SPACtacular move: Sonder CEO buys Pharrell’s place

The market for proptech SPACs is in the dumps. But some founders who managed to go public via the blank-check route have found themselves with serious cash to spend.

Francis Davidson, the founder and CEO of the hospitality startup Sonder, closed on a Hollywood Hills mansion owned by entertainer Pharrell just weeks after the company went public through a SPAC merger.

Davidson paid $9.2 million for the home, with the deal closing in mid-February, according to listing sites. Dirt earlier reported that Davidson was the buyer.

Sonder, which focuses on short-term rentals, went public Jan. 19 via a merger with a blank check firm sponsored by billionaires Alec Gores and Dean Metropoulos. The company listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker SOND, and its shares were trading below $6 on Wednesday, more than 30 percent below its IPO price. The SPAC deal had valued Sonder at $1.9 billion; ahead of the merger Sonder had raised at least $560 million in venture capital, and was valued at $1.3 billion after a June 2020 Series E round.

Sonder differs from Airbnb in that Sonder, while still renting apartments and homes, leases and manages the rentals itself — some outlets have referred to it as a “cross between an Airbnb and a hotel.” Davidson founded the company in 2014, while he was a college student in Montreal; now based in San Francisco, Sonder has grown to include thousands of rentals around the world.

“I would have never imagined that today, we’d be sharing that the startup I incorporated in a basement as a college student would become publicly traded,” Davidson wrote in a post in January.

The entrepreneur’s new home is located at 8520 Skyline Drive, on roughly 1.5 acres of ridgetop above Laurel Canyon. The 6,100-square-foot mansion was designed by the architect Hagy Belzberg, who also designed the Holocaust Museum L.A.; along with panoramic views, the contemporary home has a 70-foot infinity pool, outdoor movie theater, spa and skate park, according to a listing.

Pharrell, the singer, rapper and producer known for hits including “Happy,” “Feels” and “Hollaback Girl,” bought the home in 2015 for $7.1 million, and first listed it in 2020 for just under $12 million. The property hit the market again in late November for just under $10 million.

SPACs became an attractive route to the public markets for proptech founders in 2020 and early 2021. But the last few months have been a rough ride; shares of most proptech SPACs are trading well below their IPO levels.