Fifth Wall is officially in the SPAC market and looking to raise $250 million for a new blank-check company.
The Los Angeles-based firm said in a regulatory filing that it will issue 25 million shares of its new special purpose acquisition company at $10 per share. Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank are underwriting the deal.
Headed by Blackstone Group alumni Brendan Wallace and Brad Greiwe, Fifth Wall is already one of the best-funded proptech VCs, with $1.3 billion in committed capital.
Its new blank-check company will join a growing list of proptech-focused SPACs, including Tishman Speyer’s TS Innovation Acquisitions and PropTech Investment Corp. II, formed by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority veterans Tom Hennessy and Joe Beck.
Read more
Commercial
National
Fifth Wall to launch proptech SPAC
Development
New York
"Blank-check" companies make a comeback in real estate
Blank-check companies, which have no underlying assets, seek reverse-mergers with private companies that are looking to go public. They made a comeback last year as an alternative to the traditional IPO process.
So far in January, investors have poured $16.8 billion into 59 new SPACs, according to SPACInsider. The 248 SPACs created last year raised $83 billion.
Fifth Wall is betting its track record will give its new SPAC a “substantial competitive advantage,” the IPO filing said. “A SPAC is an important extension of Fifth Wall’s approach to partnering with leading real estate technology companies to create long-term value,” it said.
Fifth Wall has invested in 40 startups, including six that are now unicorns, including VTS and Opendoor, which went public in a SPAC deal last year. Fifth Wall’s investment grew by a multiple of seven, generating more than $600 million on paper, according to regulatory filings.
The new SPAC filing did not specify whether Fifth Wall will look to merge with an existing portfolio company. The SPAC will be headed by Wallace and Fifth Wall CFO Andriy Mykhaylovskyy and aims to guide a “category-defining market leader” from the private market to the public one.