Harry You, Brandon Sun, and Vik Mittal break down the SPAC landscape

On this special edition of the SPACInsider Podcast, we bring together a panel of SPAC veterans to explore the state of the market from the perspectives of sponsors, investors, and underwriters.

Joining us are serial SPAC sponsor Harry You, Brandon Sun, Head of SPAC Investment Banking at Cohen & Company, and Vik Mittal, Managing Director at Meteora Capital.

Together, they unpack how the complexion of the 2025 SPAC market is shifting and which strategies are rising to the top. How have crypto-focused deals...

This week, we speak with Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov about the company’s $2.2 billion dollar combination with Cohen Circle Acquisition Corp. I (NASDAQ:CCIR).

Few companies have been had to forge themselves in the flames recently quite like Ukraine’s leading telecom and digital services provider Kyivstar. Now, Kyivstar is not only telling that story but pitching it to public market investors.

Oleksandr explains how the company has maintained high EBITDA margins despite the many disruptions unleashed by Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 

He gets into why he decided now was the ri...

After years of investment and excitement, the dawn of self-driving cars and trucks is now here. The question now is which business model among autonomous driving technology companies will win out?

This week, we speak with David Liu, CEO of autonomous trucking company Plus. Plus announced a $1.3 billion combination with Churchill Capital Corp. IX (NASDAQ:CCIX) last month.

David explains how both Plus’ strategy and the autonomous driving landscape have changed since the company last considered a SPAC listing and why the company is betting on a software-first approach - partnering with truck manufacturers rather th...

CEO Marc Nemati and Colombier II’s Omeed Malik break down the deal, timing, and the strategy.

Despite its moniker as the “the everything store” you can’t buy everything on Amazon, and firearms are one of those things. But, GrabAGun has spent years building a platform for regulated online firearms purchases, and soon, consumers will be able to buy GrabAGun stock as well.

This week, we speak with Marc Nemati, CEO of GrabAGun and Omeed Malik, CEO and Chairman of Colombier Acquisition Corp. II (NYSE:CLBR). The two announced a $197 million dollar combination in January of...

On this week’s SPACInsider REPLAY, we revisit a 2022 conversation with Harry Sloan of the Eagle SPACs.

At the time, Harry had already completed seven SPACs and was closing in on his eighth. As markets cooled and the SPAC boom waned, Harry offered a prescient take on where the market was headed—and what a “post-boom” SPAC cycle might look like.

Two years later, his words still resonate. Tune in for a thoughtful look back at a key inflection point in SPAC history.

Tariffs, Trade Routes, and Tech: Freightos’ View from the Cargo Frontlines

2025 is shaping up to be a wild year for global trade, and few companies have a vantage point on the impacts of every-changing tariff policy quite like digital cargo-booking platform Freightos (NASDAQ:CRGO).

This week, we catch up with Freightos CEO Zvi Schreiber. He shares how the shifting trade flows are showing up in Freightos’ numbers, and how companies are adjusting to meet the new challenges.

Zvi also discusses why the shipping industry has long resisted digitization and how Freightos has made headw...

This week, we sit down with Rick Hendrix and Adam Fishman from the Live Oak SPAC team.

Rick Hendrix is the Founder of Live Oak Merchant Partners, and Chairman and CEO of Live Oak Acquisition Corp. V (NASDAQ:LOKV). In addition, he is an operating executive at Crestview Partners, a New York-based middle market focused private equity firm.

Adam Fishman is a Managing Partner at Live Oak Merchant and President and CFO of Live Oak V. Adam joined Live Oak right before Live Oak II was launched and has been an executive on each of the...

This week, we return to another episode from 2021, when we spoke with Will Marshall, Co-founder and CEO of Planet Labs(NYSE:PL). Planet provides data services drawn from its fleet of about 200 satellites that generate a complete image of the earth's surface every day.

It just celebrated its first quarter of EBITDA profitability, but at the time, it was still working to close its combination with dMY Technology Group IV. Niccolo de Masi, who at the time steered dMY IV, also joined to explain the investment case for Planet and the private space industry more broadly.

In this SPACInsider Podcast Replay, we go back to 2021, when we spoke with Chris Urmson, CEO and Chairman of autonomous truck technology firm Aurora (NASDAQ:AUR).

At the time, Aurora was working to close its $10 billion business combination with Reinvent Technology Y. Chris laid out how the company planned to approach the commercialization of its self-driving heavy truck business model and what challenges still laid ahead for it and other developers of autonomous technology.

Now, Aurora is preparing to debut its driverless trucks along the Dallas-to-Houston freight route later this month, with plans to extend...