The recent uptick in SPAC IPOs is good news for Unvalley founders. SPACs (special purpose acquisition companies) are shell companies that are created specifically for raising capital to acquire an existing private company through an initial public offering (IPO).

SPAC mergers give companies an opportunity to get a capital influx and go public more quickly than they can with traditional IPOs, with deals often closing in a few months versus the longer, more grueling regular IPO process.

In 2020, SPACs raised $83 billion. So far in 2021, SPACs have already raised $73 billion – and we haven’t even hit the end of the first quarter yet!

Many of the top-performing SPAC IPOs from the past year were from companies headquartered in the Unvalley, including:

• Iridium, headquartered in McLean, VA (in the DC area) – Communications company offering solutions from satellite phones to broadband.
• Adapthealth, headquartered in Conshohocken, PA – A home medical equipment company that provides products like wheelchairs, CPAP supplies, and hospital beds.
• Switchback Energy/ChargePoint, headquartered in Dallas, TX – Offers a network of hundreds of thousands of electrical vehicle charging points across North America and Europe.
• MP Materials, headquartered in Las Vegas, NV – MP Material is working to restore the rare earth supply chain to the U.S., so green tech like electric vehicles, drones, and wind turbines have the materials they need.
• Repay, headquartered in Atlanta, GA – A vertically-Integrated payment processing solutions.
• Open Lending, headquartered in Austin, TX – Open Lending provides automated lending services to financial institutions.