SPACInsider

For better or worse, fighting fires is big business. This week, we speak with Tim Sheehy, Founder and CEO of Bridger Aerospace (NASDAQ:BAER).

Bridger operates a fleet of firefighting airplanes and support vehicles in the Western United States and it closed a combination with Jack Creek Investment Corporation on January 25th.

Tim explains how this age-old business is built on steady government contracts, but its needs and sophistication are growing and why its SPAC merger gives Bridger some unique opportunities for consolidation in a space that has been structurally resistant to such changes.

Whether you’re bullish on the North American EV car boom or not, there are exciting things happening on two wheels in Europe and Asia.

This week, we speak with Swin Chatsuwan, Founder and CEO of Zapp. Zapp has developed a line of electric motorcycles manufactured in Thailand that have some unique features, like being able to plug in anywhere.

To help fuel Zapp’s drive into European and Asian markets, it announced a $573 million dollar combination with CIIG Capital Partners II (Nasdaq:CIIG) in November.

CIIG II Co-CEO Gavin Cuneo also joins to discuss some of the key points of differentiation for Zapp in the market and why this differs from some of the first wave of EV SPAC deals we saw earlier in the cycle.

Visions of a self-sufficient energy future with solar panels on every household roof have been around for decades. But, it may take companies able to bring the full package of design, construction and financing to get more homeowners on board.

This week, we speak with Complete Solaria CEO Will Anderson.

Complete Solaria is the merger of two peer residential solar companies, Complete Solar and Solaria, that together announced a business combination with Freedom Acquisition I Corp. (NASDAQ:FACT) in October.

Will describes how the combined company will be poised to more efficiently cover existing white space in the US market, while Freedom I CEO Adam Gishen joins to discuss how the complex deal came together and why it stood out as the SPAC’s best opportunity in the current market.

The chip shortage has been a serious headwind to many tech companies, but what has it been like for the chip makers themselves?

This week we speak with Eli Assoolin, Co-founder CEO and Chairman of Newsight Imaging.

Newsight announced a $380 million dollar combination with Vision Sensing Acquisition Corp. in August of last year.

It provides the critical semiconductor components for lidar sets as well as industrial quality control and medical imaging equipment.

Eli discusses how the company’s diverse use cases and position as a chip supplier make it a unique play in the market as compared to its hardware-making customers.

And, why Israeli tech companies like his are increasingly turning to SPACs as a major source of funding.

Why stop at one SPAC deal when you can do two SPAC deals. This week we speak with Wejo (NASDAQ:WEJO) CEO Richard Barlow.

Wejo announced a business combination with TKB Critical Technologies 1 (NASDAQ:USCT) in January, about 15 months after it closed an earlier combination with Virtuoso Acquisition Corp.

Richard walks us through how Wejo weathered challenging market conditions 2022 and provides an update on its new business plan.

TKB 1 Co-CEO and CFO Angela Blatteis also joins and gives the behind-the-scenes look at how her team reached into the 2010 playbook to make this deal’s structure possible.

Could this deal start a trend among the hundreds of SPACs still searching? And what conditions need to be present for this to work?

Give it a listen.

Electronics manufacturing is a huge sector, but it's also fragmented, particularly at the early stages of a new product's lifecycle.

With its SPAC deal, Tempo Automation (NASDAQ:TMPO) is hoping to change that.

This week, we speak with Tempo Automation President and CEO Joy Weiss and Chairman Behrooz Abdi.

Tempo combined with ACE Convergence Acquisition Corporation in November 2022, and Joy explains the advantages of the SPAC route for Tempo’s consolidation strategy.

Behrooz, who led ACE Convergence's team before the merger, walks us through the technology landscape from a SPAC’s perspective and what it was like getting a deal to close under challenging market conditions.

Carbon capture technology has long been talked about, and it is finally in operation with LanzaTech among the pioneers. Its plants are turning potential emissions into clothing, household goods and sustainable fuels.

SPAC cash is now also an accelerant in this new process as the company announced a $1.7 billion combination with AMCI II last March. This week, we caught up with LanzaTech CEO Dr. Jennifer Holmgren.

She explained how LanzaTech has worked to strengthen its SPAC transaction since announcement and why it was a strategic decision from the start.

She also discusses how LanzaTech has structured its own business model to provide multiple channels of recurring revenues as well as what new carbon negative products you’ll be seeing on shelves soon.

It has been a bumpy year for crypto, but what if there was a way to invest in the space while dodging the volatility?

Bitcoin Depot hopes to be that stock and announced a $755 million dollar combination with GSR II Meteora Acquisition Corp. in August.

This week, we speak with Brandon Mintz, CEO of Bitcoin Depot. Brandon tells us how Bitcoin Depot has managed to build a crypto business without holding any crypto by serving customers through thousands of Bitcoin-trading cash ATM.

Its recent financial performance has seen it continue to grow through the crypto highs and lows and generate profits in a manner uncorrelated with Bitcoin prices.

GSR II Meteora Co-CEO Gus Garcia also joins to discuss why that fact was so important to his team’s calculus in striking a deal with Bitcoin Depot.

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are hard to market to and are routinely under-banked, so how can financial services firms reach them?

This week, we speak with Plastiq Founder and CEO Eliot Buchanan.

Plastiq specializes in providing payments services to SMBs and it signed a $480 million combination with Colonnade Acquisition Corp II (NYSE: CLAA) in August.

Eliot tells us how Plastiq has made inroads in this slice of the market and managed to dodge the impacts of the pandemic on its customer base.

We also discuss how some of the macro headwinds blowing towards SPACs actually provide a competitive advantage for Plastiq’s operations.

What is your life insurance policy worth while you’re still living? This week, we speak with Abacus Life President and CEO Jay Jackson who may just want to buy yours.

Abacus Life has made a business of buying consumer life insurance policies for upfront payments and holding them until maturity.

To help bring this particular kind of transaction more into the mainstream, Abacus Life announced a $618 million combination with East Resources Acquisition Company on August 30.

He explains how these policies can be bundled together to create uncorrelated assets that are attractive to institutions for hedging, and why he sees a SPAC deal as the right way to fuel the growth of Abacus Life’s model.