SPAC headed by former Stratasys CEO raises $100 million
Moringa Acquisition, Israel’s second SPAC, aims to merge with an early stage tech company
19:5817.02.21
Israeli Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), Moringa Acquisition Corp,
raised $100 million and began trading on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the symbol MACAU.
Moringa is the second Israeli company to go public as a SPAC after ION Acquisition Corp 1 Ltd. raised $259 million in its initial public offering on NYSE in October and recently signed a merger agreement with
Israeli content recommendation platform Taboola at a $2.5 billion valuation. Another SPAC issuance by the ION Group, eyeing $250 million, is currently in the works.
According to SPACInsider,
which monitors the SPAC market, 145 SPACs have gone public since the beginning of the year, raising an accumulated $44.5 billion. The average SPAC IPO raises $307 million, indicating that the Israeli SPACs are slightly smaller than average. In comparison, only 55 traditional IPOs were carried out since the beginning of the year, raising an accumulated $21.7 billion.
Moringa is headed by chairman and CEO Ilan Levin, who was formerly the CEO of 3D Printer company Stratasys, and CFO Gil Maman, a former VP at SimilarWeb, which is also preparing for a Wall Street IPO at a $2 billion valuation. Moringa aims to take advantage of its connections in the local tech ecosystem to target a relatively early stage tech company to merge with. EarlyBirdCapital, Inc. and Moelis & Company are acting as joint book-running managers of the offering.
Ilan Levin, former CEO of Stratasys. Photo: Amit Shaal
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