SPACInsider

This week, we speak with Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov about the company’s $2.2 billion dollar combination with Cohen Circle Acquisition Corp. I (NASDAQ:CCIR).

Few companies have been had to forge themselves in the flames recently quite like Ukraine’s leading telecom and digital services provider Kyivstar. Now, Kyivstar is not only telling that story but pitching it to public market investors.

Oleksandr explains how the company has maintained high EBITDA margins despite the many disruptions unleashed by Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 

He gets into why he decided now was the right time to make Kyivstar the first pureplay Ukraine stock to be listed in the US, and how its listing would give investors a chance to participate in the company’s industry consolidation plans as well as the eventual reconstruction of Ukraine.

After years of investment and excitement, the dawn of self-driving cars and trucks is now here. The question now is which business model among autonomous driving technology companies will win out?

This week, we speak with David Liu, CEO of autonomous trucking company Plus. Plus announced a $1.3 billion combination with Churchill Capital Corp. IX (NASDAQ:CCIX) last month.

David explains how both Plus’ strategy and the autonomous driving landscape have changed since the company last considered a SPAC listing and why the company is betting on a software-first approach - partnering with truck manufacturers rather than building hardware in-house. He also breaks down how this model could position Plus for better scalability and higher margins in the years ahead.

CEO Marc Nemati and Colombier II’s Omeed Malik break down the deal, timing, and the strategy.

Despite its moniker as the “the everything store” you can’t buy everything on Amazon, and firearms are one of those things. But, GrabAGun has spent years building a platform for regulated online firearms purchases, and soon, consumers will be able to buy GrabAGun stock as well.

This week, we speak with Marc Nemati, CEO of GrabAGun and Omeed Malik, CEO and Chairman of Colombier Acquisition Corp. II (NYSE:CLBR). The two announced a $197 million dollar combination in January of this year that is now nearing close.

Marc explains why GrabAGun’s platform and the inroads it has already made with Gen Z consumers would be difficult to replicate. And, why a public listing presents a unique opportunity in the traditionally fragmented and illiquid space.

Omeed lays out how the market has already reacted to the transaction as well as others that share a similar investment thesis, and how Colombier II has built its strategy around the enthusiasm the parties are already seeing.

Note: Subsequent to this interview, the Registration Statement on Form S-4 filed by GrabAGun Digital Holdings Inc. was declared effective. Trading using the PEW ticker is anticipated to occur as soon as practicable following the July 15, 2025 shareholders' meeting.

On this week’s SPACInsider REPLAY, we revisit a 2022 conversation with Harry Sloan of the Eagle SPACs.

At the time, Harry had already completed seven SPACs and was closing in on his eighth. As markets cooled and the SPAC boom waned, Harry offered a prescient take on where the market was headed—and what a “post-boom” SPAC cycle might look like.

Two years later, his words still resonate. Tune in for a thoughtful look back at a key inflection point in SPAC history.

Tariffs, Trade Routes, and Tech: Freightos’ View from the Cargo Frontlines

2025 is shaping up to be a wild year for global trade, and few companies have a vantage point on the impacts of every-changing tariff policy quite like digital cargo-booking platform Freightos (NASDAQ:CRGO).

This week, we catch up with Freightos CEO Zvi Schreiber. He shares how the shifting trade flows are showing up in Freightos’ numbers, and how companies are adjusting to meet the new challenges.

Zvi also discusses why the shipping industry has long resisted digitization and how Freightos has made headway since closing its combination with Gesher I in January 2023.

This week, we sit down with Rick Hendrix and Adam Fishman from the Live Oak SPAC team.

Rick Hendrix is the Founder of Live Oak Merchant Partners, and Chairman and CEO of Live Oak Acquisition Corp. V (NASDAQ:LOKV). In addition, he is an operating executive at Crestview Partners, a New York-based middle market focused private equity firm.

Adam Fishman is a Managing Partner at Live Oak Merchant and President and CFO of Live Oak V. Adam joined Live Oak right before Live Oak II was launched and has been an executive on each of the SPACs since.

Together they discuss how the SPAC climate has changed and how they choose to position their team relative to the broader market. Where are the big opportunities now, and what are some of the transaction terms and structures they would and would not consider?

Give it a listen

This week, we return to another episode from 2021, when we spoke with Will Marshall, Co-founder and CEO of Planet Labs(NYSE:PL). Planet provides data services drawn from its fleet of about 200 satellites that generate a complete image of the earth's surface every day.

It just celebrated its first quarter of EBITDA profitability, but at the time, it was still working to close its combination with dMY Technology Group IV. Niccolo de Masi, who at the time steered dMY IV, also joined to explain the investment case for Planet and the private space industry more broadly.

Many of those space ventures that combined with SPACs are now booming despite equity market headwinds. But, what did the pathway to the stars look like four years ago, and what challenges remain?

In this SPACInsider Podcast Replay, we go back to 2021, when we spoke with Chris Urmson, CEO and Chairman of autonomous truck technology firm Aurora (NASDAQ:AUR).

At the time, Aurora was working to close its $10 billion business combination with Reinvent Technology Y. Chris laid out how the company planned to approach the commercialization of its self-driving heavy truck business model and what challenges still laid ahead for it and other developers of autonomous technology.

Now, Aurora is preparing to debut its driverless trucks along the Dallas-to-Houston freight route later this month, with plans to extend on to El Paso and Phoenix, Arizona before year’s end.

Now that this debut is finally at hand, take a listen to what the road ahead for Aurora looked like four years ago and why it was kicking off that journey with a SPAC.

This week, in a special edition of the SPACInsider Podcast, we focus on the private markets with PM Insights Founder and CEO Nick Fusco.

Nick weighs in with his thoughts on the major trends shaping private market valuations today and how the market has evolved since the pandemic years.

Plus, how difficult is it to gain reliable data on private funding rounds and what lessons can be learned for SPACs making their own valuation decisions while on the hunt for a deal?

PM Insights is a secondary market pricing and analytics provider focusing on private market company stocks.

Quantum computing has been one of the hottest investment topics in the past two months and three of the leading listed companies in the space are de-SPACs. But, how close is quantum computing to generating real value and what capabilities are still years away?

This week, we speak with Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave (NYSE:QBTS), which went public in a business combination with DPCM Capital in 2022. Alan explains how D-Wave’s quantum computers are already doing commercial work and generating revenue by solving complex business optimization problems for clients.

He also gives a primer on what investors should look for in the quantum industry news as they try to parse real progress from incremental research.

How did D-Wave itself emerge from a post-listing capital crunch to announce record bookings in 2024 and start out 2025 with over $300 million in cash on hand?

Give it a listen.