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Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐
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DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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References to the “Company,” “our,” “us” or “we” refer to Tribe Capital Growth Corp I, a blank check company incorporated in Delaware on November 5, 2020. References to our “sponsor” refer to Tribe Arrow Holdings I LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, an entity affiliated with our officers, directors and advisors.
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains statistical data, estimates and forecasts that are based on independent industry publications or other publicly available information, as well as other information based on our internal sources. While we believe the industry and market data included in this report are reliable and are based on reasonable assumptions, these data involve many assumptions and limitations, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to these estimates. While we are not aware of any misstatements regarding any such third-party information presented in this report, we have not independently verified the accuracy or completeness of the data contained in these industry publications and other publicly available information. None of the industry publications referred to in this report were prepared on our or on our affiliates’ behalf or at our expense. Our business is subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in Item 1A. “Risk Factors,” which could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in these publications and other publicly available information.
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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which reflect our current views with respect to future events and financial performance, and any other statements of a future or forward-looking nature, constitute “forward-looking statements” for the purpose of the federal securities laws. Our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our or our management’s expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intends,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “will,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this report may include, for example, statements about:
The forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on us. Future developments affecting us may not be those that we have anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors described in Item 1A. “Risk Factors.” Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.
In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this report, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements as predictions of future results. Our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.
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RISK FACTOR SUMMARY
Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including those highlighted in the section title “Risk Factors,” that represent challenges that we face in connection with the successful implementation of our strategy. The occurrence of one or more of the events or circumstances described in the section titled “Risk Factors,” alone or in combination with other events or circumstances, may adversely affect our ability to effect a business combination, and may have an adverse effect on our business, cash flows, financial condition and results of operations. Such risks include, but are not limited to:
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PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS.
Introduction
We are a blank check company incorporated as a Delaware corporation and formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with one or more businesses. We have neither engaged in any operations unrelated to our search for business combination candidates nor generated any revenue to date.
Our sponsor is affiliated with Tribe Capital Management LLC (“TCM”), a registered investment advisor under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended. TCM is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, established in 2018, focused on using product and data science to engineer outsized outcomes. The TCM team believes the largest and most significant companies of our generation can only be predictably identified by drawing insights from the raw transactional data that companies produce and systematically benchmarking them across hundreds of opportunities. We also believe that the largest outcomes can only be predictably realized by long-term partners that enter the right opportunities early, and have the ability to materially affect and capture the value accreted by each growth inflection point across a company’s entire lifecycle. Our process has been designed to merge these two beliefs through the mastery of data. Our mission is to provide outsized returns for our partners by using data science to both identify outliers early and multiply their value through their entire lifecycle.
Tribe Capital Growth Corp I is a natural extension of TCM’s core mission that will allow us to enter into long-term partnerships with companies that are ready to go public in the same way we partner with private companies that are looking to grow exponentially. Our purpose is to pursue opportunities with top-decile private technology companies that are exhibiting inflection points in their growth, with the potential to scale towards outsized outcomes with long-term venture capital. At TCM, we call these “N-of-1” opportunities, where a company has begun capturing a new atomic unit of value—like oil, idle cars, empty rooms, or the friend graph—that when captured, has the potential to catalyze an immense wave of innovation. The inflection point comes as the company has captured and begun to dominate the atomic unit, creating scarcity such that economic activity and entire markets refactor around the company.
Three companies in particular exemplify TCM team members’ track record of investing in and partnering with founders to create N-of-1 companies: Facebook, Slack and Carta. At Facebook, our team members led the discovery of new approaches for using data to inform critical decisions throughout the company lifecycle, from the early stage, through the inflection point to IPO, and beyond. As we became investors, we evolved our frameworks to use data to identify N-of-1 opportunities early in the startup lifecycle—which led us to fund Slack in 2014, reinvest in subsequent rounds of funding and advise the executive team on charting its course towards its N-of-1 outcome and eventual IPO. In early 2019 when Carta was reaching its inflection point of moving beyond its initial 409a market into fund administration, liquidity and banking, we helped evolve Carta’s narrative and focus their forward strategy. At a time when few others saw Carta’s potential, Tribe recognized and quantified a network effect that could be derived from Carta’s platform. Tribe’s thesis was the feature of Carta’s data rooms and its vision a key driver for its growth.
As the economy has shifted towards intangible assets and products that can achieve massive scale, the public markets have evolved a more nuanced view of profit and growth that makes conditions ripe for special purpose acquisition company (“SPAC”) combinations. New technologies have resulted in the emergence of companies that can achieve sustained growth trajectories far beyond what was possible in the late 20th century, years and even decades past the milestone of having become publicly-traded. SPACs allow for these growth companies to quickly and efficiently go public and unlock capital markets potential, within a structure that pairs the company with long-term growth partners that can advise on how to grow and scale exponentially.
Companies have come to TCM, as ideal long-term venture capital partners, because TCM leverages data both internally with leadership to chart out a company’s execution path, and externally to shape the growth narrative for the markets. When TCM partners with a company, TCM uses company data to build a bottom-up view of the company, around which TCM will look to collaborate with leadership, to articulate the company’s unique growth potential as N-of-1. Those insights are then operationalized internally, to drive improvements in operations and execution, and the narrative becomes the equity story through which the company finances its growth trajectory at the lowest cost of capital. The TCM framework of using data allows it to identify N-of-1 opportunities and do it repeatedly, consistently and at scale. These aspects work in conjunction to provide an exceptional and unusual founder experience, and we believe positions us as an attractive partner and acquirer both in the private and public markets.
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As famed value investor Benjamin Graham was one of the first to utilize accounting as an aid to investment decisions, thus birthing “fundamentals analysis,” at TCM, we’ve pioneered using data and product analytics to evaluate software and growth businesses. The SPAC structure empowers us to bring our growth investing expertise – once limited to private markets – to the public markets, in search of long-term growth alignment.
Background on our Sponsor
Tribe Arrow Holdings I LLC is a company formed by TCM and Arrow Capital to be our sponsor. Our sponsor combines data scientists, technologists, entrepreneurs around a shared vision of investing and partnering with technology focused companies. Our belief is that our team’s access, reach and relationships with founders, executives and venture capitalists, in the public and private markets, will give us an advantage in the ability to identify and implement value creation.
Tribe Capital
TCM is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, established in 2018, focused on using product and data science to engineer outsized outcomes. It was co-founded by Arjun Sethi, Ted Maidenberg and Jonathan Hsu in 2018. TCM has been an early investor in companies that have demonstrated strong growth in the public and private markets, such as Momentus, Relativity, Carta, Instabase and Bolt.
Arrow Capital
Arrow Capital (“Arrow”) is a leading boutique asset manager and investment advisory firm. Arrow registered investment management company with offices in Dubai (regulated by Dubai Financial Services Authority – DFSA) and Mauritius (regulated by Financial Services Commission – FSC).
Management Team
Our management team is led by Arjun Sethi, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Omar Chohan, our Chief Financial Officer, Sumit Mehta, our Vice President and Ted Maidenberg, our Secretary. TCM’s investment team, the broader team at TCM, and our strategic advisors will work to counsel and support the management team.
Arjun Sethi is our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Sethi is a serial entrepreneur, investor and executive with deep roots in the Silicon Valley and more than a decade of experience building, sourcing and investing in over 100 high-growth technology companies, most notably independently investing in companies such as Opendoor, Gusto and Truecaller. Mr. Sethi also co-founded TCM in 2018, which has invested in fast growing and notable companies such as Carta, Relativity, Shiprocket, Applied Intuition, Instabase, Momentus, Bolt, Front, and Equipmentshare. Prior to founding Tribe, Mr. Sethi was a partner at Social Capital from 2016 to 2018, where he led the team which established a successful track-record of backing high-growth companies such as Slack, Cloud Kitchens, and Box. He also served on the executive team at Yahoo, from 2014 to 2016, where he grew product usage to over 1 billion monthly active unique users. He joined Yahoo as part of its acquisition of MessageMe, a messaging app he founded in 2012. Prior to that, Mr. Sethi co-founded LOLapps, a mobile gaming and applications company which he scaled to 100 million monthly users before it was sold to 6waves, a subsidiary of Nexon.
Sumit Mehta is our Vice President. Mr. Mehta has been a managing director at Arrow Capital since 2019. He has over 15 years of experience across Corporate Finance, M&A and Private Equity, and a strong track record of identifying and executing successful transactions. In his previous role, starting in 2007, Mr. Mehta was the head of Deal Structuring & Advisory at Daman Investments, one of the leading investment companies in Dubai and part of the $5 billion Gargash Group. In his career span, Mr. Mehta has led large and complex investment deals, equity and debt financing transactions ranging from $50 million to $750 million across a wide range of sectors including technology, real estate, hospitality, education, auto, and consumer care. Mr. Mehta started his career with ABN AMRO in India as an investment advisor prior to moving to the Middle East.
Ted Maidenberg is our Secretary. Mr. Maidenberg brings over two decades of experience as an entrepreneur, investor and operator in the technology, media and telecom sector. He co-founded TCM in 2018. Previously, he co-founded Social Capital in 2011, where he established a proven track record of value creation with notable successes including Slack, Propeller Health, Yammer, and Wealthfront. From 2006 to 2011, Mr. Maidenberg was a partner as U.S. Venture Partners where he invested in Trunkclub, Adify and Revolution Money. Prior to his investment career, Mr. Maidenberg ran the wireless licensing division for Warner Brothers Japan.
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Omar Chohan is our Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Chohan brings over 20 years of CFO experience with broad cross border, strategic and transactional experience. Since 2020, Mr. Chohan has served as a partner, and runs the Special Situations Group (SSG) at TCM, and separately serves as general partner at a TCM affiliated venture capital firm, PIF VC. Mr. Chohan also has extensive experience supporting growth stage companies around the world. He currently sits on the board of Ampaire and also founded Luxsant LLC in 2013, a global boutique CFO and management consulting firm employing a global team of professionals across six international offices, focusing on accounting, internal controls/audit, pre-acquisition due diligence, M&A, and turnaround/restructuring of distressed assets.
Our Directors
Our efforts to seek a suitable business combination target will be enhanced by the expertise and relationships of our directors, each who bring a depth of experience in business and financial matters, and who will provide us with additional guidance and oversight.
Rohit Nanani is the Founder and CEO of Arrow Capital, which he founded in 2016, a leading boutique asset manager and investment advisory firm. Mr. Nanani has a proven track record as an international banker with 20+ years of experience in global financial markets. He has held several executive positions across notable global institutions, including as a Managing Director with Barclays Bank Plc (DIFC – Dubai), starting in 2013, and heading the GSAC (South Asian Clients) business and as Executive Director at UBS Singapore, having clientele across South East Asia, Middle East, Africa and UK. Prior to his private banking experience, Mr. Nanani spent ten years with global institutions such as ABN AMRO and Bank of Nova Scotia in India in the Corporate Banking business. His rich and varied experience across corporate banking and private banking gives him an advantage in providing holistic advisory services to ultra-high net worth clients and large family offices.
Richard Peretz retired as the chief financial officer and treasurer of UPS, which he served from 2015 to 2020. Mr. Peretz was responsible for Global Finance activities at UPS. He also served as a member of the UPS Management Committee, setting strategy for long-term growth including the current capital structure realignment and transformation initiatives. Mr. Peretz was also responsible for UPS’s Initial Public Offering in 1999, at the time the largest in U.S. history. Prior to being named CFO, Mr. Peretz held various leadership positions at UPS, including corporate controller and treasurer from 2007-2015.
Henry Ward is the CEO of Carta, a company he co-founded in 2012 to revolutionize the way founders, investors, and employees manage equity and ownership. Carta was founded in 2012, and has grown to manage hundreds of billions of dollars in equity. Companies including Robinhood, Tilray, and Union Square Ventures trust Carta to provide fund administration, 409A valuations, cap table management and scenario modeling. Prior to Carta, Mr. Ward was the founder and CEO of Secondsight, a portfolio optimization platform for retail investors. Prior, Mr Ward held leadership positions at software companies including Reddwerks Inc. and BetweenMarkets.
Duriya Farooqui has been an independent director at InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (NYSE: IHG) as of 2020, and at Intercontinental Exchange, Inc (NYSE: ICE) since 2017. She also serves on the boards of NYSE and ICE NGX, all of which are ICE subsidiaries. Most recently, between 2019 and 2020, Ms. Farooqui was president of supply chain innovation at Georgia Pacific, leading an innovation organization where over 40 companies came together to solve supply chain challenges through rapid experimentation, digital technology and collaboration. Ms. Farooqui was previously executive director of Atlanta Committee for Progress (ACP), a coalition of leading CEOs addressing critical economic development issues for Atlanta; a role she held from 2016 to 2018. Ms. Farooqui was a principal at Bain & Company from 2014 to 2016. She served the City of Atlanta through several leadership positions including, chief operating officer from 2011 to 2013, deputy chief operating officer from 2010 to 2011 and director from 2007 to 2009. At the start of her career, she worked with the Center for International Development at Harvard University, The World Bank, and the Center for Global Development. Ms. Farooqui is a Trustee of the Woodruff Arts Center and Agnes Scott College.
Notwithstanding our founders’ (including TCM’s) and management team’s past experiences, past performance is not a guarantee (i) that we will be able to identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination or (ii) that we will provide an attractive return to our stockholders from any business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record of our founders’ (including TCM’s) and management’s performance as indicative of our future performance. See “Risk Factors—Past performance of our founders (including TCM) and the other members of our management team, including investments and transactions in which they have participated and businesses with which they have been associated, may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us, and we may be unable to provide positive returns to stockholders.”
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Our Mission and Competitive Advantages
TCM’s data-informed frameworks for identifying N-of-1 opportunities allow us to analyze over 1,000 businesses per year and conduct quantitative diligence on hundreds of those companies. TCM sees companies across every sector and every stage of the company lifecycle. TCM shares its analytical work with every company on which it conducts diligence helping it win competitive deals while building its reputation in the startup ecosystem as value-add. TCM has accumulated a repository of billions of observation points on traction and growth that allow it to benchmark with precision and flexibility, which the TCM team uses to distinguish ordinary companies from the outlier companies that have a chance at an N-of-1 outcome. The following represent TCM’s core competitive advantages that we believe will help position us as a desirable acquirer.
Our advantage is based in the core philosophy that the TCM team has around investing in growth businesses:
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Business Combination Criteria
Consistent with our strategy, we have identified the following general criteria and guidelines to evaluate prospective target businesses. We may however, decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet all of these criteria and guidelines. We intend to seek to acquire one or more businesses that we believe:
TCM’s proprietary technology platform gives us the operational data to allow us to confidently identify top decile performance across a very wide swath of metrics for products and companies across a wide array of life stages. Our technology platform is key to providing a unique and insightful view of a company and will be a key component of our decision-making.
These criteria and guidelines are not intended to be exhaustive. Any evaluation relating to the merits of a particular initial business combination may be based, to the extent relevant, on these general guidelines as well as other considerations, factors, and criteria that our team may deem relevant. In the event that we decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet the above criteria and guidelines, we will disclose that the target business does not meet the above criteria in our stockholder communications related to our initial business combination, which, as discussed in this annual report and our other Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filings, would be in the form of tender offer documents or proxy solicitation materials that we would file with the SEC.
Initial Business Combination
In accordance with the rules of Nasdaq, our initial business combination must occur with one or more target businesses that together have an aggregate fair market value of at least 80% of the assets held in the trust account (excluding the amount of deferred underwriting discounts held in trust and taxes payable on the income earned on the trust account) at the time of our signing a definitive agreement in connection with our initial business combination. If our board of directors is not able to independently determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses, we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions with respect to satisfaction of such criteria. Our shareholders may not be provided with a copy of such opinion nor will they be able to rely on such opinion. Subject to this requirement, our management will have virtually unrestricted flexibility in identifying and selecting one or more prospective businesses, but if the business combination involves more than one target business, the 80% fair market value test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses and we will treat the target businesses together as our initial business combination for purposes of a seeking stockholder approval or conducting a tender offer, as applicable. We do not currently intend to purchase multiple businesses in unrelated industries in conjunction with our initial business combination.
We anticipate structuring our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public shareholders own shares will own or acquire 100% of the outstanding equity interests or assets of the target business or businesses. We may, however, structure our initial business combination such that the post-transaction company owns or acquires less than 100% of such interests or assets of the target business in order to meet certain objectives of the prior owners of the target business, the target management team or shareholders or for other reasons, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target business or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target business sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended
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(the “Investment Company Act”). Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our shareholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-transaction company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination transaction. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new shares in exchange for all of the outstanding capital stock, shares or other equity interests of a target business or issue a substantial number of new shares to third-parties in connection with financing our initial business combination. In this case, we would acquire a 100% controlling interest in the target. However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new shares, our shareholders immediately prior to our initial business combination could own less than a majority of our issued and outstanding shares subsequent to our initial business combination. If less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business or businesses are owned or acquired by the post-transaction company, the portion of such business or businesses that is owned or acquired is what will be valued for purposes of the 80% fair market value test.
We may need to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination, either because the transaction requires more cash than is available from the proceeds held in our trust account or because we become obligated to redeem a significant number of our public shares upon completion of the business combination, in which case we may issue additional securities or incur debt in connection with such business combination. There are no prohibitions on our ability to issue securities or incur debt in connection with our initial business combination.
In connection with the consummation of our initial public offering, Arrow has committed, pursuant to a written agreement, to assist us in raising capital in connection with our initial business combination. In the event we are unable to secure investors to invest the amount of capital required for our initial business combination (the “PIPE”), prior to the announcement our initial business combination, Arrow Capital has committed to raising up to 30% of the required PIPE amount (the “Arrow PIPE Amount”), from Arrow’s network of investors. Subject to certain limited exceptions, if Arrow fails to raise the Arrow PIPE Amount, then Arrow shall forfeit an amount of up to 50% of the private placement warrants, allocated to it, by virtue of the interests that Arrow holds in our sponsor.
Sourcing of Potential Initial Business Combination Targets
We believe our team’s significant operating and transaction experience and relationships will provide us with a substantial number of potential initial business combination targets. Over the course of their careers, the members of our team have developed a broad network of contacts and corporate relationships around the world, which includes private equity firms, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. This network has grown through the activities of our team sourcing, acquiring and financing businesses, the reputation of our team for integrity and fair dealing with sellers, financing sources and target management teams and the experience of our team in executing transactions under varying economic and financial market conditions.
This network has provided our team with a flow of referrals, which in the past has resulted in numerous transactions which were proprietary or where a limited group of investors were invited to participate in the sale process. We believe that this network will provide us with multiple investment opportunities. In addition, we anticipate that target business combination candidates will be brought to our attention by various unaffiliated sources, including participants in our targeted markets and their advisors, private equity funds and large business enterprises seeking to divest non-core assets or divisions.
While we do not presently anticipate engaging the services of professional firms or other individuals that specialize in business acquisitions on any formal basis, we may engage these firms or other individuals in the future, in which event we may pay a finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation to be determined in an arm’s length negotiation based on the terms of the transaction. We will engage a finder only to the extent our management determines that the use of a finder may bring opportunities to us that may not otherwise be available to us or if finders approach us on an unsolicited basis with a potential transaction that our management determines is in our best interest to pursue. Payment of a finder’s fee is customarily tied to completion of a transaction, in which case any such fee will be paid out of the funds held in the trust account. In no event, however, will our sponsor or any of our existing officers or directors, or any entity with which they are affiliated, be paid any finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation by the company prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate, the completion of our initial business combination (regardless of the type of transaction that it is). In addition, we pay an affiliate of our sponsor $10,000 per month for office space, secretarial and administrative services provided to members of our team. Other than the foregoing, there will be no finder’s fees, reimbursement, consulting fee, monies in respect of any payment of a loan or other compensation paid by us to our sponsor, officers or directors, or any affiliate of our sponsor or officers prior to, or in connection with any services rendered in order to effectuate, the consummation of our initial business combination (regardless of the type of transaction that it is).
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We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers or directors, or completing the business combination through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with our sponsor, executive officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete an initial business combination with a target that is affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions stating that such an initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
Members of our team directly or indirectly own founder shares and/or private placement warrants and, accordingly, may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial business combination. Further, each of our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a particular business combination if the retention or resignation of any such officers and directors was included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial business combination.
Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to another entity pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity. Accordingly, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such other entity. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of the company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue, and to the extent the director or officer is permitted to refer that opportunity to us without violating another legal obligation. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Our officers, directors and strategic advisors have agreed not to participate in the formation of, or become an officer, director or strategic advisor of, any other special purpose acquisition company with a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act without our prior written consent, which will not be unreasonably withheld.
Competition
In identifying, evaluating and selecting a target business for our initial business combination, we may encounter intense competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including other blank check companies, private equity groups and leveraged buyout funds, and operating businesses seeking strategic acquisitions. Many of these entities are well established and have significant experience identifying and effecting business combinations directly or through affiliates. Moreover, many of these competitors possess greater financial, technical, human and other resources than us. Our ability to acquire larger target businesses will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of a target business. Furthermore, the requirement that we acquire a target business or businesses that satisfy the 80% of net assets test at the time of the agreement to enter into the initial business combination, our obligation to pay cash in connection with our public stockholders who exercise their redemption rights and the future dilution they potentially represent, may not be viewed favorably by certain target businesses. Any of these factors may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating our initial business combination.
Employees and Human Capital Resources
We have two executive officers. These individuals are not obligated to devote any specific number of hours to our matters and intend to devote only as much time as they deem necessary to our affairs. The amount of time they will devote in any time period will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial business combination and the stage of our initial business combination process the company is in. Accordingly, once a suitable target business to acquire has been located, management may spend more time investigating such target business and negotiating and processing the business combination (and consequently spend more time on our affairs) than had been spent prior to locating a suitable target business. We presently expect our executive officers to devote such amount of time as they reasonably believe is necessary to our business. We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the consummation of our initial business combination.
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Periodic Reporting and Audited Financial Statements
We have registered our units, common stock and warrants under the Exchange Act and have reporting obligations, including the requirement that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with the SEC. In accordance with the requirements of the Exchange Act, our annual reports, such as this Annual Report on Form 10-K, contain financial statements audited and reported on by our independent registered public accountants.
We will provide stockholders with audited financial statements of the prospective target business as part of any proxy solicitation sent to stockholders to assist them in assessing the target business. In all likelihood, the financial information included in the proxy solicitation materials will need to be prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”), or international financial reporting standards, or IFRS, as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, or IASB, depending on the circumstances, and the historical financial statements may be required to be audited in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), or PCAOB. The financial statements may also be required to be prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP for the Form 8-K announcing the closing of an initial business combination, which would need to be filed within four business days thereafter. We cannot assure you that any particular target business selected by us as a potential acquisition candidate will have the necessary financial information. To the extent that this requirement cannot be met, we may not be able to acquire the proposed target business.
We will be required to evaluate our internal control over financial reporting for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022. A target company may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of their internal controls. The development of the internal controls of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such acquisition.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act, as modified by The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act. As such, we are eligible to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the prices of our securities may be more volatile.
In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an “emerging growth company” can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an “emerging growth company” can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We intend to take advantage of the benefits of this extended transition period.
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of our initial public offering (“IPO”), (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the prior three-year period. References herein to “emerging growth company” shall have the meaning associated with it in the JOBS Act.
Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of any fiscal year for so long as either (1) the market value of our shares of common stock held by non-affiliates does not equal or exceed $250.0 million as of the prior June 30th, or (2) our annual revenues did not equal or exceed $100.0 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our shares of common stock held by non-affiliates did not equal or exceed $700.0 million as of the prior June 30th. To the extent we take advantage of any reduced disclosure obligations, it may also make comparison of our financial statements with other public companies difficult or impossible.
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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS.
An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully the risks described below, which we believe represent some of the material risks related to our securities, together with the other information contained in this annual report, before making a decision to invest in our securities. This annual report also contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of specific factors, including the risks described below.
Risks Relating to our Search for, Consummation of, or Inability to Consummate, a Business Combination and Post-Business Combination Risks
Our public stockholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial business combination, and even if we hold a vote, holders of our founder shares will participate in such vote, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our public stockholders do not support such a combination.
We may choose not to hold a stockholder vote to approve our initial business combination unless the initial business combination would require stockholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements or if we decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other legal reasons. Except as required by law or the rules of Nasdaq, the decision as to whether we will seek stockholder approval of a proposed initial business combination or will allow stockholders to sell their shares to us in a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on a variety of factors, such as the timing of the transaction and whether the terms of the transaction would otherwise require us to seek stockholder approval. Even if we seek stockholder approval, the holders of our founder shares will participate in the vote on such approval. Accordingly, we may complete our initial business combination even if holders of a majority of our public shares do not approve of the initial business combination we complete.
Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash.
At the time of your investment in us, you will not be provided with an opportunity to evaluate the specific merits or risks of our initial business combination. Since our board of directors may complete a business combination without seeking stockholder approval, public stockholders may not have the right or opportunity to vote on the business combination, unless we seek such stockholder vote. Accordingly, your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding our initial business combination may be limited to exercising your redemption rights within the period of time (which will be at least 20 business days) set forth in our tender offer documents mailed to our public stockholders in which we describe our initial business combination.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, our initial stockholders and management team have agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public stockholders vote.
Our initial stockholders own 20% of our outstanding common stock immediately following the completion of our initial public offering. Our initial stockholders and management team also may from time to time purchase Class A common stock prior to our initial business combination. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, if we seek stockholder approval of an initial business combination, such initial business combination will be approved if we receive the affirmative vote of a majority of the shares voted at such meeting, including the founder shares. As a result, in addition to our initial stockholders’ founder shares, we would need 9,000,001, or 37.5%, of the 24,000,000 public shares sold in our initial public offering to be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to have our initial business combination approved (assuming all outstanding shares are voted and the over-allotment option is not exercised). Accordingly, if we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, the agreement by our initial stockholders and management team to vote in favor of our initial business combination will increase the likelihood that we will receive the requisite stockholder approval for such initial business combination.
The ability of our public stockholders to redeem their shares for cash may make our financial condition unattractive to potential business combination targets, which may make it difficult for us to enter into a business combination with a target.
We may seek to enter into a business combination transaction agreement with minimum cash requirement for (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners; (ii) cash for working capital or other general corporate purposes; or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions. If too many public stockholders exercise their redemption rights, we would not be able to meet such closing condition and, as a result, would not be able to proceed with the business combination. Furthermore, in no event will we redeem our public shares
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in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001. Consequently, if accepting all properly submitted redemption requests would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 or make us unable to satisfy a minimum cash condition as described above, we would not proceed with such redemption and the related business combination and may instead search for an alternate business combination. Prospective targets will be aware of these risks and, thus, may be reluctant to enter into a business combination transaction with us.
The ability of our public stockholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares may not allow us to complete the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure.
At the time we enter into an agreement for our initial business combination, we will not know how many stockholders may exercise their redemption rights, and therefore will need to structure the transaction based on our expectations as to the number of shares that will be submitted for redemption. If our initial business combination agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the trust account to pay the purchase price, or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, we will need to reserve a portion of the cash in the trust account to meet such requirements, or arrange for third-party financing. In addition, if a larger number of shares is submitted for redemption than we initially expected, we may need to restructure the transaction to reserve a greater portion of the cash in the trust account or arrange for third-party financing. Raising additional third-party financing may involve dilutive equity issuances or the incurrence of indebtedness at higher than desirable levels. Furthermore, this dilution would increase to the extent that the anti-dilution provision of the Class B common stock results in the issuance of shares of Class A common stock on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of the shares of Class B common stock at the time of our initial business combination. In addition, the amount of the deferred underwriting commissions payable to the representative of the underwriters will not be adjusted for any shares that are redeemed in connection with our initial business combination. The per share amount we will distribute to stockholders who properly exercise their redemption rights will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commission and after such redemptions, the amount held in trust will continue to reflect our obligation to pay the entire deferred underwriting commissions. The above considerations may limit our ability to complete the most desirable business combination available to us or optimize our capital structure.
The ability of our public stockholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares could increase the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful and that you would have to wait for liquidation in order to redeem your shares.
If our initial business combination agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the trust account to pay the purchase price, or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful is increased. If our initial business combination is unsuccessful, you would not receive your pro rata portion of the trust account until we liquidate the trust account. If you are in need of immediate liquidity, you could attempt to sell your shares in the open market; however, at such time our shares may trade at a discount to the pro rata amount per share in the trust account. In either situation, you may suffer a material loss on your investment or lose the benefit of funds expected in connection with your exercise of redemption rights until we liquidate or you are able to sell your shares in the open market.
The requirement that we complete our initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of our initial public offering may give potential target businesses leverage over us in negotiating a business combination and may limit the time we have in which to conduct due diligence on potential business combination targets, in particular as we approach our dissolution deadline, which could undermine our ability to complete our initial business combination on terms that would produce value for our stockholders.
Any potential target business with which we enter into negotiations concerning a business combination will be aware that we must complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering. Consequently, such target business may obtain leverage over us in negotiating a business combination, knowing that if we do not complete our initial business combination with that particular target business, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination with any target business. This risk will increase as we get closer to the timeframe described above. In addition, we may have limited time to conduct due diligence and may enter into our initial business combination on terms that we would have rejected upon a more comprehensive investigation.
We may not be able to complete our initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of our initial public offering, in which case we would cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up and we would redeem our public shares and liquidate.
We may not be able to find a suitable target business and complete our initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of our initial public offering. Our ability to complete our initial business combination may be adversely impacted by general market conditions, volatility in the capital and debt markets and the other risks described herein. If we have not completed our initial business
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combination within such time period, we will (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case, to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law.
Our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected by the recent coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
The significant outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in a widespread health crisis that could adversely affect the economies and financial markets worldwide, and the business of any potential target business with which we consummate a business combination could be materially and adversely affected. We may be unable to complete our initial business combination if continued concerns relating to COVID-19 restrict travel, limit the ability to have meetings with potential investors or the target company’s personnel, vendors and services providers are unavailable to negotiate and consummate a transaction in a timely manner. The extent to which COVID-19 impacts our search for a business combination will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of COVID-19 and the actions to contain COVID-19 or treat its impact, among others. If the disruptions posed by COVID-19 or other matters of global concern continue for an extensive period of time, our ability to consummate a business combination, or the operations of a target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected.
As the number of special purpose acquisition companies evaluating targets increases, attractive targets may become scarcer and there may be more competition for attractive targets. This could increase the cost of our initial business combination and could even result in our inability to find a target or to consummate our initial business combination.
In recent years, the number of special purpose acquisition companies that have been formed has increased substantially. Many potential targets for special purpose acquisition companies have already entered into an initial business combination, and there are still many special purpose acquisition companies seeking targets for their initial business combination, as well as many such companies currently in registration. As a result, at times, fewer attractive targets may be available, and it may require more time, more effort and more resources to identify a suitable target and to consummate an initial business combination.
In addition, because there are more special purpose acquisition companies seeking to enter into an initial business combination with available targets, the competition for available targets with attractive fundamentals or business models may increase, which could cause targets companies to demand improved financial terms. Attractive deals could also become scarcer for other reasons, such as economic or industry sector downturns, geopolitical tensions, or increases in the cost of additional capital needed to close business combinations or operate targets post-business combination. This could increase the cost of, delay or otherwise complicate or frustrate our ability to find and consummate an initial business combination, and may result in our inability to consummate an initial business combination on terms favorable to our investors altogether.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, initial stockholders, directors, executive officers and their affiliates may elect to purchase shares or public warrants from public stockholders, which may influence a vote on a proposed business combination and reduce the public “float” of our Class A common stock.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, initial stockholders, directors, executive officers or their affiliates may purchase shares or public warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination, although they are under no obligation to do so. There is no limit on the number of shares our initial stockholders, directors, officers or their affiliates may purchase in such transactions, subject to compliance with applicable law and Nasdaq rules. However, other than as expressly stated herein, they have no current commitments, plans or intentions to engage in such transactions and have not formulated any terms or conditions for any such transactions. None of the funds in the trust account will be used to purchase shares or public warrants in such transactions. Such purchases may include a contractual acknowledgment that such stockholder, although still the record holder of our shares, is no longer the beneficial owner thereof and therefore agrees not to exercise its redemption rights.
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In the event that our sponsor, initial stockholders, directors, executive officers or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public stockholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling stockholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. The purpose of any such purchases of shares could be to vote such shares in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining stockholder approval of the business combination or to satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our initial business combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. The purpose of any such purchases of public warrants could be to reduce the number of public warrants outstanding or to vote such warrants on any matters submitted to the warrant holders for approval in connection with our initial business combination. Any such purchases of our securities may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible. We expect any such purchases will be reported pursuant to Section 13 and Section 16 of the Exchange Act to the extent such purchasers are subject to such reporting requirements.
In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our Class A common stock or public warrants and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, possibly making it difficult to obtain or maintain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
If a stockholder fails to receive notice of our offer to redeem our public shares in connection with our initial business combination, or fails to comply with the procedures for tendering its shares, such shares may not be redeemed.
We will comply with the proxy rules or tender offer rules, as applicable, when conducting redemptions in connection with our initial business combination. Despite our compliance with these rules, if a stockholder fails to receive our proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, such stockholder may not become aware of the opportunity to redeem its shares. In addition, proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will describe the various procedures that must be complied with in order to validly tender or submit public shares for redemption. For example, we intend to require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to, at the holder’s option, either deliver their stock certificates to our transfer agent, or to deliver their shares to our transfer agent electronically prior to the date set forth in the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable. In the case of proxy materials, this date may be up to two business days prior to the vote on the proposal to approve the initial business combination. In addition, if we conduct redemptions in connection with a stockholder vote, we intend to require a public stockholder seeking redemption of its public shares to also submit a written request for redemption to our transfer agent two business days prior to the vote in which the name of the beneficial owner of such shares is included. In the event that a stockholder fails to comply with these or any other procedures disclosed in the proxy or tender offer materials, as applicable, its shares may not be redeemed.
Because of our limited resources and the significant competition for business combination opportunities, it may be more difficult for us to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We expect to encounter competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including private investors (which may be individuals or investment partnerships), other blank check companies and other entities, domestic and international, competing for the types of businesses we intend to acquire. Many of these individuals and entities are well-established and have extensive experience in identifying and effecting, directly or indirectly, acquisitions of companies operating in or providing services to various industries. Many of these competitors possess similar or greater technical, human and other resources to ours or more local industry knowledge than we do and our financial resources will be relatively limited when contrasted with those of many of these competitors. While we believe there are numerous target businesses we could potentially acquire with the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain target businesses that are sizable will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent competitive limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of certain target businesses. Furthermore, we are obligated to offer holders of our public shares the right to redeem their shares for cash at the time of our initial business combination in conjunction with a stockholder vote or via a tender offer. Target companies will be aware that this may reduce the resources available to us for our initial business combination. Any of these obligations may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating a business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
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If the net proceeds of our initial public offering not being held in the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate for at least the 24 months following the closing of the offering, it could limit the amount available to fund our search for a target business or businesses and complete our initial business combination, and we will depend on loans from our sponsor or management team to fund our search and to complete our initial business combination.
Of the net proceeds of our initial public offering, only $1,000,000 will be available to us initially outside the trust account to fund our working capital requirements. Of the funds available to us, we could use a portion of the funds available to us to pay fees to consultants to assist us with our search for a target business. We could also use a portion of the funds as a down payment or to fund a “no-shop” provision (a provision in letters of intent or merger agreements designed to keep target businesses from “shopping” around for transactions with other companies or investors on terms more favorable to such target businesses) with respect to a particular proposed business combination, although we do not have any current intention to do so. If we entered into a letter of intent or merger agreement where we paid for the right to receive exclusivity from a target business and were subsequently required to forfeit such funds (whether as a result of our breach or otherwise), we might not have sufficient funds to continue searching for, or conduct due diligence with respect to, a target business.
In the event that our offering expenses exceed our estimate of $1,000,000, we may fund such excess with funds not to be held in the trust account. In such case, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would decrease by a corresponding amount. The amount held in the trust account will not be impacted as a result of such decrease. If we are required to seek additional capital, we would need to borrow funds from our sponsor, management team or other third parties to operate or may be forced to liquidate. Neither our sponsor, members of our management team nor any of their affiliates is under any obligation to advance funds to us in such circumstances. Any such advances would be repaid only from funds held outside the trust account or from funds released to us upon completion of our initial business combination. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.50 per warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants. Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in our trust account. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the trust account. Consequently, our public stockholders may only receive an estimated $10.00 per share, or possibly less, on our redemption of our public shares, and our warrants will expire worthless.
If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per-share redemption amount received by our stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share.
Our placing of funds in the trust account may not protect those funds from third-party claims against us. Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses and other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public stockholders, such parties may not execute such agreements, or even if they execute such agreements they may not be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account, including, but not limited to, fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will consider whether competitive alternatives are reasonably available to us and will only enter into an agreement with such third party if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be in the best interests of the company under the circumstances. The underwriters of our initial public offering as well as our independent registered public accounting firm will not execute agreements with us waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account.
Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third-party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where management is unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason. Upon redemption of our public shares, if we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed timeframe, or upon the exercise of a redemption right in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to provide for payment of claims of creditors that were not waived that may be brought against us within the 10 years following redemption. Accordingly, the per-share redemption amount received by public stockholders could be less than the $10.00 per public share initially held in the trust account, due
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to claims of such creditors. Pursuant to the letter agreement, the form of which is filed as an exhibit to the registration statement filed in connection with our initial public offering, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have entered into a written letter of intent, confidentiality or other similar agreement or business combination agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, if less than $10.00 per public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, less taxes payable, provided that such liability will not apply to any claims by a third party or prospective target business who executed a waiver of any and all rights to the monies held in the trust account (whether or not such waiver is enforceable) nor will it apply to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of our initial public offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. However, we have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations, nor have we independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. As a result, if any such claims were successfully made against the trust account, the funds available for our initial business combination and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.00 per public share. In such event, we may not be able to complete our initial business combination, and you would receive such lesser amount per share in connection with any redemption of your public shares. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
Our directors may decide not to enforce the indemnification obligations of our sponsor, resulting in a reduction in the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public stockholders.
In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.00 per public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case less taxes payable, and our sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment and subject to their fiduciary duties may choose not to do so in any particular instance. If our independent directors choose not to enforce these indemnification obligations, the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public stockholders may be reduced below $10.00 per share.
We may not have sufficient funds to satisfy indemnification claims of our directors and executive officers.
We have agreed to indemnify our officers and directors to the fullest extent permitted by law. However, our officers and directors have agreed to waive any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the trust account and to not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason whatsoever. Accordingly, any indemnification provided will be able to be satisfied by us only if (i) we have sufficient funds outside of the trust account or (ii) we consummate our initial business combination. Our obligation to indemnify our officers and directors may discourage stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against our officers or directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against our officers and directors, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our stockholders. Furthermore, a stockholder’s investment may be adversely affected to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against our officers and directors pursuant to these indemnification provisions.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy court may seek to recover such proceeds, and the members of our board of directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to our creditors, thereby exposing the members of our board of directors and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by stockholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our stockholders. In addition, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or having acted in bad faith, by paying public stockholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages.
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If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the claims of creditors in such proceeding may have priority over the claims of our stockholders and the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our stockholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our stockholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our stockholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, we may be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and our activities may be restricted, which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, our activities may be restricted, including:
In order not to be regulated as an investment company under the Investment Company Act, unless we can qualify for an exclusion, we must ensure that we are engaged primarily in a business other than investing, reinvesting or trading of securities and that our activities do not include investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading “investment securities” constituting more than 40% of our assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. Our business will be to identify and complete a business combination and thereafter to operate the post-transaction business or assets for the long term. We do not plan to buy businesses or assets with a view to resale or profit from their resale. We do not plan to buy unrelated businesses or assets or to be a passive investor.
We do not believe that our anticipated principal activities will subject us to the Investment Company Act. To this end, the proceeds held in the trust account may only be invested in United States “government securities” within the meaning of Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act having a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 promulgated under the Investment Company Act which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. Pursuant to the trust agreement, the trustee is not permitted to invest in other securities or assets. By restricting the investment of the proceeds to these instruments, and by having a business plan targeted at acquiring and growing businesses for the long term (rather than on buying and selling businesses in the manner of a merchant bank or private equity fund), we intend to avoid being deemed an “investment company” within the meaning of the Investment Company Act. An investment in our common stock is not intended for persons who are seeking a return on investments in government securities or investment securities. The trust account is intended as a holding place for funds pending the earliest to occur of either: (i) the completion of our initial business combination; (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering; or (iii) absent an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or with respect to any other material provisions relating to stockholders’ rights (including redemption rights) or pre-initial business combination activity, our return of the funds held in the trust account to our public stockholders as part of our redemption of the public shares. If we do not invest the proceeds as discussed above, we may be deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act. If we were deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act, compliance with these additional regulatory burdens would require additional expenses for which we have not allotted funds and may hinder our ability to complete a business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
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Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may adversely affect our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, and results of operations.
We are subject to laws and regulations enacted by national, regional and local governments. In particular, we will be required to comply with certain SEC and other legal requirements. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws and regulations may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws and regulations and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, and results of operations.
Our stockholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against us to the extent of distributions received by them upon redemption of their shares.
Under the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”), stockholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against a corporation to the extent of distributions received by them in a dissolution. The pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering may be considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law. If a corporation complies with certain procedures set forth in Section 280 of the DGCL intended to ensure that it makes reasonable provision for all claims against it, including a 60-day notice period during which any third-party claims can be brought against the corporation, a 90-day period during which the corporation may reject any claims brought, and an additional 150-day waiting period before any liquidating distributions are made to stockholders, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholder’s pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution. However, it is our intention to redeem our public shares as soon as reasonably possible following the 24th month from the closing of our initial public offering in the event we do not complete our initial business combination and, therefore, we do not intend to comply with the foregoing procedures.
Because we will not be complying with Section 280, Section 281(b) of the DGCL requires us to adopt a plan, based on facts known to us at such time that will provide for our payment of all existing and pending claims or claims that may be potentially brought against us within the 10 years following our dissolution. However, because we are a blank check company, rather than an operating company, and our operations will be limited to searching for prospective target businesses to acquire, the only likely claims to arise would be from our vendors (such as lawyers, investment bankers, etc.) or prospective target businesses. If our plan of distribution complies with Section 281(b) of the DGCL, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholder’s pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would likely be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution. We cannot assure you that we will properly assess all claims that may be potentially brought against us. As such, our stockholders could potentially be liable for any claims to the extent of distributions received by them (but no more) and any liability of our stockholders may extend beyond the third anniversary of such date. Furthermore, if the pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering is not considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law and such redemption distribution is deemed to be unlawful (potentially due to the imposition of legal proceedings that a party may bring or due to other circumstances that are currently unknown), then pursuant to Section 174 of the DGCL, the statute of limitations for claims of creditors could then be six years after the unlawful redemption distribution, instead of three years, as in the case of a liquidating distribution.
The grant of registration rights to our initial stockholders and holders of our private placement warrants may make it more difficult to complete our initial business combination, and the future exercise of such rights may adversely affect the market price of our shares of Class A common stock.
Pursuant to an agreement entered into concurrently with our initial public offering, our initial stockholders and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the shares of Class A common stock into which founder shares are convertible, holders of our private placement warrants and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the private placement warrants and the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants and holders of warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans may demand that we register such warrants or the Class A common stock issuable upon conversion of such warrants. The registration rights will be exercisable with respect to the founder shares and the private placement warrants and the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of such private placement warrants. We will bear the cost of registering these securities. The registration and availability of such a significant number of securities for trading in the public market may have an adverse effect on the market
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price of our Class A common stock. In addition, the existence of the registration rights may make our initial business combination more costly or difficult to conclude. This is because the stockholders of the target business may increase the equity stake they seek in the combined entity or ask for more cash consideration to offset the negative impact on the market price of our Class A common stock that is expected when the shares of common stock owned by our initial stockholders, holders of our private placement warrants or holders of our working capital loans or their respective permitted transferees are registered.
Because we are neither limited to evaluating a target business in a particular industry sector nor have we selected any specific target businesses with which to pursue our initial business combination, you will be unable to ascertain the merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations.
Our efforts to identify a prospective initial business combination target will not be limited to a particular industry, sector or geographic region. While we may pursue an initial business combination opportunity in any industry or sector, we intend to capitalize on the ability of our team to identify, acquire, and operate a business or businesses that can benefit from their established global relationships and operating experience. Our team has extensive experience in identifying and executing strategic investments globally and has done so successfully in a number of sectors. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation prohibits us from effectuating a business combination with another blank check company or similar company with nominal operations. Because we have not yet selected any specific target business with respect to a business combination, there is no basis to evaluate the possible merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations, results of operations, cash flows, liquidity, financial condition or prospects. To the extent we complete our initial business combination, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the business operations with which we combine. For example, if we combine with a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of sales or earnings, we may be affected by the risks inherent in the business and operations of a financially unstable or a development stage entity. Although our officers and directors will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors or that we will have adequate time to complete due diligence. Furthermore, some of these risks may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely impact a target business. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our units will ultimately prove to be more favorable to investors than a direct investment, if such opportunity were available, in a business combination target. Accordingly, any stockholders or warrant holders who choose to remain stockholders or warrant holders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, relating to the business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses, we may enter into our initial business combination with a target that does not meet such criteria and guidelines, and as a result, the target business with which we enter into our initial business combination may not have attributes entirely consistent with our general criteria and guidelines.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines for evaluating prospective target businesses, it is possible that a target business with which we enter into our initial business combination will not have all of these positive attributes. If we complete our initial business combination with a target that does not meet some or all of these guidelines, such combination may not be as successful as a combination with a business that does meet all of our general criteria and guidelines. In addition, if we announce a prospective business combination with a target that does not meet our general criteria and guidelines, a greater number of stockholders may exercise their redemption rights, which may make it difficult for us to meet any closing condition with a target business that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. In addition, if stockholder approval of the initial business combination is required by law, or we decide to obtain stockholder approval for business or other legal reasons, it may be more difficult for us to attain stockholder approval of our initial business combination if the target business does not meet our general criteria and guidelines. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from a valuation or appraisal firm, and consequently, you may have no assurance from an independent source that the price we are paying for the business is fair to our stockholders from a financial point of view.
Unless we complete our initial business combination with an affiliated entity or our board of directors cannot independently determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses (including with the assistance of financial advisors), we are not required to
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obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions that the price we are paying is fair to our stockholders from a financial point of view. If no opinion is obtained, our stockholders will be relying on the judgment of our board of directors, who will determine fair market value based on standards generally accepted by the financial community. Such standards used will be disclosed in our proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, related to our initial business combination.
Unlike some other similarly structured special purpose acquisition companies, our initial stockholders will receive additional shares of Class A common stock if we issue certain shares to consummate an initial business combination.
The founder shares will automatically convert into shares of Class A common stock upon the consummation of our initial business combination on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment for stock splits, stock dividends, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like, and subject to further adjustment as provided herein. In the case that additional shares of Class A common stock or equity-linked securities are issued or deemed issued in connection with our initial business combination, the number of shares of Class A common stock issuable upon conversion of all founder shares will equal, in the aggregate, on an as-converted basis, 20% of the total number of shares of Class A common stock outstanding after such conversion, including the total number of shares of Class A common stock issued, or deemed issued or issuable upon conversion or exercise of any equity-linked securities or rights issued or deemed issued, by the company in connection with or in relation to the consummation of the initial business combination, excluding (i) any shares of Class A common stock redeemed by public stockholders in connection with our initial business combination and (ii) any shares of Class A common stock or equity-linked securities or rights exercisable for or convertible into shares of Class A common stock issued, or to be issued, to any seller in the initial business combination and any private placement warrants issued to our sponsor, officers or directors upon conversion of working capital loans, provided that such conversion of founder shares will never occur on a less than one-for-one basis. This is different than some other similarly structured special purpose acquisition companies in which the initial stockholders will only be issued an aggregate of 20% of the total number of shares to be outstanding prior to our initial business combination.
Resources could be wasted in researching business combinations that are not completed, which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We anticipate that the investigation of each specific target business and the negotiation, drafting and execution of relevant agreements, disclosure documents and other instruments will require substantial management time and attention and substantial costs for accountants, attorneys and others. If we decide not to complete a specific initial business combination, the costs incurred up to that point for the proposed transaction likely would not be recoverable. Furthermore, if we reach an agreement relating to a specific target business, we may fail to complete our initial business combination for any number of reasons including those beyond our control. Any such event will result in a loss to us of the related costs incurred which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless.
Our key personnel may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with a particular business combination, and a particular business combination may be conditioned on the retention or resignation of such key personnel. These agreements may provide for them to receive compensation following our initial business combination and, as a result, may cause them to have conflicts of interest in determining whether a particular business combination is the most advantageous.
Our key personnel may be able to remain with our company after the completion of our initial business combination only if they are able to negotiate employment or consulting agreements in connection with the business combination. Such negotiations would take place simultaneously with the negotiation of the business combination and could provide for such individuals to receive compensation in the form of cash payments and/or our securities for services they would render to us after the completion of the business combination. Such negotiations also could make such key personnel’s retention or resignation a condition to any such agreement. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business, subject to their fiduciary duties under Delaware law.
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We may have a limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and, as a result, may effect our initial business combination with a target business whose management may not have the skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company.
When evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with a prospective target business, our ability to assess the target business’s management may be limited due to a lack of time, resources or information. Our assessment of the capabilities of the target business’s management, therefore, may prove to be incorrect and such management may lack the skills, qualifications or abilities we suspected. Should the target business’s management not possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to manage a public company, the operations and profitability of the post-combination business may be adversely impacted. Accordingly, any stockholders or warrant holders who choose to remain stockholders or warrant holders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, relating to the business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
We may only be able to complete one business combination with the proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, which will cause us to be solely dependent on a single business which may have a limited number of products or services. This lack of diversification may adversely impact our operations and profitability.
The net proceeds from our initial public offering and the private placement of warrants provided us with $266,340,000 that we may use to complete our initial business combination (after taking into account the $9,660,000 of deferred underwriting commissions being held in the trust account).
We may effectuate our initial business combination with a single target business or multiple target businesses simultaneously or within a short period of time. However, we may not be able to effectuate our initial business combination with more than one target business because of various factors, including the existence of complex accounting issues and the requirement that we prepare and file pro forma financial statements with the SEC that present operating results and the financial condition of several target businesses as if they had been operated on a combined basis. By completing our initial business combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory developments. Further, we would not be able to diversify our operations or benefit from the possible spreading of risks or offsetting of losses, unlike other entities which may have the resources to complete several business combinations in different industries or different areas of a single industry. Accordingly, the prospects for our success may be:
This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory risks, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to our initial business combination.
We may attempt to simultaneously complete business combinations with multiple prospective targets, which may hinder our ability to complete our initial business combination and give rise to increased costs and risks that could adversely impact our operations and profitability.
If we determine to simultaneously acquire several businesses that are owned by different sellers, we will need for each of such sellers to agree that our purchase of its business is contingent on the simultaneous closings of the other business combinations, which may make it more difficult for us, and delay our ability, to complete our initial business combination. With multiple business combinations, we could also face additional risks, including additional burdens and costs with respect to possible multiple negotiations and due diligence investigations (if there are multiple sellers) and the additional risks associated with the subsequent assimilation of the operations and services or products of the acquired companies in a single operating business. If we are unable to adequately address these risks, it could adversely impact our profitability and results of operations.
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We may attempt to complete our initial business combination with a private company about which little information is available, which may result in a business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
In pursuing our business combination strategy, we may seek to effectuate our initial business combination with a privately held company. Very little public information generally exists about private companies, and we could be required to make our decision on whether to pursue a potential initial business combination on the basis of limited information, which may result in a business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
We may be unable to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination or to fund the operations and growth of a target business, which could compel us to restructure or abandon a particular business combination.
We are targeting businesses with enterprise values that are greater than we could acquire with the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants. As a result, if the cash portion of the purchase price of our initial business combination exceeds the amount available from the trust account, net of amounts needed to satisfy any redemption by public stockholders, we may be required to seek additional financing to complete such proposed initial business combination. We cannot assure you that such financing will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. To the extent that additional financing proves to be unavailable when needed to complete our initial business combination, we would be compelled to either restructure the transaction or abandon that particular initial business combination and seek an alternative target business candidate. Further, we may be required to obtain additional financing in connection with the closing of our initial business combination for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-transaction businesses, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing our initial business combination, or to fund the purchase of other companies. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may only receive their pro rata portion of the funds in the trust account that are available for distribution to public stockholders, and our warrants will expire worthless. In addition, even if we do not need additional financing to complete our initial business combination, we may require such financing to fund the operations or growth of the target business. The failure to secure additional financing could have a material adverse effect on the continued development or growth of the target business. None of our officers, directors or stockholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our initial business combination.
Our warrants may have an adverse effect on the market price of our shares of Class A common stock and make it more difficult to effectuate our initial business combination.
Warrants to purchase 6,900,000 shares of Class A common stock were included as part of the units offered and sold in our initial public offering and, simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering, we issued in a private placement an aggregate of 5,013,333 private placement warrants, each exercisable to purchase one share of Class A common stock at $11.50 per share, at a price of $1.50 per warrant, or $7,520,000. In addition, our working capital loans may be converted into up to an additional 1,500,000 private placement warrants, at the price of $1.50 per warrant. To the extent we issue common stock to effectuate our initial business combination, the potential for the issuance of a substantial number of additional shares of Class A common stock upon exercise of these warrants could make us a less attractive acquisition vehicle to a target business. Such warrants, when exercised, will increase the number of issued and outstanding shares of Class A common stock and reduce the value of the Class A common stock issued to complete the business transaction. Therefore, our warrants may make it more difficult to effectuate our initial business combination or increase the cost of acquiring the target business.
Because we must furnish our stockholders with target business financial statements, we may lose the ability to complete an otherwise advantageous initial business combination with some prospective target businesses.
The federal proxy rules require that the proxy statement with respect to the vote on an initial business combination include historical and pro forma financial statement disclosure. We will include the same financial statement disclosure in connection with our tender offer documents, whether or not they are required under the tender offer rules. These financial statements may be required to be prepared in accordance with, or be reconciled to, accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”), or international financial reporting standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (“IFRS”), depending on the circumstances and the historical financial statements may be required to be audited in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”). These financial statement requirements may limit the pool of potential target businesses we may acquire because some targets may be unable to provide such financial statements in time for us to disclose such statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame.
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Compliance obligations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may make it more difficult for us to effectuate our initial business combination, require substantial financial and management resources, and increase the time and costs of completing an initial business combination.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and report on our system of internal controls beginning with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2022. Only in the event we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer, and no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, will we be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on our internal control over financial reporting. Further, for as long as we remain an emerging growth company, we will not be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on our internal control over financial reporting. The fact that we are a blank check company makes compliance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act particularly burdensome on us as compared to other public companies because a target business with which we seek to complete our initial business combination may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of its internal controls. The development of the internal control of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such business combination.
Our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately consummate our initial business combination, may be materially adversely affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic could continue to, and other infectious diseases could in the future, adversely affect the economies and financial markets worldwide, and the business of any potential target business with which we consummate our initial business combination could be materially and adversely affected. Furthermore, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination if continued concerns relating to COVID-19 restrict travel, limit the ability to have meetings with potential investors or the target company’s personnel, vendors and services providers are unavailable to negotiate and consummate a transaction in a timely manner. The extent to which COVID-19 impacts our search for target businesses for our initial business combination will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of COVID-19 and the actions to contain COVID-19 or treat its impact, among others. If the disruptions posed by COVID-19 or other matters of global concern continue for an extensive period of time, our ability to consummate our initial business combination, or the operations of a target business with which we ultimately consummate our initial business combination, may be materially adversely affected.
Past performance by our team and their affiliates may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us.
Information regarding performance by, or businesses associated with, our team or businesses associated with them is presented in this annual report for informational purposes only. The past performance of our team or their respective affiliates is not a guarantee of either: (i) that we will be able to identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination; or (ii) success with respect to any business combination we may consummate. No member of our team has had management experience with special purpose acquisition corporations in the past. You should not rely on the historical record of our team’s or their respective affiliates’ performance as indicative of any future performance.
Risks Relating to Potential Conflicts
Our officers and directors presently have, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.
Until we consummate our initial business combination, we intend to engage in the business of identifying and combining with one or more businesses. Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have, additional fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity. Accordingly, they may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented. These conflicts may not be resolved in our favor and a potential target business may be presented to another entity prior to its presentation to us. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of the company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue, and to the extent the director or officer is permitted to refer that opportunity to us without violating another legal obligation.
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Our officers, directors and strategic advisors have agreed not to participate in the formation of, or become an officer, director or strategic advisor of, any other special purpose acquisition company with a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act without our prior written consent, which will not be unreasonably withheld.
Our executive officers, directors, security holders and their respective affiliates may have competitive pecuniary interests that conflict with our interests.
We have not adopted a policy that expressly prohibits our directors, executive officers, security holders or affiliates from having a direct or indirect pecuniary or financial interest in any investment to be acquired or disposed of by us or in any transaction to which we are a party or have an interest. In fact, we may enter into our initial business combination with a target business that is affiliated with our sponsor, our directors or executive officers, although we do not intend to do so. Nor do we have a policy that expressly prohibits any such persons from engaging for their own account in business activities of the types conducted by us. Accordingly, such persons or entities may have a conflict between their interests and ours. The personal and financial interests of our officers and directors may influence their motivation in timely identifying and selecting a target business and completing our initial business combination. Consequently, our directors’ and officers’ discretion in identifying and selecting a suitable target business may result in a conflict of interest when determining whether the terms, conditions and timing of a particular business combination are appropriate and in our stockholders’ best interest. If this were the case, it would be a breach of their fiduciary duties to us as a matter of Delaware law and we or our stockholders might have a claim against such individuals for infringing on our stockholders’ rights. However, we might not ultimately be successful in any claim we may make against them for such reason.
We may engage in a business combination with one or more target businesses that have relationships with entities that may be affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers, directors or existing holders which may raise potential conflicts of interest.
In light of the involvement of our sponsor, executive officers and directors with other entities, we may decide to acquire one or more businesses affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers, directors or existing holders. Our directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities. Such entities may compete with us for business combination opportunities. Our sponsor, officers and directors are not currently aware of any specific opportunities for us to complete our initial business combination with any entities with which they are affiliated, and there have been no substantive discussions concerning a business combination with any such entity or entities. Although we will not be specifically focusing on, or targeting, any transaction with any affiliated entities, we would pursue such a transaction if we determined that such affiliated entity met our criteria for our initial business combination and such transaction was approved by a majority of our independent and disinterested directors. Despite our agreement to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions regarding the fairness to our company from a financial point of view of a business combination with one or more domestic or international businesses affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers, directors or existing holders, potential conflicts of interest still may exist and, as a result, the terms of the business combination may not be as advantageous to our public stockholders as they would be absent any conflicts of interest.
Since our sponsor, executive officers and directors will lose their entire investment in us if our initial business combination is not completed (other than with respect to public shares they may acquire during or after our initial public offering), a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination.
In December 2020, our sponsor paid $25,000 to cover certain of our offering costs in exchange for 5,750,000 founder shares. In February 2021, we effected a stock dividend of 0.2 shares for each share of Class B common stock outstanding, resulting in our sponsor holding an aggregate of 6,900,000 founder shares. Prior to the initial investment in the company of $25,000 by the sponsor, we had no assets, tangible or intangible. The purchase price of the founder shares was determined by dividing the amount of cash contributed to the company by the number of founder shares issued.
The number of founder shares outstanding was determined based on the expectation that the total size of our initial public offering would be a maximum of 27,600,000 units if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full, and therefore that such founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after our initial public offering. The founder shares will be worthless if we do not complete our initial business combination. In addition, our sponsor and the underwriter of our initial public offering (Cantor) purchased an aggregate of 5,013,333 private placement warrants of which 4,177,778 private placement warrants will be purchased by our sponsor and 835,555 private placement warrants were purchased by Cantor, each exercisable to purchase one share of Class A common stock at $11.50 per share, at a price of $1.50 per warrant, or $7,520,000, that will also be worthless if we do not complete our initial business combination. The personal and financial interests of our executive officers and directors may influence their motivation in identifying
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and selecting a target business combination, completing our initial business combination and influencing the operation of the business following the initial business combination. This risk may become more acute as the 24-month anniversary of the closing of our initial public offering nears, which is the deadline for our completion of an initial business combination.
Risks Relating to Post-Business Combination Company
Subsequent to our completion of our initial business combination, we may be required to take write-downs or write-offs, restructuring and impairment or other charges that could have a significant negative effect on our financial condition, results of operations and the price of our securities, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.
Even if we conduct extensive due diligence on a target business with which we combine, we cannot assure you that this diligence will identify all material issues that may be present with a particular target business, that it would be possible to uncover all material issues through a customary amount of due diligence, or that factors outside of the target business and outside of our control will not later arise. As a result of these factors, we may be forced to later write-down or write-off assets, restructure our operations, or incur impairment or other charges that could result in our reporting losses. Even if our due diligence successfully identifies certain risks, unexpected risks may arise and previously known risks may materialize in a manner not consistent with our preliminary risk analysis. Even though these charges may be non-cash items and not have an immediate impact on our liquidity, the fact that we report charges of this nature could contribute to negative market perceptions about us or our securities. In addition, charges of this nature may cause us to violate net worth or other covenants to which we may be subject as a result of assuming pre-existing debt held by a target business or by virtue of our obtaining debt financing to partially finance the initial business combination or thereafter. Accordingly, any stockholders or warrant holders who choose to remain stockholders or warrant holders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value unless they are able to successfully claim that the reduction was due to the breach by our officers or directors of a duty of care or other fiduciary duty owed to them, or if they are able to successfully bring a private claim under securities laws that the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, relating to our initial business combination contained an actionable material misstatement or material omission.
Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination and to be successful thereafter will be dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel, some of whom may join us following our initial business combination. The loss of key personnel could adversely impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination is dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel. The role of our key personnel in the target business, however, cannot presently be ascertained. Although some of our key personnel may remain with the target business in senior management or advisory positions following our initial business combination, it is likely that some or all of the management of the target business will remain in place. While we intend to closely scrutinize any individuals we engage after our initial business combination, we cannot assure you that our assessment of these individuals will prove to be correct. These individuals may be unfamiliar with the requirements of operating a company regulated by the SEC, which could cause us to have to expend time and resources helping them become familiar with such requirements.
The officers and directors of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial business combination. The loss of a business combination target’s key personnel could adversely impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
The role of an acquisition candidate’s key personnel upon the completion of our initial business combination cannot be ascertained at this time. Although we contemplate that certain members of an acquisition candidate’s management team will remain associated with the acquisition candidate following our initial business combination, it is possible that members of the management of an acquisition candidate will not wish to remain in place.
Our management may not be able to maintain control of a target business after our initial business combination. We cannot provide assurance that, upon loss of control of a target business, new management will possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to profitably operate such business.
We may structure our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public stockholders own shares will own less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target sufficient for us not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company
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Act. We will not consider any transaction that does not meet such criteria. Even if the post-transaction company owns 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our stockholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-business combination company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new shares of Class A common stock in exchange for all of the outstanding capital stock of a target. In this case, we would acquire a 100% interest in the target. However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new shares of Class A common stock, our stockholders immediately prior to such transaction could own less than a majority of our outstanding Class A common stock subsequent to such transaction. In addition, other minority stockholders may subsequently combine their holdings resulting in a single person or group obtaining a larger share of the company’s shares than we initially acquired. Accordingly, this may make it more likely that our management will not be able to maintain control of the target business.
Risks Relating to Our Management Team
We may seek business combination opportunities in industries or sectors that may be outside of our management’s areas of expertise.
We will consider an initial business combination outside of our management’s areas of expertise if a business combination candidate is presented to us and we determine that such candidate offers an attractive business combination opportunity for our company. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in any particular business combination candidate, we cannot assure you that we will adequately ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our units will not ultimately prove to be less favorable to our investors than a direct investment, if an opportunity were available, in a business combination candidate. In the event we elect to pursue a business combination outside of the areas of our management’s expertise, our management’s expertise may not be directly applicable to its evaluation or operation, and the information contained in this annual report regarding the areas of our management’s expertise would not be relevant to an understanding of the business that we elect to acquire. As a result, our management may not be able to ascertain or assess adequately all of the relevant risk factors. Accordingly, any stockholders who choose to remain stockholders following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their shares. Such stockholders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
We are dependent upon our executive officers and directors and their loss could adversely affect our ability to operate.
Our operations are dependent upon a relatively small group of individuals and, in particular, our executive officers and directors. We believe that our success depends on the continued service of our officers and directors, at least until we have completed our initial business combination. In addition, our executive officers and directors are not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs and, accordingly, will have conflicts of interest in allocating their time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. We do not have an employment agreement with, or key-man insurance on the life of, any of our directors or executive officers. The unexpected loss of the services of one or more of our directors or executive officers could have a detrimental effect on us.
Our executive officers and directors will allocate their time to other businesses thereby causing conflicts of interest in their determination as to how much time to devote to our affairs. This conflict of interest could have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Our executive officers and directors are not required to, and will not, commit their full time to our affairs, which may result in a conflict of interest in allocating their time between our operations and our search for our initial business combination and their other businesses. We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Each of our executive officers is engaged in several other business endeavors for which he may be entitled to substantial compensation, and our executive officers are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs. Our independent directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities. If our executive officers’ and directors’ other business affairs require them to devote substantial amounts of time to such affairs in excess of their current commitment levels, it could limit their ability to devote time to our affairs which may have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination.
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Risks Relating to Our Securities
You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the trust account, except under certain limited circumstances. Therefore, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
Our public stockholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only upon the earlier to occur of (i) completion of our initial business combination, and then only in connection with those shares of Class A common stock that such stockholder properly elected to redeem, subject to certain limitations, (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or with respect to any other material provisions relating to stockholders’ rights (including redemption rights) or pre-initial business combination activity, or (iii) the redemption of our public shares if we are unable to complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, subject to applicable law and as further described herein. In addition, if our plan to redeem our public shares if we are unable to complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering is not completed for any reason, compliance with Delaware law may require that we submit a plan of dissolution to our then-existing stockholders for approval prior to the distribution of the proceeds held in our trust account. In that case, public stockholders may be forced to wait beyond 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering before they receive funds from our trust account. In no other circumstances will a public stockholder have any right or interest of any kind in the trust account. Holders of warrants will not have any right to the proceeds held in the trust account with respect to the warrants. Accordingly, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.
Nasdaq may delist our securities from trading on its exchange, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions.
Our units, Class A common stock, and warrants are listed on Nasdaq. We cannot assure you that our securities will continue to be listed on Nasdaq in the future or prior to our initial business combination. In order to continue listing our securities on Nasdaq prior to our initial business combination, we must maintain certain financial, distribution and stock price levels. Generally, we must maintain a minimum number of holders of our securities. Additionally, in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with Nasdaq’s initial listing requirements, which are more rigorous than Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities on Nasdaq. For instance, in order for our Class A common stock to be listed upon the consummation of our initial business combination, at such time, our share price would generally be required to be at least $4.00 per share, our total market capitalization would be required to be at least $200,000,000, the aggregate market value of publicly-held shares would be required to be at least $100,000,000 and we would be required to have at least 400 round lot holders. We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time.
If Nasdaq delists our securities from trading on its exchange and we are not able to list our securities on another national securities exchange, we expect our securities could be quoted on an over-the-counter market. If this were to occur, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:
The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, which is a federal statute, prevents or preempts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.” Because our units, Class A common stock, and warrants have been approved for listing, our units, Class A common stock and warrants are covered securities. Although the states are preempted from regulating the sale of our securities, the federal statute does allow the states to investigate companies if there is a suspicion of fraud, and,
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if there is a finding of fraudulent activity, then the states can regulate or bar the sale of covered securities in a particular case. While we are not aware of a state having used these powers to prohibit or restrict the sale of securities issued by blank check companies, other than the State of Idaho, certain state securities regulators view blank check companies unfavorably and might use these powers, or threaten to use these powers, to hinder the sale of securities of blank check companies in their states. Further, if we were no longer listed on Nasdaq, our securities would not be covered securities and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities, including in connection with our initial business combination.
You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.
Since the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants are intended to be used to complete an initial business combination with a target business that has not been selected, we may be deemed to be a “blank check” company under the United States securities laws. However, because we will have net tangible assets in excess of $5,000,000 upon the completion of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants and filed a Current Report on Form 8-K, including an audited balance sheet demonstrating this fact, we are exempt from rules promulgated by the SEC to protect investors in blank check companies, such as Rule 419. Accordingly, investors will not be afforded the benefits or protections of those rules. Among other things, this means our units will be immediately tradable and we will have a longer period of time to complete our initial business combination than do companies subject to Rule 419. Moreover, if our initial public offering were subject to Rule 419, that rule would prohibit the release of any interest earned on funds held in the trust account to us unless and until the funds in the trust account were released to us in connection with our completion of an initial business combination.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, and if you or a “group” of stockholders are deemed to hold in excess of 15% of our Class A common stock, you will lose the ability to redeem all such shares in excess of 15% of our Class A common stock.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from seeking redemption rights with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in our initial public offering without our prior consent, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares.” However, we would not be restricting our stockholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination. Your inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce your influence over our ability to complete our initial business combination and you could suffer a material loss on your investment in us if you sell Excess Shares in open market transactions. Additionally, you will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the Excess Shares if we complete our initial business combination. And as a result, you will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 15% and, in order to dispose of such shares, would be required to sell your shares in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.
The securities in which we invest the funds held in the trust account could bear a negative rate of interest, which could reduce the value of the assets held in trust such that the per-share redemption amount received by public stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share.
The proceeds held in the trust account will be invested only in U.S. government treasury obligations with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act, which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. While short-term U.S. government treasury obligations currently yield a positive rate of interest, they have briefly yielded negative interest rates in recent years. Central banks in Europe and Japan pursued interest rates below zero in recent years, and the Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve has not ruled out the possibility that it may in the future adopt similar policies in the United States. In the event that we are unable to complete our initial business combination or make certain amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our public stockholders are entitled to receive their pro-rata share of the proceeds held in the trust account, plus any interest income, net of taxes paid or payable (less, in the case we are unable to complete our initial business combination, $100,000 of interest). Negative interest rates could reduce the value of the assets held in trust such that the per-share redemption amount received by public stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share.
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We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders until after the consummation of our initial business combination, which could delay the opportunity for our stockholders to elect directors.
In accordance with Nasdaq corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual meeting until no later than one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on Nasdaq. Under Section 211(b) of the DGCL, we are, however, required to hold an annual meeting of stockholders for the purposes of electing directors in accordance with our bylaws unless such election is made by written consent in lieu of such a meeting. We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders to elect new directors prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, and thus we may not be in compliance with Section 211(b) of the DGCL, which requires an annual meeting. Therefore, if our stockholders want us to hold an annual meeting prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, they may attempt to force us to hold one by submitting an application to the Delaware Court of Chancery in accordance with Section 211(c) of the DGCL.
You will not be permitted to exercise your warrants unless we register and qualify the underlying Class A common stock or certain exemptions are available.
If the issuance of the Class A common stock upon exercise of the warrants is not registered, qualified or exempt from registration or qualification under the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws, holders of warrants will not be entitled to exercise such warrants and such warrants may have no value and expire worthless. In such event, holders who acquired their warrants as part of a purchase of units will have paid the full unit purchase price solely for the Class A common stock included in the units.
We are not registering the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws at this time. However, under the terms of the warrant agreement, we have agreed that, as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 15 business days, after the closing of our initial business combination, we will use our best efforts to file with the SEC a registration statement covering the registration under the Securities Act of the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants and thereafter will use our best efforts to cause the same to become effective within 60 business days following our initial business combination and to maintain a current prospectus relating to the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants until the expiration of the warrants in accordance with the provisions of the warrant agreement. We cannot assure you that we will be able to do so if, for example, any facts or events arise which represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the registration statement or prospectus, the financial statements contained or incorporated by reference therein are not current or correct or the SEC issues a stop order.
If the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act, under the terms of the warrant agreement, holders of warrants who seek to exercise their warrants will not be permitted to do so for cash and, instead, will be required to do so on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act or another exemption.
In no event will warrants be exercisable for cash or on a cashless basis, and we will not be obligated to issue any shares to holders seeking to exercise their warrants, unless the issuance of the shares upon such exercise is registered or qualified under the securities laws of the state of the exercising holder, or an exemption from registration or qualification is available.
If our shares of Class A common stock are at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of “covered securities” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, we may, at our option, not permit holders of warrants who seek to exercise their warrants to do so for cash and, instead, require them to do so on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act; in the event we so elect, we will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement or register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under applicable state securities laws, and in the event we do not so elect, we will use our best efforts to register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under applicable state securities laws to the extent an exemption is not available.
In no event will we be required to net cash settle any warrant, or issue securities (other than upon a cashless exercise as described above) or other compensation in exchange for the warrants in the event that we are unable to register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under the Securities Act or applicable state securities laws.
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You may only be able to exercise your public warrants on a “cashless basis” under certain circumstances, and if you do so, you will receive fewer shares of Class A common stock from such exercise than if you were to exercise such warrants for cash.
The warrant agreement provides that in the following circumstances holders of warrants who seek to exercise their warrants will not be permitted to do for cash and will, instead, be required to do so on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act: (i) if the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act in accordance with the terms of the warrant agreement; (ii) if we have so elected and the shares of Class A common stock is at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of “covered securities” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act; and (iii) if we have so elected and we call the public warrants for redemption. If you exercise your public warrants on a cashless basis, you would pay the warrant exercise price by surrendering the warrants for that number of shares of Class A common stock equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of shares of Class A common stock underlying the warrants, multiplied by the excess of the “fair market value” of our shares of Class A common stock (as defined in the next sentence) over the exercise price of the warrants by (y) the fair market value. The “fair market value” is the average reported closing price of the shares of Class A common stock for the 10 trading days ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the notice of exercise is received by the warrant agent or on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of warrants, as applicable. As a result, you would receive fewer shares of Class A common stock from such exercise than if you were to exercise such warrants for cash.
Our warrant agreement designates the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by holders of our warrants, which could limit the ability of warrant holders to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with our company.
Our warrant agreement provides that, subject to applicable law, (i) any action, proceeding or claim against us arising out of or relating in any way to the warrant agreement, including under the Securities Act, will be brought and enforced in the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and (ii) that we irrevocably submit to such jurisdiction, which jurisdiction shall be the exclusive forum for any such action, proceeding or claim. We will waive any objection to such exclusive jurisdiction and that such courts represent an inconvenient forum.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, these provisions of the warrant agreement will not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal district courts of the United States of America are the sole and exclusive forum. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our warrants shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to the forum provisions in our warrant agreement. If any action, the subject matter of which is within the scope the forum provisions of the warrant agreement, is filed in a court other than a court of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (a “foreign action”) in the name of any holder of our warrants, such holder shall be deemed to have consented to: (x) the personal jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in the State of New York in connection with any action brought in any such court to enforce the forum provisions (an “enforcement action”), and (y) having service of process made upon such warrant holder in any such enforcement action by service upon such warrant holder’s counsel in the foreign action as agent for such warrant holder.
This choice-of-forum provision may limit a warrant holder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with our company, which may discourage such lawsuits. Alternatively, if a court were to find this provision of our warrant agreement inapplicable or unenforceable with respect to one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and result in a diversion of the time and resources of our management and board of directors.
We may issue additional shares of Class A common stock or shares of preferred stock to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue shares of Class A common stock upon the conversion of the founder shares at a ratio greater than one-to-one at the time of our initial business combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. Any such issuances would dilute the interest of our stockholders and likely present other risks.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes the issuance of up to 280,000,000 shares of Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, 20,000,000 shares of Class B common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, and 1,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value $0.0001 per share. There are 252,400,000 and 13,100,000 authorized but unissued shares of Class A common stock and Class B common stock, respectively, available for issuance which amount does not take into account shares reserved for issuance upon
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exercise of outstanding warrants or shares issuable upon conversion of the Class B common stock. The Class B common stock is automatically convertible into Class A common stock upon the consummation of our initial business combination, initially at a one-for-one ratio but subject to adjustment as set forth herein and in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. There are no shares of preferred stock issued and outstanding. We may issue a substantial number of additional shares of Class A common stock or shares of preferred stock to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue shares of Class A common stock upon conversion of the Class B common stock at a ratio greater than one-to-one at the time of our initial business combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions as set forth therein. However, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides, among other things, that prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional shares that would entitle the holders thereof to (i) receive funds from the trust account or (ii) vote as a class with our public shares (a) on any initial business combination or (b) to approve an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to (x) extend the time we have to consummate a business combination beyond 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or (y) amend the foregoing provisions. These provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, like all provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, may be amended with a stockholder vote. The issuance of additional shares of common stock or shares of preferred stock:
We may issue notes or other debt securities, or otherwise incur substantial debt, to complete our initial business combination, which may adversely affect our leverage and financial condition and thus adversely impact the value of our stockholders’ investment in us.
Although we have no commitments as of the date of this annual report to issue any notes or other debt securities, or to otherwise incur outstanding debt, we may choose to incur substantial debt to complete our initial business combination. We and our officers have agreed that we will not incur any indebtedness unless we have obtained from the lender a waiver of any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to the monies held in the trust account. As such, no issuance of debt will affect the per share amount available for redemption from the trust account. Nevertheless, the incurrence of debt could have a variety of negative effects, including:
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We do not have a specified maximum redemption threshold. The absence of such a redemption threshold may make it possible for us to complete our initial business combination with which a substantial majority of our stockholders or warrant holders do not agree.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation does not provide a specified maximum redemption threshold, except that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001. In addition, our proposed initial business combination may impose a minimum cash requirement for: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners; (ii) cash for working capital or other general corporate purposes; or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions. As a result, we may be able to complete our initial business combination even though a substantial majority of our public stockholders do not agree with the transaction and have redeemed their shares or, if we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, have entered into privately negotiated agreements to sell their shares to our sponsor, officers, directors or any of their affiliates. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all shares of Class A common stock that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the business combination or redeem any shares in connection with such initial business combination, all shares of Class A common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof, and we instead may search for an alternate business combination.
In order to effectuate an initial business combination, special purpose acquisition companies have, in the past, amended various provisions of their charters and other governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or governing instruments in a manner that will make it easier for us to complete our initial business combination that our stockholders may not support.
In order to effectuate a business combination, special purpose acquisition companies have, in the past, amended various provisions of their charters and governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. For example, special purpose acquisition companies have amended the definition of business combination, increased redemption thresholds and extended the time to consummate an initial business combination and, with respect to their warrants, amended their warrant agreements to require the warrants to be exchanged for cash and/or other securities. Amending our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will require the approval of holders of 65% of our common stock, and amending our warrant agreement will require a vote of holders of at least a majority of the public warrants and, solely with respect to any amendment to the terms of the private placement warrants or any provision of the warrant agreement with respect to the private placement warrants, 50% of the number of the then outstanding private placement warrants. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation requires us to provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash if we propose an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete an initial business combination within 24 months of the closing of our initial public offering or with respect to any other material provisions relating to stockholders’ rights (including redemption rights) or pre-initial business combination activity. To the extent any of such amendments would be deemed to fundamentally change the nature of the securities offered through this registration statement, we would register, or seek an exemption from registration for, the affected securities. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our charter or governing instruments or extend the time to consummate an initial business combination in order to effectuate our initial business combination.
The provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that relate to our pre-business combination activity (and corresponding provisions of the agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account) may be amended with the approval of holders of 65% of our common stock, which is a lower amendment threshold than that of some other special purpose acquisition companies. It may be easier for us, therefore, to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to facilitate the completion of an initial business combination that some of our stockholders may not support.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that any of its provisions related to pre-business combination activity (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of our initial public offering and the private placement of warrants into the trust account and not release such amounts except in specified circumstances, and to provide redemption rights to public stockholders as described
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herein) may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our common stock entitled to vote thereon and corresponding provisions of the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our common stock entitled to vote thereon. If we amend such provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, we will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares in connection with a stockholder meeting. In all other instances, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation may be amended by holders of a majority of our outstanding common stock entitled to vote thereon, subject to applicable provisions of the DGCL or applicable stock exchange rules. Our initial stockholders, who will collectively beneficially own 20% of our common stock upon the closing of our initial public offering, may participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and/or trust agreement and will have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. As a result, we may be able to amend the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation which govern our pre-business combination behavior more easily than some other special purpose acquisition companies, and this may increase our ability to complete a business combination with which you do not agree. Our stockholders may pursue remedies against us for any breach of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation.
Our sponsor, executive officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to written agreements with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or with respect to any other material provisions relating to stockholders’ rights (including redemption rights) or pre-initial business combination activity, unless we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their Class A common stock upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares. Our stockholders are not parties to, or third-party beneficiaries of, these agreements and, as a result, will not have the ability to pursue remedies against our sponsor, executive officers or directors for any breach of these agreements. As a result, in the event of a breach, our stockholders would need to pursue a stockholder derivative action, subject to applicable law.
Certain agreements related to our initial public offering may be amended without stockholder approval.
Each of the agreements related to our initial public offering to which we are a party, other than the warrant agreement and the investment management trust agreement, may be amended without stockholder approval. Such agreements are: the underwriting agreement; the letter agreement among us and our initial stockholders, sponsor, officers and directors; the registration rights agreement among us, our initial stockholders and Cantor; the private placement warrants purchase agreement between us and our sponsor; the private placement warrants purchase agreement between us and Cantor; and the administrative services agreement among us, our sponsor and an affiliate of our sponsor. These agreements contain various provisions that our public stockholders might deem to be material. For example, our letter agreement and the underwriting agreement contain certain lock-up provisions with respect to the founder shares, private placement warrants and other securities held by our initial stockholders, sponsor, officers and directors. Amendments to such agreements would require the consent of the applicable parties thereto and would need to be approved by our board of directors, which may do so for a variety of reasons, including to facilitate our initial business combination. While we do not expect our board of directors to approve any amendment to any of these agreements prior to our initial business combination, it may be possible that our board of directors, in exercising its business judgment and subject to its fiduciary duties, chooses to approve one or more amendments to any such agreement. Any amendment entered into in connection with the consummation of our initial business combination will be disclosed in our proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, related to such initial business combination, and any other material amendment to any of our material agreements will be disclosed in a filing with the SEC. Any such amendments would not require approval from our stockholders, may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible, and may have an adverse effect on the value of an investment in our securities. For example, amendments to the lock-up provision discussed above may result in our initial stockholders selling their securities earlier than they would otherwise be permitted, which may have an adverse effect on the price of our securities.
Our initial stockholders control a substantial interest in us and thus may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a stockholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support.
Our initial stockholders own 20% of our issued and outstanding common stock. Accordingly, they may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a stockholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support, including amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. If our initial stockholders purchase any additional Class A common stock in the aftermarket or in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase their control. Factors that would be considered in making such additional purchases would include consideration of the current trading price of our Class A common stock. In addition, our board of directors, whose members were elected by our sponsor, is and will be divided into two classes, each of which will generally serve for a term of two years with only
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one class of directors being elected in each year. We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders to elect new directors prior to the completion of our initial business combination, in which case all of the current directors will continue in office until at least the completion of the business combination. If there is an annual meeting, as a consequence of our “staggered” board of directors, only a minority of the board of directors will be considered for election and our initial stockholders, because of their ownership position, will have considerable influence regarding the outcome. Accordingly, our initial stockholders will continue to exert control at least until the completion of our initial business combination.
Our sponsor paid an aggregate of $25,000, or approximately $0.0043 per founder share ($0.0036 after giving effect to a stock dividend of 0.2 shares per founder share) and, accordingly, you will experience immediate and substantial dilution from the purchase of our shares of Class A common stock.
Our initial stockholders acquired the founder shares at a nominal price. Public stockholders will incur an immediate and substantial dilution upon acquisition of our securities. This dilution would increase to the extent that the anti-dilution provisions of the founder shares result in the issuance of shares of Class A common stock on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of the founder shares at the time of our initial business combination and would become exacerbated to the extent that public stockholders seek redemptions from the trust for their public shares. In addition, because of the anti-dilution protection in the founder shares, any equity or equity-linked securities issued in connection with our initial business combination would be disproportionately dilutive to our Class A common stock.
We may amend the terms of the warrants in a manner that may be adverse to holders of public warrants with the approval by the holders of at least a majority of the then outstanding public warrants. As a result, the exercise price of your warrants could be increased, the exercise period could be shortened and the number of shares of Class A common stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant could be decreased, all without your approval.
Our warrants will be issued in registered form under a warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least a majority of the then outstanding public warrants to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders of public warrants. Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the public warrants in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least a majority of the then outstanding public warrants approve of such amendment. Although our ability to amend the terms of the public warrants with the consent of at least a majority of the then outstanding public warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, convert the warrants into cash or stock (at a ratio different than initially provided), shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of shares of Class A common stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
We may redeem your unexpired warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to you, thereby making your warrants worthless.
We have the ability to redeem outstanding warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant, provided that the closing price of our Class A common stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading-day period commencing once the warrants become exercisable and ending on the third trading day prior to proper notice of such redemption provided that on the date we give notice of redemption. We will not redeem the warrants unless an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants is effective and a current prospectus relating to those shares of Class A common stock is available throughout the 30-day redemption period, except if the warrants may be exercised on a cashless basis and such cashless exercise is exempt from registration under the Securities Act. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws. Redemption of the outstanding warrants could force you to (i) exercise your warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so, (ii) sell your warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your warrants or (iii) accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding warrants are called for redemption, is likely to be substantially less than the market value of your warrants. None of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us so long as they are held by their initial purchasers or their permitted transferees.
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Because each unit contains one-fourth of one warrant and only a whole warrant may be exercised, the units may be worth less than units of other special purpose acquisition companies.
Each unit contains one-fourth of one warrant. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, no fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units, and only whole units will trade. If, upon exercise of the warrants, a holder would be entitled to receive a fractional interest in a share, we will, upon exercise, round down to the nearest whole number the number of shares of Class A common stock to be issued to the warrant holder. This is different from other offerings similar to ours whose units include one common share and one warrant to purchase one whole share. We have established the components of the units in this way in order to reduce the dilutive effect of the warrants upon completion of a business combination since the warrants will be exercisable in the aggregate for one-fourth of the number of shares compared to units that each contain a whole warrant to purchase one share, thus making us, we believe, a more attractive merger partner for target businesses. Nevertheless, this unit structure may cause our units to be worth less than if it included a warrant to purchase one whole share.
A market for our securities may not remain available, which would adversely affect the liquidity and price of our securities.
The price of our securities may vary significantly due to one or more potential business combinations and general market or economic conditions. Furthermore, an active trading market for our securities may not be sustained. You may be unable to sell your securities unless a market can be sustained.
An investment in our securities may result in uncertain or adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences.
An investment in our securities may result in uncertain U.S. federal income tax consequences. For instance, because there are no authorities that directly address instruments similar to our units, their treatment for U.S. federal income tax purposes is uncertain, and the allocation an investor makes with respect to the purchase price of a unit between the share of Class A common stock and the one-fourth of one redeemable warrant included in each unit could be challenged by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) or the courts. In addition, if we are determined to be a personal holding company for U.S. federal income tax purposes, our taxable income would be subjected to an additional 20% federal income tax, which would reduce the net after-tax amount of interest income earned on the funds placed in our trust account. Furthermore, the U.S. federal income tax consequences of a cashless exercise of warrants included in the units we issued in our initial public offering is unclear under current law. Finally, it is unclear whether the redemption rights with respect to our shares suspend the running of a U.S. holder’s holding period for purposes of determining whether (i) any gain or loss realized by such holder on the sale or exchange of Class A common stock is long-term capital gain or loss, (ii) any dividends we pay would be considered “qualified dividends” for U.S. federal income tax purposes and (iii) any dividend we pay would be eligible for the corporate dividends-received deduction. See the section entitled “U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations” for a summary of the principal U.S. federal income tax consequences of an investment in our securities. Prospective investors are urged to consult their tax advisors with respect to these and other tax consequences when purchasing, holding or disposing of our securities.
We are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company within the meaning of the Securities Act, and if we take advantage of certain exemptions from disclosure requirements available to emerging growth companies or smaller reporting companies, this could make our securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with other public companies.
We are an “emerging growth company” within the meaning of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor internal controls attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As a result, our stockholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including if the market value of our Class A common stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of any June 30 before that time, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the following December 31. We cannot predict whether investors will find our securities less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions, the trading prices of our securities may be lower than they otherwise would be, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the trading prices of our securities may be more volatile.
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Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such an election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected not to opt out of such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $250 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) our annual revenues exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th. To the extent we take advantage of such reduced disclosure obligations, it may also make comparison of our financial statements with other public companies difficult or impossible.
Additional Risks
We are a blank check company with no operating history and no revenues, and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective.
We are a blank check company incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware with no operating results. Because we lack an operating history, you have no basis upon which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective of completing our initial business combination. We have no plans, arrangements or understandings with any prospective target business concerning a business combination and may be unable to complete our initial business combination. If we fail to complete our initial business combination, we will never generate any operating revenues.
Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and Delaware law may inhibit a takeover of us, which could limit the price investors might be willing to pay in the future for our shares of Class A common stock and could entrench management.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that stockholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions include a staggered board of directors and the ability of the board of directors to designate the terms of and issue new series of preferred stock, which may make more difficult the removal of management and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.
We are also subject to anti-takeover provisions under Delaware law, which could delay or prevent a change of control. Together these provisions may make the removal of management more difficult and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation requires, to the fullest extent permitted by law, that derivative actions brought in our name, actions against our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders for breach of fiduciary duty and certain other actions may be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware and, if brought outside of Delaware, the stockholder bringing the suit will, subject to certain exceptions, be deemed to have consented to service of process on such stockholder’s counsel, which may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation requires, to the fullest extent permitted by law, that derivative actions brought in our name, actions against our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders for breach of fiduciary duty and certain other actions may be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware and, if brought outside of Delaware, the stockholder bringing the suit will be deemed to have consented to service of process on such stockholder’s counsel except any action (A) as to which the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware determines that there is an indispensable party not subject to the jurisdiction of the Court of
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Chancery (and the indispensable party does not consent to the personal jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery within ten days following such determination), (B) which is vested in the exclusive jurisdiction of a court or forum other than the Court of Chancery or (C) for which the Court of Chancery does not have subject matter jurisdiction. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our capital stock shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to the forum provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. This choice of forum provision may limit or make more costly a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the exclusive forum provision will be applicable to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, subject to certain exceptions. Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. As a result, the exclusive forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal district courts of the United States of America shall, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act, or the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder. We note, however, that there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce this provision and that investors cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for state and federal courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder.
Cyber incidents or attacks directed at us could result in information theft, data corruption, operational disruption and/or financial loss.
We depend on digital technologies, including information systems, infrastructure and cloud applications and services, including those of third parties with which we may deal. Sophisticated and deliberate attacks on, or security breaches in, our systems or infrastructure, or the systems or infrastructure of third parties or the cloud, could lead to corruption or misappropriation of our assets, proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data. As an early stage company without significant investments in data security protection, we may not be sufficiently protected against such occurrences. We may not have sufficient resources to adequately protect against, or to investigate and remediate any vulnerability to, cyber incidents. It is possible that any of these occurrences, or a combination of them, could have adverse consequences on our business and lead to financial loss.
If we effect our initial business combination with a company located outside of the United States, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may adversely affect us.
If we pursue a target company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we may face additional burdens in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing such initial business combination, and if we effect such initial business combination, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may adversely impact our operations.
If we pursue a target a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we would be subject to risks associated with cross-border business combinations, including in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing our initial business combination, conducting due diligence in a foreign jurisdiction, having such transaction approved by any local governments, regulators or agencies and changes in the purchase price based on fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.
If we effect our initial business combination with such a company, we would be subject to any special considerations or risks associated with companies operating in an international setting, including any of the following:
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We may not be able to adequately address these additional risks. If we were unable to do so, we may be unable to complete such initial business combination, or, if we complete such initial business combination, our operations might suffer, either of which may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
As the number of special purpose acquisition companies increases, there may be more competition to find an attractive target for an initial business combination. This could increase the costs associated with completing our initial business combination and may result in our inability to find a suitable target for our initial business combination.
In recent years, the number of special purpose acquisition companies that have been formed has increased substantially. Many companies have entered into business combinations with special purpose acquisition companies, and there are still many special purpose acquisition companies seeking targets for their initial business combination, as well as many additional special purpose acquisition companies currently in registration. As a result, at times, fewer attractive targets may be available, and it may require more time, effort and resources to identify a suitable target for an initial business combination.
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In addition, because there are more special purpose acquisition companies seeking to enter into an initial business combination with available targets, the competition for available targets with attractive fundamentals or business models may increase, which could cause target companies to demand improved financial terms. Attractive deals could also become scarcer for other reasons, such as economic or industry sector downturns, geopolitical tensions or increases in the cost of additional capital needed to close business combinations or operate targets post-business combination. This could increase the cost of, delay or otherwise complicate or frustrate our ability to find a suitable target for and/or complete our initial business combination.
Changes in the market for directors and officers liability insurance could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to negotiate and complete an initial business combination.
The market for directors and officers liability insurance for special purpose acquisition companies has changed in ways adverse to us and our management team. Fewer insurance companies are offering quotes for directors and officers liability coverage, the premiums charged for such policies have generally increased and the terms of such policies have generally become less favorable. These trends may continue into the future.
The increased cost and decreased availability of directors and officers liability insurance could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to negotiate and complete an initial business combination. In order to obtain directors and officers liability insurance or modify its coverage as a result of becoming a public company, the post-business combination entity might need to incur greater expense and/or accept less favorable terms. Furthermore, any failure to obtain adequate directors and officers liability insurance could have an adverse impact on the post-business combination entity’s ability to attract and retain qualified officers and directors.
In addition, after completion of any initial business combination, our directors and officers could be subject to potential liability from claims arising from conduct alleged to have occurred prior to such initial business combination. As a result, in order to protect our directors and officers, the post-business combination entity may need to purchase additional insurance with respect to any such claims (“run-off insurance”). The need for run-off insurance would be an added expense for the post-business combination entity and could interfere with or frustrate our ability to consummate an initial business combination on terms favorable to our investors.
Our warrants are accounted for as liabilities and the changes in value of our warrants could have a material effect on our financial results.
On April 12, 2021, the staff of the SEC (the “SEC Staff”) issued a public statement entitled “Staff Statement on Accounting and Reporting Considerations for Warrants issued by Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”)” (the “SEC Staff Statement”), wherein the SEC Staff expressed its view that certain terms and conditions common to SPAC warrants may require the warrants to be classified as liabilities on the SPAC’s balance sheet as opposed to being treated as equity. Specifically, the SEC Staff Statement focused on certain settlement terms and provisions related to certain tender offers following a business combination, which terms are similar to those contained in the warrant agreement governing our warrants. As a result of the SEC Staff Statement, we re-evaluated the accounting treatment of our warrants, and pursuant to the guidance in ASC 815-40, determined the warrants should be classified as derivative liabilities measured at fair value on our balance sheet, with any changes in fair value to be reported each period in earnings on our statements of operations.
As a result of the recurring fair value measurement, our financial statements may fluctuate quarterly based on factors which are outside of our control. Due to the recurring fair value measurement, we expect that we will recognize non-cash gains or losses on our warrants each reporting period and that the amount of such gains or losses could be material.
We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021. If we are unable to develop and maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results in a timely manner, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.
We identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. We identified a material weakness in our controls over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021 related to the Company's accounting for complex financial instruments. Such material weakness was evidenced by errors and subsequent restatements of previously issued financial statements related to the Company's accounting for warrants and common stock subject to possible redemption. This material weakness remains unremediated at December 31, 2021.
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A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented, or detected and corrected on a timely basis.
Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and prevent fraud. We continue to evaluate steps to remediate the identified material weaknesses. These remediation measures may be time consuming and costly and there is no assurance that these initiatives will ultimately have the intended effects.
If we identify any new material weaknesses in the future, any such newly identified material weakness could limit our ability to prevent or detect a misstatement of our accounts or disclosures that could result in a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements. In such case, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports in addition to applicable stock exchange listing requirements, investors may lose confidence in our financial reporting and our stock price may decline as a result. We cannot assure you that the measures we have taken to date, or any measures we may take in the future, will be sufficient to avoid potential future material weaknesses.
Since we have not yet completed our initial business combination, we are unable to currently ascertain the merits or risks of the industry or business in which we may ultimately operate.
There is no current basis for you to evaluate the possible merits or risks of the particular industry in which we may ultimately operate or the target business which we may ultimately acquire. To the extent we complete our initial business combination with a financially unstable company or an entity in its development stage, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the business operations of those entities. If we complete our initial business combination with an entity in an industry characterized by a high level of risk, we may be affected by the currently unascertainable risks of that industry. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular industry or target business, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors.
Our officers and directors may not have significant experience or knowledge regarding the jurisdiction or industry of the target business we may seek to acquire.
We may consummate our initial business combination with a target business in any geographic location or industry we choose. We cannot assure you that our officers and directors will have enough experience or have sufficient knowledge relating to the jurisdiction of the target or its industry to make an informed decision regarding our initial business combination.
Our key personnel may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with our initial business combination. These agreements may provide for them to receive compensation following our initial business combination and as a result, may cause them to have conflicts of interest in determining whether a particular business combination is the most advantageous for us.
Our key personnel will be able to remain with the company after the consummation of our initial business combination only if they are able to negotiate employment or consulting agreements or other appropriate arrangements in connection with our initial business combination. Such negotiations will take place simultaneously with the negotiation of the business combination and could provide for such individuals to receive compensation in the form of cash payments and/or our securities for services they will render to the company after the consummation of the business combination. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business.
We may only be able to complete one business combination with the proceeds of our IPO, which will cause us to be solely dependent on a single business which may have a limited number of products or services.
It is likely we will consummate a business combination with a single target business, although we have the ability to simultaneously acquire several target businesses. By consummating a business combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory developments. Further, we would not be able to diversify our operations or benefit from the possible spreading of risks or offsetting of losses, unlike other entities which may have the resources to complete several business combinations in different industries or different areas of a single industry. Accordingly, the prospects for our success may be:
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This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory developments, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to a business combination.
Alternatively, if we determine to simultaneously acquire several businesses and such businesses are owned by different sellers, we will need for each of such sellers to agree that our purchase of its business is contingent on the simultaneous closings of the other business combinations, which may make it more difficult for us, and delay our ability, to complete the business combination. With multiple business combinations, we could also face additional risks, including additional burdens and costs with respect to possible multiple negotiations and due diligence investigations (if there are multiple sellers) and the additional risks associated with the subsequent assimilation of the operations and services or products of the acquired companies in a single operating business. If we are unable to adequately address these risks, it could negatively impact our profitability and results of operations.
Resources could be spent researching acquisitions that are not consummated, which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business.
It is anticipated that the investigation of each specific target business and the negotiation, drafting, and execution of relevant agreements, disclosure documents, and other instruments will require substantial management time and attention and substantial costs for accountants, attorneys and others. If a decision is made not to complete a specific business combination, the costs incurred up to that point for the proposed transaction likely will not be recoverable. Furthermore, even if an agreement is reached relating to a specific target business, we may fail to consummate the business combination for any number of reasons including those beyond our control. Any such event will result in a loss to us of the related costs incurred which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business.
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
None.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
We currently maintain our executive offices at 2700 19th Street, San Francisco, CA. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.
There is no material litigation, arbitration or governmental proceeding currently pending against us or any of our officers or directors in their capacity as such, and we and our officers and directors have not been subject to any such proceeding in the 12 months preceding the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES.
Not Applicable.
PART II
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES.
Market Information
Our units, Class A common stock and warrants are traded on The Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbols “ATVCU”, “ATVC,” and “ATVCW”, respectively.
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Holders
As of March 31, 2022, there was one holder of record of our Class A common stock, one holder of record of our Class B common stock, one holder of record of our units, and two holders of record of our warrants. This number does not include “street name,” or beneficial holders, whose shares are held of record by banks, brokers, financial institutions and other nominees.
Dividends
We have not paid any cash dividends on our shares of common stock to date and do not intend to pay cash dividends prior to the completion of our initial business combination. The payment of cash dividends in the future will be dependent upon our revenues and earnings, if any, capital requirements and general financial conditions subsequent to completion of our initial business combination. The payment of any cash dividends subsequent to our initial business combination will be within the discretion of our board of directors at such time and subject to the Delaware law. Further, if we incur any indebtedness in connection with our initial business combination, our ability to declare dividends may be limited by restrictive covenants we may agree to in connection therewith. It is the present intention of our board of directors to retain all earnings, if any, for use in our business operations and, accordingly, our board of directors does not anticipate declaring any dividends in the foreseeable future. In addition, our board of directors is not currently contemplating and does not anticipate declaring any stock dividends in the foreseeable future.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities; Use of Proceeds from Registered Offerings
In December 2020, our sponsor paid $25,000 to cover certain of our offering costs in exchange for 5,750,000 founder shares. In February, 2021, we effected a stock dividend of 0.2 shares for each share of Class B common stock outstanding, resulting in our sponsor holding an aggregate of 6,900,000 founder shares. Such securities were issued in connection with our organization pursuant to the exemption from registration contained in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act. The number of founder shares outstanding was determined based on the expectation that the total size of our initial public offering would be a maximum of 27,600,000 units if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full and therefore that such founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after our initial public offering.
Our sponsor is an accredited investor for purposes of Rule 501 of Regulation D. Each of the equity holders in our sponsor is an accredited investor under Rule 501 of Regulation D. The sole business of our sponsor is to act as the company’s sponsor in connection with our initial public offering. The limited liability company agreement of our sponsor provides that its membership interests may only be transferred to our officers or directors or other persons affiliated with our sponsor, or in connection with estate planning transfers.
Our sponsor and Cantor purchased an aggregate of 5,013,333 private placement warrants, of which 4,177,778 private placement warrants will be purchased by our sponsor and 835,555 private placement warrants will be purchased by Cantor, each exercisable to purchase one share of Class A common stock at $11.50 per share, at a price of $1.50 per warrant, or $6,800,000 (or up to $7,520,000 if the over-allotment option is exercised in full)). This purchase took place on a private placement basis simultaneously with the completion of our initial public offering. This issuance was made pursuant to the exemption from registration contained in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act.
No underwriting discounts or commissions were paid with respect to such sales..
Use of Proceeds
On March 9, 2021, we consummated our initial public offering of 27,600,000 units generating gross proceeds of $276,000,000. Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. acted as the representative of the several underwriters in the initial public offering.
Substantially concurrently with the closing of the initial public offering and over-allotment, we consummated the private placement to our sponsor and Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. generating gross proceeds of $7,520,000..
There has been no material change in the planned use of the proceeds from the initial public offering and private placement as is described in our final prospectus related to the initial public offering. For a description of the planned use of the proceeds generated from the initial public offering and private placement, see “Item 1. Business.”
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ITEM 6. [RESERVED]
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS.
This annual report includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) and Section 21E of the Exchange Act that are not historical facts, and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected and projected. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included in this Form 10-K including, without limitation, statements in this “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” regarding the Company’s financial position, business strategy and the plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. Words such as “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “estimate,” “seek” and variations and similar words and expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance, but reflect management’s current beliefs, based on information currently available. A number of factors could cause actual events, performance or results to differ materially from the events, performance and results discussed in the forward-looking statements. For information identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, please refer to the Risk Factors section of the Company’s final prospectus for its Initial Public Offering filed with the SEC. The Company’s securities filings can be accessed on the EDGAR section of the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Except as expressly required by applicable securities law, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Overview
We are a blank check company incorporated on November 5, 2020 as a Delaware corporation and formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. We have not selected any specific business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, engaged in any substantive discussions directly or indirectly, with any business combination target with respect to an initial business combination with us. We intend to effectuate our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of our initial public offering and the private placement of the private placement warrants, the proceeds of the sale of our shares in connection with our initial business combination (pursuant to forward purchase agreements or backstop agreements we may enter into following the consummation of our initial public offering or otherwise), shares issued to the owners of the target, debt issued to bank or other lenders or the owners of the target, or a combination of the foregoing. The registration statement for the Company’s IPO was declared effective by the SEC on March 4, 2021 (the “Effective Date”). On March 9, 2021, the Company consummated the IPO of 27,600,000 units (the “Units”) at a price of $10.00 per Unit, for total gross proceeds of $276,000,000. Each Unit consists of one share of Class A common stock, $0.0001 par value, and one-fourth of one redeemable warrant entitling its holder to purchase one share of common stock at a price of $11.50 per share.
Simultaneously with the closing of the IPO, pursuant to the Warrant Purchase Agreements, the Company completed the private sale of an aggregate of 5,013,333 Warrants (each a “Private Placement Warrant”) to the Sponsor and Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. at a purchase price of $1.50 per Private Placement Warrant. The sale of the Private Placement Warrants generated gross proceeds to the Company of $7,520,000.
Since completing the Company’s IPO, the Company has reviewed, and continues to review, a number of opportunities to enter into a Business Combination with an operating business, but the Company is not able to determine at this time whether it will complete a Business Combination with any of the target businesses that it has reviewed or with any other target business. The Company intends to effectuate its Business Combination using cash from the proceeds of its IPO and the proceeds of the Private Placements, its capital stock, debt, or a combination of cash, stock and debt.
Results of Operations
We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenues to date. Our only activities from November 5, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2021 were organizational activities, those necessary to prepare for the IPO, and identifying a target company for our initial Business Combination. We generate non-operating interest income form of cash and cash equivalents marketable securities held in the Trust Account. We incur expenses as a result of being a public company (for legal, financial reporting, accounting and
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auditing), as well as for due diligence expenses. We will not be generating any operating revenues until the closing and completion of our initial Business Combination.
For the year ended December 31, 2021, we had net income of approximately $4.4 million, which primarily consisted of a $7.8 million of unrealized gain on change in fair value of warrants, offset by approximately $2.5 million of formation and operating costs, $0.6 million in transaction costs, and $0.3 million in excess fair value of Private Warrants over proceeds received.
For the period from November 5, 2020 (inception) to December 31, 2020, we had a net loss of $1,302 consisting solely of formation and operating costs.
Liquidity, Capital Resources, and Going Concern
We consummated our IPO on March 9, 2021. As of December 31, 2021, we had $336,228 in our operating bank account, and negative working capital of approximately $758,467, which excludes $200,000 of franchise taxes payable which may be paid from interest earned on the Trust Account. In order to fund working capital deficiencies or finance transaction costs in connection with a Business Combination, our Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor or certain of our officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, provide us Working Capital Loans. At December 31, 2021, there were no Working Capital Loans outstanding. At December 31, 2021, there was $90,000 of accrued and unpaid for administrative fees.
In connection with the Company’s assessment of going concern considerations in accordance with FASB Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2014-15, “Disclosures of Uncertainties about an Entity’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern,” management has determined that the Company has and will continue to incur significant costs in pursuit of its acquisition plans which raises substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. Moreover, we may need to obtain additional financing either to complete our initial Business Combination or because we become obligated to redeem a significant number of our Public Shares upon consummation of our initial Business Combination, in which case we may issue additional securities or incur debt in connection with such Business Combination. Subject to compliance with applicable securities laws, we would only complete such financing simultaneously with the completion of our initial Business Combination. If we are unable to complete our initial Business Combination because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the Trust Accounts. In addition, following our initial Business Combination, if cash on hand is insufficient, we may need to obtain additional financing in order to meet our obligations.
In connection with the Company’s assessment of going concern considerations in accordance with FASB ASC 205-40, “Presentation of Financial Statements—oing Concern”, management has determined that if the Company is unable to complete a Business Combination by March 8, 2023 (the “Combination Period”), then the Company will cease all operations except for the purpose of liquidating. The date for mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution as well as the Company’s working capital deficit raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. No adjustments have been made to the carrying amounts of assets or liabilities should the Company be required to liquidate after the Combination Period. The Company intends to complete a Business Combination before the mandatory liquidation date.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in our financial statements. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and judgments, including those related to fair value of financial instruments and accrued expenses. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events and various other factors that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. We have identified the following as our critical accounting policies:
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Marketable Securities Held in the Trust Account
Our portfolio of investments held in the Trust Account are invested in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “Investment Company Act”), which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. The investments held in the Trust Account are classified as trading securities. Trading securities are presented on the balance sheet at fair value at the end of each reporting period. Gains and losses resulting from the change in fair value of these securities are included in net gain on investments held in Trust Account in the accompanying statements of operations. The estimated fair values of investments held in the Trust Account are determined using quoted market prices.
Recent Accounting Standards
In August 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2020-06, “Debt - Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging - Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40): Accounting for Convertible Instruments and Contracts in an Entity’s Own Equity (“ASU 2020-06”)”, which simplifies accounting for convertible instruments by removing major separation models required under current GAAP. The ASU 2020-06 also removes certain settlement conditions that are required for equity-linked contracts to qualify for the derivative scope exception, and it simplifies the diluted earnings per share calculation in certain areas. We adopted ASU 2020-06 on January 1, 2021. Adoption of the ASU did not impact our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.
Our management does not believe that any other recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting standards if currently adopted would have a material effect on the accompanying financial statements.
JOBS Act
On April 5, 2012, the JOBS Act was signed into law. The JOBS Act contains provisions that, among other things, relax certain reporting requirements for qualifying public companies. We qualify as an “emerging growth company” under the JOBS Act and are allowed to comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements based on the effective date for private (not publicly traded) companies. We elected to delay the adoption of new or revised accounting standards, and as a result, we may not comply with new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required for non-emerging growth companies. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates.
As an “emerging growth company”, we are not required to, among other things, (i) provide an auditor’s attestation report on our system of internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404, (ii) provide all of the compensation disclosure that may be required of non-emerging growth public companies under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, (iii) comply with any requirement that may be adopted by the PCAOB regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s report providing additional information about the audit and the financial statements (auditor discussion and analysis), and (iv) disclose certain executive compensation related items such as the correlation between executive compensation and performance and comparisons of the CEO’s compensation to median employee compensation. These exemptions will apply for a period of five years following the completion of our IPO or until we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” whichever is earlier.
Common Stock Subject to Possible Redemption
We account for shares of common stock subject to possible redemption in accordance with the guidance in FASB Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 480, “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity.” Common stock subject to mandatory redemption (if any) is classified as a liability instrument and is measured at fair value. Conditionally redeemable common stock (including common stock that features redemption rights that are either within the control of the holder or subject to redemption upon the occurrence of uncertain events not solely within the Company’s control) is classified as temporary equity. At all other times, shares of common stock are classified as stockholders’ equity. Our common stock features certain redemption rights that are considered to be outside of the Company’s control and subject to the occurrence of uncertain future events. Accordingly, common stock subject to possible redemption is presented at redemption value as temporary equity, outside of the stockholders’ equity section of the balance sheet.
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Derivative Financial Instruments
We evaluate our financial instruments to determine if such instruments are derivatives or contain features that qualify as embedded derivatives in accordance with ASC Topic 815, “Derivatives and Hedging”. Derivative instruments are recorded at fair value on the grant date and re-valued at each reporting date, with changes in the fair value reported in the statements of operations. Derivative assets and liabilities are classified in the balance sheet as current or non-current based on whether or not net-cash settlement or conversion of the instrument could be required within 12 months of the balance sheet date. We have determined the warrants are a derivative instrument.
ASC 470-20, “Debt with Conversion and Other Options”, addresses the allocation of proceeds from the issuance of convertible debt into its equity and debt components. We apply this guidance to allocate IPO proceeds from the Units between Class A common stock and warrants, using the residual method by allocating IPO proceeds first to fair value of the warrants and then the Class A common stock.
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK.
We are a smaller reporting company as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act and are not required to provide the information otherwise required under this item.
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ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA.
TRIBE CAPITAL GROWTH CORP I
INDEX TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
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Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID | 50 |
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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of
Tribe Capital Growth Corp I
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying balance sheets of Tribe Capital Growth Corp I (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, the related statements of operations, changes in stockholders’ equity (deficit) and cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the period November 5, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the period from November 5, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Explanatory Paragraph – Going Concern
The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. As more fully described in Note 1, the Company has until March 19, 2023 to consummate a Business Combination. If a Business Combination is not consummated by the required date, then the Company will cease all operations except for the purpose of liquidating. The Company has limited capital resources and will need additional financing to sustain operations for a reasonable period of time, which is considered to be one year from the issuance date of the financial statements. These conditions raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. Management’s plans with regard to these matters are also described in Note 1. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audits, we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.
Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
/s/
Marcum LLP
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2020.
April 18, 2022
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TRIBE CAPITAL GROWTH CORP I
BALANCE SHEETS
December 31, | ||||||
2021 | 2020 | |||||
Assets | ||||||
Current assets | ||||||
Cash | $ | | $ | — | ||
Due from Sponsor | | — | ||||
Prepaid expenses and other current assets | |
| — | |||
Deferred offering costs | — | | ||||
Total current assets | | | ||||
Investments held in Trust Account | | — | ||||
Total assets | $ | | $ | | ||
Liabilities, Redeemable Common Stock, and Stockholders' Equity (Deficit) |
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Current liabilities | ||||||
Accrued offering costs | $ | — | $ | | ||
Accounts payable and accrued expenses | | — | ||||
Due to related party | | | ||||
Franchise tax payable | | — | ||||
Total current liabilities | | | ||||
Deferred underwriting fee payable |
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Warranty liability |
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| — | ||
Total Liabilities | $ | | $ | | ||
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Commitments and Contingencies (Note 6) |
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Class A common stock subject to possible redemption, | | — | ||||
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Stockholders’ Equity (Deficit) |
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Preferred stock, $ |
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Class A common stock, $ |
| — |
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Class B common stock, $ |
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Additional paid-in capital |
| — |
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Accumulated deficit |
| ( |
| ( | ||
Total Stockholders’ Equity (Deficit) |
| ( |
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Total Liabilities, Redeemable Common Stock, and Stockholders’ Equity (Deficit) | $ | | $ | | ||
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
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TRIBE CAPITAL GROWTH CORP I
STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
For the period | ||||||
from November 5, | ||||||
2020 (Inception) | ||||||
For the year ended | through | |||||
| December 31, 2021 |
| December 31, 2020 | |||
Formation and operating costs | $ | | $ | | ||
Loss from operations | ( | ( | ||||
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Other income (expense): |
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Interest income on marketable securities held in Trust Account | | — | ||||
Change in fair value of warrants | | — | ||||
Transaction costs | ( | — | ||||
Excess of fair value of Private Warrants over proceeds received | ( | — | ||||
Total other income | | — | ||||
Net income (loss) | $ | | $ | ( | ||
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Weighted average shares outstanding of Class A common stock subject to possible redemption |
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Basic and diluted net income per share, Class A common stock subject to possible redemption | $ | — | ||||
Weighted average shares outstanding of Class B common stock |
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Basic and diluted net income per share, Class B common stock | | ( | ||||
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
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TRIBE CAPITAL GROWTH CORP I
STATEMENTS OF CHANGES IN STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY (DEFICIT)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2021 AND
FOR THE PERIOD FROM NOVEMBER 5, 2020 (INCEPTION) THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2020
Class B | Additional | Total | ||||||||||||
Common Stock | Paid-in | Accumulated | Stockholders’ | |||||||||||
| Shares |
| Amount |
| Capital |
| Deficit |
| Equity (Deficit) | |||||
Balance as of November 5, 2020 (Inception) | | $ | | $ | | $ | | $ | | |||||
Class B common stock issued to Sponsor | | | | — | | |||||||||
Net loss | — | — | — | ( | ( | |||||||||
Balance as of December 31, 2020 | | $ | | $ | | $ | ( | $ | | |||||
Remeasurement of shares of Class A common stock subject to possible redemption | — | — | ( | ( | ( | |||||||||
Net income | — | — | — | | | |||||||||
Balance as of December 31, 2021 |
| | $ | | $ | — | $ | ( | $ | ( | ||||
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
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TRIBE CAPITAL GROWTH CORP I
STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
For the period | ||||||
from November 5, | ||||||
2020 (Inception) | ||||||
For the year ended | through | |||||
December 31, 2021 | December 31, 2020 | |||||
Cash Flows from Operating Activities: |
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Net income (loss) | $ | | $ | ( | ||
Adjustments to reconcile net income (loss) to net cash used in operating activities: |
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Excess of fair value of Private Warrants over proceeds received | | — | ||||
Change in fair value of warrant liabilities | ( | — | ||||
Transaction costs | | — | ||||
Interest earned on cash and Investments held in Trust Account | ( | — | ||||
Changes in operating assets and liabilities: | ||||||
Prepaid assets |
| ( |
| — | ||
Due from Sponsor | ( | — | ||||
Taxes payable |
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| — | ||
Due to related party | | — | ||||
Accounts payable and accrued expenses | | | ||||
Net cash used in operating activities |
| ( |
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Cash flows from investing activities: | ||||||
Investments and marketable securities held in Trust Account | ( | — | ||||
Net cash used in investing activities | ( | — | ||||
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Cash flows from financing activities: |
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Proceeds from sale of Units, net of offering costs |
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Proceeds from issuance of private warrants | | — | ||||
Payment of underwriter discount | ( | — | ||||
Net cash provided by financing activities |
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| — | ||
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Net change in cash |
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Cash, beginning of the period |
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Cash, end of period | $ | | $ | — | ||
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Supplemental disclosure of non-cash operating and financing activities: |
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Initial classification of warrant liability | $ | | $ | — | ||
Deferred underwriting fee payable charged to additional paid-in capital | $ | | $ | — | ||
Accretion of Class A common stock subject to redemption value | | — | ||||
Accrued deferred offering costs | $ | — | $ | | ||
Deferred offering costs paid by Sponsor in exchange for issuance of Class B common stock | $ | — | $ | | ||
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.
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TRIBE CAPITAL GROWTH CORP I
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
december 31, 2021
Note 1 — Organization and Business Operations
Tribe Capital Growth Corp I (the “Company”) is a blank check company incorporated as a Delaware corporation on November 5, 2020. The Company was incorporated for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses (the “Business Combination”). The Company has not selected any specific Business Combination target and it has not, nor has anyone on its behalf, engaged in any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target with respect to an initial business combination with the Company.
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had not commenced any operations. All activity through December 31, 2021 relates to the Company’s formation and the initial public offering described below (the “IPO”), and subsequent to the IPO identifying a target company for a Business Combination. The Company will not generate any operating revenues until after the completion of its initial Business Combination, at the earliest. The Company will generate non-operating income in the form of interest income on cash and cash equivalents from the proceeds derived from the IPO and unrealized gains and losses on the change in fair value of its warrants.
The Company’s sponsor is Tribe Arrow Holdings I, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (the “Sponsor”). The registration statement for the Company’s IPO was declared effective on March 4, 2021 (the “Effective Date”). On March 9, 2021, the Company consummated the IPO of
Simultaneously with the closing of the IPO, the Company consummated the sale of
Transaction costs for the IPO amounted to $
Following the closing of the IPO on March 9, 2021, $
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The Company will provide its public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public shares upon the completion of the initial Business Combination either (i) in connection with a stockholder meeting called to approve the Business Combination or (ii) without a stockholder vote by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether the Company will seek stockholder approval of a proposed Business Combination or conduct a tender offer will be made by the Company, in its sole discretion. The stockholders will be entitled to redeem their shares for a pro rata share of the aggregate amount then on deposit in the Trust Account calculated as of business days prior to the consummation of the initial Business Combination, including interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account (which interest shall be net of income taxes payable), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations and on the conditions described herein. The amount in the Trust Account is initially approximately $
The shares of common stock subject to redemption are recorded at redemption value and classified as temporary equity upon the completion of the IPO, in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 480, “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity.” In such case, the Company will proceed with a Business Combination if the Company has net tangible assets of at least $
The Company will have only
The Sponsor, officers and directors have agreed to (i) waive their redemption rights with respect to any Founder Shares and public shares they hold in connection with the completion of the initial Business Combination, (ii) waive their redemption rights with respect to their Founder Shares and public shares in connection with a stockholder vote to approve an amendment to the Company’s amended and restated certificate of incorporation, (iii) waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the Trust Account with respect to any Founder Shares they hold if the Company fails to complete the initial Business Combination within the Combination Period, and (iv) vote any Founder Shares held by them and any public shares purchased during or after the IPO in favor of the initial Business Combination.
The Sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to the Company if and to the extent any claims by a third party for services rendered or products sold to the Company, or a prospective target business with which the Company has entered into a written letter of intent, confidentiality or other similar agreement or Business Combination agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the Trust Account to below the lesser of (i) $
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Liquidity, Capital Resources and Going Concern
The Company consummated its IPO on March 9, 2021. As of December 31 2021, the Company had $
In connection with the Company’s assessment of going concern considerations in accordance with FASB Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2014-15, “Disclosures of Uncertainties about an Entity’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern,” management has determined that the Company has and will continue to incur significant costs in pursuit of its acquisition plans which raises substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. Moreover, we may need to obtain additional financing either to complete our initial Business Combination or because we become obligated to redeem a significant number of our Public Shares upon consummation of our initial Business Combination, in which case we may issue additional securities or incur debt in connection with such Business Combination. Subject to compliance with applicable securities laws, we would only complete such financing simultaneously with the completion of our initial Business Combination. If we are unable to complete our initial Business Combination because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the Trust Accounts. In addition, following our initial Business Combination, if cash on hand is insufficient, we may need to obtain additional financing in order to meet our obligations.
In connection with the Company’s assessment of going concern considerations in accordance with FASB ASC 205-40, “Presentation of Financial Statements—Going Concern”, management has determined that if the Company is unable to complete a Business Combination by March 8, 2023 (the “Combination Period”), then the Company will cease all operations except for the purpose of liquidating. The date for mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution as well as the Company’s working capital deficit raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. No adjustments have been made to the carrying amounts of assets or liabilities should the Company be required to liquidate after the Combination Period. The Company intends to complete a Business Combination before the mandatory liquidation date.
Note 2 — Significant Accounting Policies
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying financial statements of the Company are presented in U.S. dollars and in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) and pursuant to the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). In the opinion of management, all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring adjustments) have been made that are necessary to present fairly the Company’s financial position, and the results of its operations and its cash flows.
Emerging Growth Company Status
The Company is an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act, as modified by the Jumpstart our Business Startups Act of 2012, (the “JOBS Act”), and it may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in its periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.
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Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such election to opt out is irrevocable. The Company has elected not to opt out of such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, the Company, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of the Company’s financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting periods. Actual results could differ from those estimates.
Cash and Cash Equivalents
The Company considers all short-term investments with an original maturity of three months or less when purchased to be cash equivalents. The Company had approximately $
Investments Held in Trust Account
Investments held in Trust Account are held in a money market fund and characterized as Level 1 investments within the fair value hierarchy under ASC 820 (as defined below). These investments are classified as trading securities and interest earned is included in the statements of operations.
Concentration of Credit Risk
Financial instruments that potentially subject the Company to concentrations of credit risk consist of cash accounts in a financial institution, which, at times, may exceed the federal depository insurance coverage of $
Common Stock Subject to Possible Redemption
The Company accounts for its shares of common stock subject to possible redemption in accordance with the guidance in FASB ASC Topic 480, “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity.” Common stock subject to mandatory redemption (if any) is classified as a liability instrument and is measured at fair value. Conditionally redeemable common stock (including common stock that features redemption rights that are either within the control of the holder or subject to redemption upon the occurrence of uncertain events not solely within the Company’s control) is classified as temporary equity. At all other times, shares of common stock are classified as stockholders’ equity. The Company’s common stock features certain redemption rights that are considered to be outside of the Company’s control and subject to the occurrence of uncertain future events. Accordingly, common stock subject to possible redemption is presented at redemption value as temporary equity, outside of the stockholders’ equity section of the Company’s balance sheets.
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Net Income (Loss) Per Common Stock
The Company has two classes of shares, which are referred to as Class A common stock and Class B common stock. Earnings and losses are shared pro rata between the two classes of shares. The Company has not considered the effect of the warrants sold in the IPO and the Private Placement to purchase an aggregate of
| For the year ended | |||||
December 31, 2021 | ||||||
Class A | Class B | |||||
Basic and diluted net income per share: | ||||||
Numerator: | ||||||
Allocation of net income | $ | | $ | | ||
Denominator: | ||||||
Weighted-average shares outstanding | | | ||||
Basic and diluted net income per share | | | ||||
| For the period from November 5, 2020 (inception) | |||||
through December 31, 2020 | ||||||
| Class A |
| Class B | |||
Basic and diluted net loss per share: | ||||||
Numerator: | ||||||
Allocation of net loss | $ | — | $ | ( | ||
Denominator: | ||||||
Weighted-average shares outstanding | — | | ||||
Basic and diluted net income per share | $ | — | ( | |||
Offering Costs
The Company complies with the requirements of the ASC 340-10-S99-1 and SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin (“SAB”) Topic 5A— “Expenses of Offering”. Offering costs consist principally of professional and registration fees incurred through the balance sheet date that are related to the IPO. Offering costs are charged to temporary equity or the statements of operations based on the relative value of the Public Warrants to the proceeds received from the Units sold upon the completion of the IPO. Accordingly, as of December 31, 2021, offering costs totaling $
Fair Value of Financial Instruments
The fair value of the Company’s assets and liabilities, which qualify as financial instruments under FASB ASC 820, “Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures,” approximates the carrying amounts represented in the balance sheet, primarily due to their short-term nature.
Derivative Financial Instruments
The Company evaluates its financial instruments to determine if such instruments are derivatives or contain features that qualify as embedded derivatives in accordance with ASC Topic 815, “Derivatives and Hedging”. Derivative instruments are recorded at fair value on the grant date and re-valued at each reporting date, with changes in the fair value reported in the statements of operations. Derivative assets and liabilities are classified in the balance sheet as current or non-current based on whether or not net-cash settlement or conversion of the instrument could be required within 12 months of the balance sheet date. The Company has determined that the warrants are a derivative instrument.
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ASC 470-20, “Debt with Conversion and Other Options” addresses the allocation of proceeds from the issuance of convertible debt into its equity and debt components. The Company applies this guidance to allocate IPO proceeds from the Units between Class A common stock and warrants, using the residual method by allocating IPO proceeds first to fair value of the warrants and then the Class A common stock.
Fair Value Measurements
Fair value is defined as the price that would be received for sale of an asset or paid for transfer of a liability, in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. GAAP establishes a three-tier fair value hierarchy, which prioritizes the inputs used in measuring fair value. The hierarchy gives the highest priority to unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities (Level 1 measurements) and the lowest priority to unobservable inputs (Level 3 measurements). These tiers include:
Income Taxes
The Company accounts for income taxes in accordance with ASC 740, “Income Taxes”. ASC 740 requires the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities for both the expected impact of differences between the financial statement and tax basis of assets and liabilities and for the expected future tax benefit to be derived from tax loss and tax credit carry forwards. ASC 740 additionally requires a valuation allowance to be established when it is more likely than not that all or a portion of deferred tax assets will not be realized.
ASC 740 also clarifies the accounting for uncertainty in income taxes recognized in an enterprise’s financial statements and prescribes a recognition threshold and measurement process for financial statement recognition and measurement of a tax position taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. For those benefits to be recognized, a tax position must be more-likely-than-not to be sustained upon examination by taxing authorities. ASC 740 also provides guidance on derecognition, classification, interest and penalties, accounting in interim period, disclosure and transition.
The Company recognizes accrued interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits as income tax expense. There were
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
In August 2020, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2020-06, “Debt -- Debt with Conversion and Other Options” (Subtopic 470-20) and “Derivatives and Hedging - Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity” (Subtopic 815-40): “Accounting for Convertible Instruments and Contracts in an Entity’s Own Equity” (“ASU 2020-06”), which simplifies accounting for convertible instruments by removing major separation models required under current GAAP. The ASU 2020-06 also removes certain settlement conditions that are required for equity-linked contracts to qualify for the derivative scope exception, and it simplifies the diluted earnings per share calculation in certain areas. The Company adopted ASU 2020-06 on January 1, 2021. Adoption of ASU 2020-06 did not impact the Company’s financial position, results of operations or cash flows.
The Company’s management does not believe that any other recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting standards if currently adopted would have a material effect on the accompanying financial statements.
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Risks and Uncertainties
Management continues to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and has concluded that while it is reasonably possible that the virus could have a negative effect on the Company’s financial position, results of its operations and/or search for a target company, the specific impact is not readily determinable as of the date of these financial statements. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.
Note 3 — Initial Public Offering
On March 9, 2021, the Company sold
The Company paid an underwriting fee at the closing of the IPO of $
All of the
The Class A common stock is subject to SEC and its staff’s guidance on redeemable equity instruments, which has been codified in ASC 480-10-S99. If it is probable that the equity instrument will become redeemable, the Company has the option to either accrete changes in the redemption value over the period from the date of issuance (or from the date that it becomes probable that the instrument will become redeemable, if later) to the earliest redemption date of the instrument or to recognize changes in the redemption value immediately as they occur and adjust the carrying amount of the instrument to equal the redemption value at the end of each reporting period. The Company recognizes changes in redemption value immediately as they occur. Immediately upon the closing of the IPO, the Company recognized the accretion from initial book value to redemption amount value. The change in the carrying value of redeemable common stock resulted in charges against additional paid-in capital and accumulated deficit.
As of December 31, 2021, the common stock reflected on the balance sheet are reconciled in the following table:
Gross proceeds from IPO |
| $ | |
Less: |
|
| |
Proceeds allocated to Public Warrants |
| ( | |
Common stock issuance costs |
| ( | |
Plus: |
|
| |
Accretion of carrying value to redemption value |
| | |
Contingently redeemable common stock | $ | |
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Warrants — Each whole warrant entitles the holder to purchase
The warrants will become exercisable on the later of
The Company has agreed that as soon as practicable, but in no event later than (15) business days after the closing of the initial Business Combination, it will use its best efforts to file with the SEC a registration statement for the registration, under the Securities Act, of the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants. The Company will use its best efforts to cause the same to become effective and to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement, and a current prospectus relating thereto, until the expiration of the warrants in accordance with the provisions of the warrant agreement. If a registration statement covering the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants is not effective by the sixtieth () business day after the closing of the initial Business Combination, warrant holders may, until such time as there is an effective registration statement and during any period when the Company will have failed to maintain an effective registration statement, exercise warrants on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act or another exemption. Notwithstanding the above, if the Company’s Class A common stock are at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of a “covered security” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, the Company may, at its option, require holders of public warrants who exercise their warrants to do so on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act and, in the event the Company so elects, it will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, and in the event the Company does not so elect, it will use its best efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available.
Once the warrants become exercisable, the Company may call the warrants for redemption for cash:
| ● | at a price of $ |
| ● | upon not less than |
| ● | if, and only if, the closing price of the common stock equals or exceeds $ |
If and when the warrants become redeemable by the Company for cash, the Company may exercise its redemption right even if it is unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws.
Note 4 — Private Placement
Simultaneously with the closing of the IPO, the Sponsor and Cantor purchased an aggregate of
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The Private Warrants are identical to the public warrants included as part of the Units sold in the IPO except that they will be non-redeemable and exercisable on a cashless basis for as long as the Private Warrants are held by the Sponsor or Cantor, the representative of the underwriters, or its permitted transferees. Additionally, for so long as the Private Warrants are held by Cantor or its designees or affiliates, they may not be exercised after five years from the commencement of sales of the IPO.
Note 5 — Related Party Transactions
Founder Shares
In December 2020, the Sponsor paid $
The Sponsor has agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their Founder Shares until the earlier to occur of: (A)
Promissory Note — Related Party
On December 31, 2020, the Sponsor agreed to loan the Company up to $
Related Party Loans
In addition, in order to fund working capital deficiencies or finance transaction costs in connection with an intended Business Combination, the Sponsor or an affiliate of the Sponsor, or certain of the Company’s officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan the Company funds as may be required on a non-interest bearing basis (“Working Capital Loans”). If the Company completes the initial Business Combination, the Company would repay the Working Capital Loans. In the event that the initial Business Combination does not close, the Company may use a portion of the working capital held outside the Trust Account to repay the Working Capital Loans, but no proceeds from the Trust Account would be used to repay the Working Capital Loans. Up to $
Administrative Service Fee
Subsequent to the closing of the IPO, the Company began paying an affiliate of the Sponsor $
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Note 6 — Commitments and Contingencies
Registration Rights
The holders of the (i) Founder Shares, which were issued in a private placement prior to the closing of the IPO, (ii) Private Warrants, which were issued in a private placement simultaneously with the closing of the IPO and the shares of Class A common stock underlying such Private Warrants and (iii) Private Warrants that may be issued upon conversion of Working Capital Loans will have registration rights to require the Company to register a sale of any of the Company’s securities held by them pursuant to a registration rights agreement to be signed prior to or on the Effective Date. The holders of these securities are entitled to make up to three demands, excluding Form S-3 demands, that the Company registers such securities. In addition, the holders have certain “piggy-back” registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to the Company’s completion of its initial Business Combination. The Company will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
Underwriting Agreement
The underwriters are entitled to a deferred underwriting discount of
Note 7 — Stockholder’s Equity (Deficit)
Preferred stock—The Company is authorized to issue
Class A Common Stock—The Company is authorized to issue
Class B Common Stock—The Company is authorized to issue
Stockholders of record are entitled to
The Class B common stock will automatically convert into Class A common stock upon the consummation of the initial Business Combination on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment for stock splits, stock dividends, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like, and subject to further adjustment as provided herein. In the case that additional shares of Class A common stock or equity-linked securities are issued or deemed issued in connection with the initial Business Combination, the number of Class A common stock issuable upon conversion of all Founder Shares will equal, in the aggregate, on an as-converted basis,
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Note 8 —Recurring Fair Value Measurements
At December 31, 2021, the Company’s warrant liability was valued at $
All of the Company’s permitted investments are held in a money market fund. Fair values of these investments are determined by Level 1 inputs utilizing quoted prices (unadjusted) in active markets for identical assets. The Company’s warrant liability for the Private Placement Warrants is based on a valuation model utilizing management judgment and pricing inputs from observable and unobservable markets with less volume and transaction frequency than active markets. Significant deviations from these estimates and inputs could result in a material change in fair value. The fair value of the Private Placement Warrant liability is classified within Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy. The Company’s warrant liability for the Public Warrants is based on unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities that the Company has the ability to access. The fair value of the Public Warrant liability is classified within Level 1 of the fair value hierarchy. During the year ended December 31, 2021, the Public Warrants were reclassified from a Level 3 to a Level 1 classification.
The following table presents fair value information as of December 31, 2021 of the Company’s financial assets and liabilities that were accounted for at fair value on a recurring basis and indicates the fair value hierarchy of the valuation techniques the Company utilized to determine such fair value.
Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | |||||||
Assets: | |||||||||
Investments held in Trust Account – |
|
|
|
|
| ||||
Money Market Funds | $ | | $ | — | $ | — | |||
Liabilities: | |||||||||
Private Warrants | $ | — | $ | — | $ | | |||
Public Warrants | | — | — | ||||||
Total | $ | | $ | — | $ | | |||
Measurement - The Company established the initial fair value for the warrants on March 9, 2021, the date of the consummation of the IPO. On December 31, 2021, the fair value was remeasured. For March 9, 2021, neither the Public Warrants nor the Private Placement Warrants were separately traded on an open market. As such, the Company used a Monte Carlo simulation model to value the Warrants. In May 2021, the Public Warrants were separately traded in the open market and the valuation for the Public Warrants was based on unadjusted quoted prices at December 31, 2021. For December 31, 2021, the Company used a Monte Carlo simulation model to value the Private Placement Warrants.
The key inputs into the Monte Carlo simulation model for the Warrants were as follows at initial measurement and at December 31, 2021:
March 9, 2021 (Initial | |||||||
Inputs: |
| Measurement) |
| December 31, 2021 | |||
Risk-free interest rate | | % | | % | |||
Expected term (years) | | | |||||
Expected volatility | | % | | % | |||
Exercise price | $ | | | ||||
The change in the fair value of the warrant liabilities classified as Level 3 for the year ended December 31, 2021 is summarized as follows:
Fair Value at January 1, 2021 |
| $ | — |
Issuance due to initial public offering | | ||
Public Warrants reclassified to level 1 | ( | ||
Change in fair value |
| ( | |
Fair Value at December 31, 2021 | $ | |
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Note 9 — Income Taxes
The Company’s net deferred tax assets (liability) at December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020 are as follows:
| December 31, |
| December 31, | |||
2021 | 2020 | |||||
Deferred tax asset: | ||||||
Organizational costs/Startup expenses | $ | | $ | — | ||
Federal net operating loss | | | ||||
Total deferred tax asset | | | ||||
Valuation allowance | ( | ( | ||||
Deferred tax asset, net of allowance | $ | — | — | |||
The income tax provision for the year ended December 31, 2021 and the period from November 5, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020 consists of the following:
| December 31, |
| December 31, | |||
2021 | 2020 | |||||
Federal |
| |||||
Current | $ | — | $ | — | ||
Deferred | ( | ( | ||||
State |
| |||||
Current | — | — | ||||
Deferred | — | — | ||||
Change in valuation allowance | | | ||||
Income tax provision | $ | — | — | |||
As of December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020, the Company has $
In assessing the realization of the deferred tax assets, management considers whether it is more likely than not that some portion of all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. The ultimate realization of deferred tax assets is dependent upon the generation of future taxable income during the periods in which temporary differences representing net future deductible amounts become deductible. Management considers the scheduled reversal of deferred tax liabilities, projected future taxable income and tax planning strategies in making this assessment. After consideration of all of the information available, management believes that significant uncertainty exists with respect to future realization of the deferred tax assets and has therefore established a full valuation allowance. For the period from January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021, the change in the valuation allowance was $
A reconciliation of the federal income tax rate to the Company’s effective tax rate at December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020 are as follows:
December 31, | December 31, | ||||
| 2021 | 2020 | |||
Provision/(Benefit) at Statutory Rate |
| | % | | % |
State Tax Provision/(Benefit) net of federal benefit | — | % | — | % | |
Permanent differences: | |||||
Change in fair value of Warrant Liability | ( | % | — | % | |
Excess of fair value of Private Warrants over proceeds received | | % | — | % | |
Warrant Transaction Costs | | % | — | % | |
Acquisition Facilitative Expenses | | % | ( | % | |
Change in valuation allowance | | % | — | % | |
Income Tax Provision/(Benefit) | — | % | — | % |
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The Company files income tax returns in the U.S. federal jurisdiction in various state and local jurisdictionss, including California, and is subject to examination by the various taxing authorities.
Note 10 — Subsequent Events
The Company evaluated subsequent events and transactions that occurred after the balance sheet date up to the date that the financial statements were issued. Based upon this review, the Company did not identify any subsequent events that would have required adjustment or disclosure in the financial statements.
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ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE.
None.
ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES.
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Disclosure controls are procedures that are designed with the objective of ensuring that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed under the Exchange Act, such as this annual report, is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time period specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls are also designed with the objective of ensuring that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including the chief executive officer and chief financial officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Our management evaluated, with the participation of our chief executive officer and chief financial officer (our “Certifying Officers”), the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2021, pursuant to Rule 13a-15(b) under the Exchange Act. Based upon that evaluation, our Certifying Officers concluded that, as of December 31, 2021, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective.
Specifically, management’s determination was based on the following material weakness which existed as of December 31, 2021. Our internal controls did not detect an error in the classification related to complex financial instruments. The Company has begun to develop a remediation which is more fully described below.
After identifying the material weakness, we have commenced our remediation efforts by taking the following steps:
| ● | We have expanded and improved our review process for complex securities and related accounting standards. |
| ● | We have increased communication among its personnel and third-party professionals with whom we consult regarding complex accounting applications. |
| ● | We are establishing additional monitoring and oversight controls designed to ensure the accuracy and completeness of our financial statements and related disclosures. |
A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of control deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Notwithstanding the determination that our internal control over financial reporting was not effective, as of December 31, 2021, and that there was a material weakness as identified in this annual report, we believe that our financial statements contained in this annual report fairly present our financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the years covered hereby in all material respects.
We do not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures will prevent all errors and all instances of fraud. Disclosure controls and procedures, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the disclosure controls and procedures are met. Further, the design of disclosure controls and procedures must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all disclosure controls and procedures, no evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures can provide absolute assurance that we have detected all our control deficiencies and instances of fraud, if any. The design of disclosure controls and procedures also is based partly on certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions.
Management’s Report on Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting
This annual report does not include a report of management’s assessment regarding internal control over financial reporting or an attestation report of our independent registered public accounting firm due to a transition period established by rules of the SEC for newly public companies.
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Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act) during the most recent fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION.
None.
Item 9C. DISCLOSURE REGARDING FOREIGN JURISDICTIONS THAT PREVENT INSPECTIONS.
Not applicable.
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PART III
ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE.
Directors and Executive Officers
Our current directors and executive officers are as follows:
Name |
| Age |
| Title |
Arjun Sethi |
| 39 |
| Chairman and Chief Executive Officer |
Omar Chohan |
| 41 |
| Chief Financial Officer |
Sumit Mehta |
| 39 |
| Vice President |
Ted Maidenberg |
| 46 |
| Secretary |
Rohit Nanani |
| 47 |
| Director |
Richard Peretz | 60 | Independent | ||
Henry Ward | 45 | Independent | ||
Duriya Farooqui | 45 | Independent |
Arjun Sethi has been our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since inception. Mr. Sethi is a serial entrepreneur, investor and executive with deep roots in the Silicon Valley and more than a decade of experience building, sourcing and investing in over 100 high-growth technology companies, most notably independently investing in companies such as Opendoor, Gusto and Truecaller. Mr. Sethi also co-founded Tribe Capital Management LLC in 2018, a venture capital firm built by engineers and data scientists, which has invested in fast growing and notable companies such as Carta, Relativity, Shiprocket, Applied Intuition, Instabase, Momentus, Bolt, Front, and Equipmentshare. Prior to founding Tribe, Mr. Sethi was a partner at Social Capital from 2016 to 2018, where he led the team which established a successful track-record of backing high-growth companies such as Slack, Cloud Kitchens, and Box. He also served on the executive team at Yahoo, from 2014 to 2016, where he grew product usage to over 1 billion monthly active unique users. He joined Yahoo as part of its acquisition of MessageMe, a messaging app he founded in 2012. Prior to that, Mr. Sethi co-founded LOLapps, a mobile gaming and applications company which he scaled to 100 million monthly users before it was sold to 6waves, a subsidiary of Nexon. Mr. Sethi graduated from the University of Maryland College Park, with a bachelor’s degree in history. We believe Mr. Sethi is well qualified to serve as our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer given his depth of investment and operational experience in the technology sector.
Omar Chohan has been our Chief Financial Officer since inception. Mr. Chohan brings over 20 years of CFO experience with broad cross border, strategic and transactional experience. Since 2020, Mr. Chohan has served as a partner, and runs the Special Situations Group (SSG) at TCM, and separately serves as general partner at a TCM affiliated venture capital firm, PIF VC. Mr. Chohan also has extensive experience supporting growth stage companies around the world. He currently sits on the board of Ampaire and also founded Luxsant LLC in 2013, a global boutique CFO and management consulting firm employing a global team of professionals across six international offices, focusing on accounting, internal controls/audit, pre-acquisition due diligence, M&A, and turnaround/restructuring of distressed assets. Mr. Chohan graduated with BS degrees in management and operations management and has a dual emphasis MBA in finance and strategy from California State University, Long Beach. We believe Mr. Chohan is well qualified to serve as our Chief Financial Officer given his extensive experience as CFO and supporting growth stage companies around the world.
Sumit Mehta has been our Vice President since inception. In 2019 Mr. Mehta became a managing director at Arrow Capital, a leading boutique asset manager and investment advisory firm. He has over 15 years of experience across Corporate Finance, M&A and Private Equity, and a strong track record of identifying and executing successful transactions. In his previous role, starting in 2007, Mr. Mehta was the head of Deal Structuring & Advisory at Daman Investments, one of the leading investment companies in Dubai and part of the $5 billion Gargash Group. In his career span, Mr. Mehta has led large and complex investment deals, equity and debt financing transactions ranging from $50 million to $750 million across a wide range of sectors including technology, real estate, hospitality, education, auto, and consumer care. Mr. Mehta started his career with ABN AMRO in India as an investment advisor prior to moving to the Middle East. Mr. Mehta has a BA in Economics from Delhi University and a MBA from Cass School of Business. We believe Mr. Mehta is well qualified to serve as our Vice President given his deep experience in finance, M&A, advisory and focus on non-US investments.
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Ted Maidenberg has been our Secretary since inception. Mr. Maidenberg brings over two decades of experience as an entrepreneur, investor and operator in the technology, media and telecom sector. He co-founded Tribe Capital Management LLC in 2018, a venture capital firm built by engineers and data scientists. Previously, he co-founded Social Capital in 2011, where he established a proven track record of value creation with notable successes including Slack, Propeller Health, Yammer, and Wealthfront. From 2006 to 2011, Mr. Maidenberg was a partner as U.S. Venture Partners where he invested in Trunkclub, Adify and Revolution Money. Prior to his investment career, Mr. Maidenberg ran the wireless licensing division for Warner Brothers Japan. Mr. Maidenberg graduated from the Washington University in St Louis, with a B.S.B.A in finance. We believe Mr. Maidenberg is well qualified to serve as our Secretary a given his vast experience in venture capital and focus on operations.
Rohit Nanani is one of our directors. He is the Founder and CEO of Arrow Capital, which he founded in 2016, a leading boutique asset manager and investment advisory firm. Mr. Nanani has a proven track record as an international banker with 20+ years of experience in global financial markets. He has held several executive positions across notable global institutions, including as a Managing Director with Barclays Bank Plc (DIFC – Dubai), starting in 2013, and heading the GSAC (South Asian Clients) business and as Executive Director at UBS Singapore, having clientele across South East Asia, Middle East, Africa and UK. Prior to his private banking experience, Mr. Nanani spent ten years with global institutions such as ABN AMRO and Bank of Nova Scotia in India in the Corporate Banking business. His rich and varied experience across corporate banking and private banking gives him an advantage in providing holistic advisory services to ultra-high net worth clients and large family offices. Mr. Nanani has a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Accounting, Finance and Economics from Delhi University and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management from M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Management. We believe Mr. Nanani is well qualified to serve as a Director given his deep experience in finance, global banking, and serving the requirements of ultra-high net worth clients across Asia and Middle East.
Richard Peretz is one of our directors. Mr. Peretz recently retired as the chief financial officer and treasurer of UPS, which he served from 2015 to 2020. Mr. Peretz was responsible for Global Finance activities at UPS. He also served as a member of the UPS Management Committee, setting strategy for long-term growth including the current capital structure realignment and transformation initiatives. Mr. Peretz was also responsible for UPS’s Initial Public Offering in 1999, at the time the largest in U.S. history. Prior to being named CFO, Mr. Peretz held various leadership positions at UPS, including corporate controller and treasurer from 2007-2015. Mr. Petetz graduated with an MBA from Emory University and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (BBA) from University of Texas - San Antonio. We believe Mr. Peretz is well qualified to serve as Director given his extensive experience in private and public companies, his roles as CFO and Treasurer of a multinational corporation and vast experience in management.
Henry Ward is one of our directors. Mr. Ward is the CEO of Carta, a company he co-founded in 2012 to revolutionize the way founders, investors, and employees manage equity and ownership. Carta was founded in 2012, and has grown to manage hundreds of billions of dollars in equity. Companies including Robinhood, Tilray, and Union Square Ventures trust Carta to provide fund administration, 409A valuations, cap table management and scenario modeling. Prior to Carta, Mr. Ward was the founder and CEO of Secondsight, a portfolio optimization platform for retail investors. Prior, Mr Ward held leadership positions at software companies including Reddwerks Inc. and BetweenMarkets. Mr. Ward graduated from University of Michigan with a BS in Mathematics and Computer Science and holds a MSc in Market Finance from EDHEC Business School. We believe Mr. Ward is well qualified to serve as Director given his extensive experience in private company management and seeing through successful rapid growth, becoming a leader in his field.
Duriya Farooqui is one of our directors. Mr Farooqui has been an independent director at InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (NYSE: IHG) as of 2020, and at Intercontinental Exchange, Inc (NYSE: ICE) since 2017. She also serves on the boards of NYSE and ICE NGX, all of which are ICE subsidiaries. Most recently, between 2019 and 2020, Ms. Farooqui was president of supply chain innovation at Georgia Pacific, leading an innovation organization where over 40 companies came together to solve supply chain challenges through rapid experimentation, digital technology and collaboration. Ms. Farooqui was previously executive director of Atlanta Committee for Progress (ACP), a coalition of leading CEOs addressing critical economic development issues for Atlanta; a role she held from 2016 to 2018. Ms. Farooqui was a principal at Bain & Company from 2014 to 2016. She served the City of Atlanta through several leadership positions including, chief operating officer from 2011 to 2013, deputy chief operating officer from 2010 to 2011 and director from 2007 to 2009. At the start of her career, she worked with the Center for International Development at Harvard University, The World Bank, and the Center for Global Development. Ms. Farooqui is a Trustee of the Woodruff Arts Center and Agnes Scott College. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Mathematics from Hampshire College and a Master of Public Administration in International Development from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. We believe Ms. Farooqui is well qualified to serve as a Director due to her experience as a public company director and management experience.
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Strategic Advisors
Our strategic advisors are as follows:
Kat Cole is COO and president of Focus Brands, the owner, franchisor and operator of global limited service food brands, doing product sales in over 50 countries. She leads the company’s brands and franchise businesses including: Cinnabon, Auntie Anne’s, Moe’s, Schlotzsky’s, McAlister’s, Carvel and Jamba with 6,500 operations globally and leading the multi-brand licensing and CPG business. She is formerly president of Cinnabon Inc. and past Group President Focus Brands. Mrs. Cole graduated from Georgia State University with a Master’s of Business Administration with an emphasis in international business.
Shyam K. Reddy is the chief administrative officer and senior vice president, corporate development at BlueLinx Corporation. Mr. Reddy is responsible for the COVID-19, legal, human resources, risk management, real estate, and corporate development teams at the company. He served as the chief transformation officer, where he led the integration of the Cedar Creek business purchased by BlueLinx in March 2018 for $1.4 billion. Mr. Reddy has also held the general counsel and corporate secretary role at BlueLinx. Prior to joining BlueLinx, he served as the CAO, GC & corporate secretary of OmniMax International, and as the regional administrator of the Southeast Sunbelt Region of the U.S. General Services. Administration during the Obama Administration. Mr. Reddy also practiced law as a corporate partner at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP. Mr. Reddy has a BS and MS in Public Health from Emory University and earned Juris Doctorate from The University of Georgia.
Debbie Markowitz currently serves as chief financial officer of Spring Health, delivering precision mental healthcare as an employer benefit. Prior, she was the CFO of Kindbody, a provider of fertility treatment and women’s healthcare both through bricks and mortar locations and as an employer benefit. Ms. Markowitz spent ten years in progressive leadership positions, including as chief financial officer, at Exhale Enterprises, a national chain providing boutique fitness classes and mindful spa therapies. During her tenure as chief financial officer of Exhale Enterprises, she played a pivotal role in the Company’s sale to Hyatt Corporation and then successfully led the integration efforts post transaction, with her role expanding to oversee marketing and loyalty. Ms. Markowitz’s earlier career included roles at Crunch and Equinox in finance and strategy. She began her career at Bear Stearns in investment banking. Ms. Markowitz earned a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, in economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Anthony Pompliano was a managing partner at Full Tilt Capital, which was acquired by Morgan Creek Digital Assets, and has successfully invested in companies such as Everlywell, Figure Technologies, and eToro and is an investor in Coinbase, Airbnb, Lyft, and Reddit. Mr. Pompliano also sits on the boards of BlockFi, Figure Technologies, Delphi Digital, and Elementus. Mr. Pompliano currently hosts podcasts in business and investing, “The Pomp Podcast,” while also writing a daily letter to 95,000+ investors each morning. Prior to his investment career, Mr. Pompliano ran product and growth teams at Facebook and Snapchat, and served as a sergeant in the US Army. Mr. Pompliano graduated from Bucknell University with degrees in economics and sociology.
Romeen Sheth is president of Metasys Technologies, a workforce management advisory firm based in Atlanta, GA. Metasys partners with leading global organizations on the full lifecycle of their talent management strategy. Prior to joining Metasys, Mr. Sheth was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. Mr. Sheth also runs Square One, a podcast where he interviews founders, executives and investors since 2018. Mr. Sheth also is an affiliated fellow at the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession and is an appointed member of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) Emerging Leaders Council. Mr. Sheth has a Juris Doctorate (JD) from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in philosophy, magna cum laude, from Duke University.
We currently expect our strategic advisors to (i) assist us in sourcing and negotiating with potential business combination targets, (ii) provide business insights when we assess potential business combination targets and (iii) provide business insights as we work to create additional value in the businesses that we acquire. However, our strategic advisors are not officers of our company and have no written advisory agreement with us, nor do they have any other employment arrangements with us. Moreover, our strategic advisors will not be under any fiduciary obligation to us, nor will they have any voting or decision-making capacity on our behalf. Our strategic advisors will not be required to devote any specific amount of time to our efforts. Accordingly, if our strategic advisors become aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for any of the entities to which they have fiduciary or contractual obligations, they will honor their fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity, and only present it to us if such entity rejects the opportunity. We may modify or expand our roster of strategic advisors as we source potential business combination targets or create value in businesses that we may acquire.
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Investment Team
TCM’s investment team, together with the broader team at TCM and our strategic advisors, will support our management team in identifying targets for an initial business combination. Our investment team is comprised of the following individuals, not including Messrs. Sethi and Chohan, listed above, who also sit on the investment team at TCM:
Jonathan Hsu brings over a decade of experience in data science in both operating and investing contexts to TCM. Prior to co-founding Tribe, Dr. Hsu was previously a partner and SVP of Quantitative Investing and Data Science at Social Capital where he pioneered the application of data science to all aspects of venture investing from both early-stage to growth stage opportunities. Prior to joining Social Capital, Dr. Hsu was at Facebook for several years, where he built out and led the data science and analytics function across a significant portion of the product team. Mr. Hsu holds a PhD in theoretical physics from Stanford University.
Alexander Chee brings a decade and a half of operational product experience, leading product and Firstlook at TCM. He previously led the product and engineering teams at Social Capital and co-led the seed investment and scout program with Arjun Sethi. Prior to Social Capital, Mr. Chee ran product at Joist. Before Joist, he co-founded MessageMe, a messaging app subsequently acquired by Yahoo, with Mr. Sethi. Mr. Chee started his career with an indefinite leave of absence from Stanford University, to direct product at mobile gaming and applications company LOLapps, where he led new game and platform R&D across all teams before it was sold to 6Waves, a subsidiary of Nexon.
Raaid Hossain brings a decade of operational experience building high performance revenue teams, M&A and strategy supporting TCM’s operations, access and new investors, and separately serves as general partner at a TCM affiliated venture capital firm, PIF VC. He previously co-founded Wiser in 2013, where he served as CRO and at acquisition held the CEO seat. The acquirer rebranded to Wiser Solutions, where Mr. Hossain led M&A, Revenue and Strategy. Prior to Wiser, he ran an agency focused on digital transformation for retailers, brands and CPG companies. Mr Hossain started his career with an indefinite leave of absence from University of California – Santa Cruz to sell products online on marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon.
Jake Ellowitz builds technology that improves investment decision making. Prior to joining Tribe, Dr. Ellowitz worked with the Tribe team at Social Capital where he applied modern data science to venture capital. Prior to Social Capital, he was at Bridgewater Associates working on the systematic investment algorithms through which macroeconomic insight was translated into systematic investment strategies. Dr. Ellowitz holds a PhD in physics from the University of Chicago, where he studied the fluid nature of powders and sands with analytical models and computer simulations.
Brendan Moore has over a decade of experience in building and scaling the analytics organizations of iconic technology companies such as Slack and Facebook. Mr. Moore served as Jonathan Hsu’s right-hand, at Social Capital, where they worked together to apply modern data science, to all aspects of venture capital. Prior to, and after Social Capital, he worked at Slack, scaling its analytics organization. Mr. Moore began his career in data science at Facebook where he led data teams across multiple parts of the product. He holds a BA in economics from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Joe Day brings half a decade of experience developing and applying systematic frameworks to investing in global equity markets. Prior to joining Tribe, he worked at global macro hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, working across both the global and US focused equity research teams. Mr. Day holds a PhD in theoretical particle physics from the University of Graz in Austria and a master’s degree in financial engineering from Cornell University.
Ryan George brings nearly a decade of data science expertise as an investor and operator. Mr. George joined Tribe from Partners Group, a $90bn AUM global private equity fund. Prior to Partners Group, he built the quantitative market intelligence program at Lyft during the pre-IPO growth phase. Mr. George was an early employee at Coursera, where he was a data scientist and operations manager. He holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a BA in computational mathematics from Rice University.
Number and Terms of Office of Officers and Directors
Our board of directors consists of seven members and is divided into two classes with only one class of directors being elected in each year, and with each class (except for those directors appointed prior to our first annual meeting of stockholders) serving a two-year term. In accordance with Nasdaq corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual meeting until one year after our first fiscal year end following our listing on Nasdaq. The term of office of the first class of directors, consisting of Messrs. Peretz
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and Ward and Ms. Farooqui, will expire at our first annual meeting of stockholders. The term of office of the second class of directors, consisting of Messrs. Sethi and Nananni, will expire at the second annual meeting of stockholders.
Our officers are appointed by the board of directors and serve at the discretion of the board of directors, rather than for specific terms of office. Our board of directors is authorized to appoint officers as it deems appropriate pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation.
Director Independence
Nasdaq listing standards require that a majority of our board of directors be independent. An “independent director” is defined generally as a person other than an officer or employee of the company or its subsidiaries or any other individual having a relationship which in the opinion of the company’s board of directors, would interfere with the director’s exercise of independent judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director. We expect that our board of directors will determine that Messrs. Peretz and Ward and Ms. Farooqui are “independent directors” as defined in the Nasdaq listing standards and applicable SEC rules. Our independent directors will have regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent directors are present.
Executive Officer and Director Compensation
None of our directors has received any cash compensation for services rendered to us. Commencing on the date that our securities are first listed on Nasdaq through the earlier of consummation of our initial business combination and our liquidation, we will pay an affiliate of our sponsor $10,000 per month for office space, secretarial and administrative services provided to members of our management team. In addition, our sponsor, executive officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with activities on our behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable business combinations.
Our audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to our sponsor, executive officers or directors, or our or their affiliates. Any such payments prior to an initial business combination will be made from funds held outside the trust account. Other than quarterly audit committee review of such reimbursements, we do not expect to have any additional controls in place governing our reimbursement payments to our directors and executive officers for their out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with our activities on our behalf in connection with identifying and consummating an initial business combination. Other than these payments and reimbursements, no compensation of any kind, including finder’s and consulting fees, will be paid by the company to our sponsor, executive officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates, prior to completion of our initial business combination.
After the completion of our initial business combination, members of our management team who remain with us may be paid consulting or management fees from the combined company. All of these fees will be fully disclosed to stockholders, to the extent then known, in the proxy solicitation materials or tender offer materials furnished to our stockholders in connection with a proposed business combination. We have not established any limit on the amount of such fees that may be paid by the combined company to our directors or members of management. It is unlikely the amount of such compensation will be known at the time of the proposed business combination, because the directors of the post-combination business will be responsible for determining executive officer and director compensation. Any compensation to be paid to our executive officers will be determined, or recommended to the board of directors for determination, either by a compensation committee constituted solely by independent directors or by a majority of the independent directors on our board of directors.
We do not intend to take any action to ensure that members of our management team maintain their positions with us after the consummation of our initial business combination, although it is possible that some or all of our executive officers and directors may negotiate employment or consulting arrangements to remain with us after our initial business combination. The existence or terms of any such employment or consulting arrangements to retain their positions with us may influence our management’s motivation in identifying or selecting a target business but we do not believe that the ability of our management to remain with us after the consummation of our initial business combination will be a determining factor in our decision to proceed with any potential business combination. We are not party to any agreements with our executive officers and directors that provide for benefits upon termination of employment.
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Committees of the Board of Directors
Our board of directors has two standing committees: an audit committee and a compensation committee. Subject to phase-in rules and a limited exception, the rules of Nasdaq and Rule 10A of the Exchange Act require that the audit committee of a listed company be comprised solely of independent directors. Subject to phase-in rules and a limited exception, the rules of Nasdaq require that the compensation committee of a listed company be comprised solely of independent directors. Each committee operates under a charter that has been approved by our board and will have the composition and responsibilities described below. The charter of each committee is available on our website.
Audit Committee
We have established an audit committee of the board of directors. Messrs. Peretz and Ward and Ms. Farooqui serve as members of our audit committee, and Mr. Peretz chairs the audit committee. All members of our audit committee are independent of and unaffiliated with our sponsor and our underwriters.
Each member of the audit committee is financially literate and our board of directors has determined that Richard Peretz qualifies as an “audit committee financial expert” as defined in applicable SEC rules and has accounting or related financial management expertise.
We have adopted an audit committee charter, which details the principal functions of the audit committee, including:
| ● | assisting board oversight of (1) the integrity of our financial statements, (2) our compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, (3) our independent registered public accounting firm’s qualifications and independence, and (4) the performance of our internal audit function and independent registered public accounting firm; the appointment, compensation, retention, replacement, and oversight of the work of the independent registered public accounting firm and any other independent registered public accounting firm engaged by us; |
| ● | pre-approving all audit and non-audit services to be provided by the independent registered public accounting firm or any other registered public accounting firm engaged by us, and establishing pre-approval policies and procedures; reviewing and discussing with the independent registered public accounting firm all relationships the auditors have with us in order to evaluate their continued independence; |
| ● | setting clear policies for audit partner rotation in compliance with applicable laws and regulations; obtaining and reviewing a report, at least annually, from the independent registered public accounting firm describing (1) the independent registered public accounting firm’s internal quality-control procedures and (2) any material issues raised by the most recent internal quality-control review, or peer review, of the audit firm, or by any inquiry or investigation by governmental or professional authorities, within the preceding five years respecting one or more independent audits carried out by the firm and any steps taken to deal with such issues; |
| ● | meeting to review and discuss our annual audited financial statements and quarterly financial statements with management and the independent registered public accounting firm, including reviewing our specific disclosures under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”; reviewing and approving any related party transaction required to be disclosed pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation S-K promulgated by the SEC prior to us entering into such transaction; and |
| ● | reviewing with management, the independent, and our legal advisors, as appropriate, any legal, regulatory or compliance matters, including any correspondence with regulators or government agencies and any employee complaints or published reports that raise material issues regarding our financial statements or accounting policies and any significant changes in accounting standards or rules promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the SEC or other regulatory authorities. |
Compensation Committee
We have established a compensation committee of the board of directors. Ms. Farooqui and Mr. Peretz serve as members of our compensation committee. Ms. Farooqui chairs the compensation committee.
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We have adopted a compensation committee charter, which details the principal functions of the compensation committee, including:
| ● | reviewing and approving on an annual basis the corporate goals and objectives relevant to our Chief Executive Officer’s compensation evaluating our Chief Executive Officer’s performance in light of such goals and objectives and determining and approving the remuneration (if any) of our Chief Executive Officer based on such evaluation; |
| ● | reviewing and making recommendations to our board of directors with respect to the compensation, and any incentive compensation and equity based plans that are subject to board approval of all of our other officers; |
| ● | reviewing our executive compensation policies and plans; |
| ● | implementing and administering our incentive compensation equity-based remuneration plans; |
| ● | assisting management in complying with our proxy statement and annual report disclosure requirements; |
| ● | approving all special perquisites, special cash payments and other special compensation and benefit arrangements for our officers and employees; |
| ● | producing a report on executive compensation to be included in our annual proxy statement; and |
| ● | reviewing, evaluating and recommending changes, if appropriate, to the remuneration for directors. |
Notwithstanding the foregoing, as indicated above, other than the payment to an affiliate of our sponsor of $10,000 per month, for up to 24 months, for office space, utilities and secretarial and administrative support and reimbursement of expenses, no compensation of any kind, including finders, consulting or other similar fees, will be paid to any of our existing stockholders, officers, directors or any of their respective affiliates, prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate the consummation of an initial business combination. Accordingly, it is likely that prior to the consummation of an initial business combination, the compensation committee will only be responsible for the review and recommendation of any compensation arrangements to be entered into in connection with such initial business combination.
The charter also provides that the compensation committee may, in its sole discretion, retain or obtain the advice of a compensation consultant, independent legal counsel or other adviser and will be directly responsible for the appointment, compensation and oversight of the work of any such adviser. However, before engaging or receiving advice from a compensation consultant, external legal counsel or any other adviser, the compensation committee will consider the independence of each such adviser, including the factors required by Nasdaq and the SEC.
Director Nominations
We do not have a standing nominating committee though we intend to form a corporate governance and nominating committee as and when required to do so by law or Nasdaq listing rules. In accordance with Rule 5605 of the Nasdaq listing rules, a majority of the independent directors may recommend a director nominee for selection by the board of directors. The board of directors believes that the independent directors can satisfactorily carry out the responsibility of properly selecting or approving director nominees without the formation of a standing nominating committee. The directors who will participate in the consideration and recommendation of director nominees are Messrs. Peretz and Ward and Ms. Farooqui. In accordance with Rule 5605 of the Nasdaq listing rules, all such directors are independent. As there is no standing nominating committee, we do not have a nominating committee charter in place.
The board of directors will also consider director candidates recommended for nomination by our stockholders during such times as they are seeking proposed nominees to stand for election at the next annual meeting of stockholders (or, if applicable, a special meeting of stockholders). Our stockholders that wish to nominate a director for election to our board of directors should follow the procedures set forth in our bylaws.
We have not formally established any specific, minimum qualifications that must be met or skills that are necessary for directors to possess. In general, in identifying and evaluating nominees for director, the board of directors considers educational background,
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diversity of professional experience, knowledge of our business, integrity, professional reputation, independence, wisdom, and the ability to represent the best interests of our stockholders.
Code of Business Conduct and Ethics
We have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics applicable to our directors, officers and employees. We have filed a copy of our form of the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics and our audit committee and compensation committee charters as exhibits to this annual report. You will be able to review this document by accessing our public filings at the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov. In addition, a copy of the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics and the charters of the committees will be provided without charge upon request from us. If we make any amendments to our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics other than technical, administrative or other non-substantive amendments, or grant any waiver, including any implicit waiver, from a provision of the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics applicable to our principal executive officer, principal financial officer principal accounting officer or controller or persons performing similar functions requiring disclosure under applicable SEC or Nasdaq rules, we will disclose the nature of such amendment or waiver on our website. The information included on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Form S-1 or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our website are intended to be inactive textual references only.
Conflicts of Interest
In general, officers and directors of a corporation incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware are required to present business opportunities to a corporation if:
| ● | the corporation could financially undertake the opportunity; |
| ● | the opportunity is within the corporation’s line of business; and |
| ● | it would not be fair to our company and its stockholders for the opportunity not to be brought to the attention of the corporation. |
Each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to another entity pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity. Accordingly, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of the company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue, and to the extent the director or officer is permitted to refer that opportunity to us without violating another legal obligation. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our officers or directors will materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Our officers, directors and strategic advisors have agreed not to participate in the formation of, or become an officer, director or strategic advisor of, any other special purpose acquisition company with a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act without our prior written consent, which will not be unreasonably withheld.
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Below is a table summarizing the entities to which our executive officers and directors currently have fiduciary duties or contractual obligations:
Individual |
| Entity |
| Affiliation |
Arjun Sethi |
| Tribe Capital |
| Partner |
|
| Mati |
| Director |
|
| Shiprocket |
| Director |
|
| Huckleberry |
| Director |
|
| Instabase |
| Director |
|
| Bolt |
| Director |
|
| Muze |
| Director |
|
| Cover |
| Director |
|
| Relativity Space |
| Observer |
|
| Carta |
| Director |
Omar Chohan |
| Tribe Capital |
| Partner |
|
| PIF VC (Cayman) |
| Partner |
|
| Luxsant LLC |
| Member |
|
| Luxsant LP |
| Partner |
|
| Talefin Group Ltd. (BVI) |
| Shareholder, Director |
|
| Quasar Capital Management Ltd. (BVI) |
| Director |
|
| Ampaire Inc. |
| Director |
Ted Maidenberg |
| Tribe Capital |
| Partner |
|
| Humi |
| Director |
|
| Cover |
| Director |
|
| Peak |
| Director |
|
| Saildrone |
| Observer |
Rohit Nanani |
| Arrow Capital (Mauritius) |
| Owner, Director |
|
| Arrow Capital DIFC Ltd (Dubai) |
| Director |
|
| Arrow Capital APAC Pte Ltd (Singapore) |
| Owner, Director |
|
| Arrow Multi Assets Fund SPC (Cayman) |
| Director |
|
| Arrow Multi Assets Fund SPC - SP4 (Cayman) |
| Director |
|
| Digiscope Ventures Pte Ltd (Singapore) |
| Owner, Director |
Sumit Mehta |
| Arrow Capital APAC Pte Ltd (Singapore) |
| Director |
|
| Digiscope Ventures Pte Ltd (Singapore) |
| Director |
|
| Quizkart Technology Pte Ltd (India) |
| Director |
Henry Ward |
| Carta |
| CEO, Director |
Duriya Farooqui |
| InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (UK - NYSE: IHG) |
| Director |
|
| Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE) |
| Director |
|
| New York Stock Exchange |
| Director |
|
| ICE NGX (Canada) |
| Director |
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Potential investors should also be aware of the following other potential conflicts of interest:
| ● | Our executive officers and directors are not required to, and will not, commit their full time to our affairs, which may result in a conflict of interest in allocating their time between our operations and our search for a business combination and their other businesses. We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Each of our executive officers is engaged in several other business endeavors for which he may be entitled to substantial compensation, and our executive officers are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs. |
| ● | Our initial stockholders purchased founder shares prior to the date of our initial public offering and purchased private placement warrants in a transaction that closed simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering. Our initial stockholders have entered into agreements with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and any public shares they hold in connection with the completion of our initial business combination. The other members of our management team have entered into agreements similar to the one entered into by our initial stockholders with respect to any public shares acquired by them in or after our initial public offering. Additionally, our initial stockholders have agreed to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to their founder shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame or any extended period of time that we may have to consummate an initial business combination as a result of an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. If we do not complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame, the private placement warrants will expire worthless. Furthermore, our initial stockholders have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their founder shares until the earlier to occur of (i) one year after the completion of our initial business combination or (ii) the date following the completion of our initial business combination on which we complete a liquidation, merger, capital stock exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of our stockholders having the right to exchange their common stock for cash, securities or other property. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the closing price of our Class A common stock equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after our initial business combination, the founder shares will be released from the lockup. Subject to certain limited exceptions, the private placement warrants will not be transferable until 30 days following the completion of our initial business combination. Because each of our executive officers and directors own common stock or warrants directly or indirectly, they may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial business combination. |
| ● | Our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a particular business combination if the retention or resignation of any such officers and directors was included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial business combination. |
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a business combination target that is affiliated with our sponsor, officers or directors or completing the business combination through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with our sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with an business combination target that is affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions, that such initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context. Furthermore, in no event will our sponsor or any of our existing officers or directors, or any of their respective affiliates, be paid by the company any finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate, the completion of our initial business combination. Further, commencing on the date our securities are first listed on Nasdaq, we will also pay an affiliate of our sponsor $10,000 per month for office space, secretarial and administrative services provided to members of our management team.
We cannot assure you that any of the above-mentioned conflicts will be resolved in our favor.
In the event that we submit our initial business combination to our public stockholders for a vote, our initial stockholders have agreed to vote their founder shares, and they and the other members of our management team have agreed to vote any founder shares they hold and any shares purchased during or after the offering in favor of our initial business combination.
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Limitation on Liability and Indemnification of Officers and Directors
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our officers and directors will be indemnified by us to the fullest extent authorized by Delaware law, as it now exists or may in the future be amended. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our directors will not be personally liable for monetary damages to us or our stockholders for breaches of their fiduciary duty as directors, unless they violated their duty of loyalty to us or our stockholders, acted in bad faith, knowingly or intentionally violated the law, authorized unlawful payments of dividends, unlawful stock purchases or unlawful redemptions, or derived an improper personal benefit from their actions as directors.
We have entered into agreements with our officers and directors to provide contractual indemnification in addition to the indemnification provided for in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. Our bylaws also permit us to secure insurance on behalf of any officer, director or employee for any liability arising out of his or her actions, regardless of whether Delaware law would permit such indemnification. We will purchase a policy of directors’ and officers’ liability insurance that insures our officers and directors against the cost of defense, settlement or payment of a judgment in some circumstances and insures us against our obligations to indemnify our officers and directors. Except with respect to any public shares they may acquire in our initial public offering or thereafter (in the event we do not consummate an initial business combination), our officers and directors have agreed to waive (and any other persons who may become an officer or director prior to the initial business combination will also be required to waive) any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the trust account, and not to seek recourse against the trust account for any reason whatsoever, including with respect to such indemnification.
These provisions may discourage stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against our directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against officers and directors, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our stockholders. Furthermore, a stockholder’s investment may be adversely affected to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against officers and directors pursuant to these indemnification provisions.
We believe that these provisions, the directors’ and officers’ liability insurance and the indemnity agreements are necessary to attract and retain talented and experienced officers and directors.
Family Relationships
There are no family relationships among any of our directors or executive officers.
Involvement in Certain Legal Proceedings
There are currently no legal proceedings, and during the past 10 years there have been no legal proceedings, that are material to the evaluation of the ability or integrity of any of our directors.
Delinquent Section 16(a) Reports
Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act requires our executive officers and directors, and persons who own more than ten percent of any publicly traded class of our equity securities, to file reports of ownership and changes in ownership of equity securities of the Company with the SEC. Officers, directors, and greater-than-ten-percent stockholders are required by the SEC’s regulations to furnish the Company with copies of all Section 16(a) forms that they file.
Based solely upon a review of Forms 3 and Forms 4 furnished to the Company during the most recent fiscal year, and Forms 5 with respect to its most recent fiscal year, we believe that all such forms required to be filed pursuant to Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act were timely filed by the officers, directors, and security holders required to file the same during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021.
ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
No executive officer has received any cash compensation for services rendered to us.
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Other than the payment of consulting, success or finder fees to our sponsor, officers, directors, advisors, initial stockholders or their affiliates in connection with the consummation of our initial business combination and the repayment of any loan made by our sponsor to us, no compensation or fees of any kind will be paid to our sponsor, initial stockholders, members of our Team or their respective affiliates, for services rendered prior to or in connection with the consummation of our initial business combination (regardless of the type of transaction that it is). However, they will receive reimbursement for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred by them in connection with activities on our behalf, such as identifying potential target businesses, performing business due diligence on suitable target businesses and business combinations as well as traveling to and from the offices, plants or similar locations of prospective target businesses to examine their operations. There is no limit on the amount of consulting, success or finder fees payable by us upon consummation of an initial business combination. Additionally, there is no limit on the amount of out-of-pocket expenses reimbursable by us; provided, however, that to the extent such expenses exceed the available proceeds not deposited in the trust account, such expenses will not be reimbursed by us unless we consummate an initial business combination.
After our initial business combination, members of our management team who remain with us may be paid consulting, management or other fees from the combined company with any and all amounts being fully disclosed to stockholders, to the extent then known, in the proxy solicitation materials furnished to our stockholders. However, the amount of such compensation may not be known at the time of the stockholder meeting held to consider an initial business combination, as it will be up to the directors of the post-combination business to determine executive and director compensation. In this event, such compensation will be publicly disclosed at the time of its determination in a Current Report on Form 8-K or a periodic report, as required by the SEC.
ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS.
The following table sets forth information regarding the beneficial ownership of our common stock as of the date of this annual report by:
Unless otherwise indicated, we believe that all persons named in the table have sole voting and investment power with respect to all of our common stock beneficially owned by them. The following table does not reflect record or beneficial ownership of the private placement warrants as these warrants are not exercisable within 60 days of the date of this annual report.
In December 2020, our sponsor paid $25,000 to cover certain of our offering costs in exchange for 5,750,000 founder shares. In February, 2021, we effected a stock dividend of 0.2 shares for each share of Class B common stock outstanding, resulting in our sponsor holding an aggregate of 6,900,000 founder shares. Prior to the initial investment in the company of $25,000 by the sponsor, the Company had no assets, tangible or intangible. The purchase price of the founder shares was determined by dividing the amount of cash contributed to the company by the number of founder shares issued. The number of founder shares outstanding was determined based on the expectation that the total size of our initial public offering would be a maximum of 27,600,000 units if the underwriters’ over-allotment
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option is exercised in full, and therefore that such founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after our initial public offering.
| Number of Shares |
| Percentage of |
| |
Beneficially | Outstanding |
| |||
Name and Address of Beneficial Owner(1) | Owned | Common Stock |
| ||
Tribe Arrow Holdings I LLC (our sponsor)(2) |
| 6,900,000 | (3) | 20.0 | % |
Citadel Advisors LLC(4) |
| 2,277,614 |
| 8.25 | % |
Polar Asset Management Partners Inc.(5) |
| 1,450,000 |
| 5.25 | % |
Omar Chohan(2)(6) |
| 6,900,000 | (3) | 20.0 | % |
Arjun Sethi(6) |
| — |
| — | |
Sumit Mehta(6) |
| — |
| — | |
Ted Maidenberg(6) |
| — |
| — | |
Rohit Nanani(6) |
| — |
| — | |
Richard Peretz(6) |
| — |
| — | |
Henry Ward(6) |
| — |
| — | |
Duriya Farooqui(6) |
| — |
| — | |
All executive officers and directors as a group (7 individuals) |
| 6,900,000 |
| 20.0 | % |
| (1) | Unless otherwise noted, the business address of each of the following is 2700 19th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110. |
| (2) | Tribe Arrow Holdings I LLC, our sponsor, is the record holder of the shares reported herein. Tribe Capital Markets LLC is a managing member of our sponsor. Omar Chohan is the Managing Member of Tribe Capital Markets LLC, and as such Mr. Chohan has voting and investment discretion with respect to the common stock held of record by our sponsor. By virtue of this relationship, Mr. Chohan may be deemed to have beneficial ownership of the securities held of record by our sponsor. |
| (3) | Interests shown consist solely of founder shares, classified as Class B common stock. Such shares will automatically convert into shares of Class A common stock upon the consummation of our initial business combination on a one-for-one basis, subject to certain adjustments. |
| (4) | According to the Schedule 13G/A filed with the SEC on February 14, 2022, Citadel Advisors LLC (“Citadel Advisors”), Citadel Advisors Holdings LP (“CAH”), Citadel GP LLC (“CGP”), Citadel Securities LLC (“Citadel Securities”), Citadel Securities Group LP (“CALC4”), Citadel Securities GP LLC (“CSGP”) and Mr. Kenneth Griffin beneficially own an aggregate of 2,277,614 shares of our Class A common stock. Citadel Advisors, CAH, CGP, and Mr. Griffin maintain shared voting power and shared dispositive power over an aggregate of 2,274,733 shares of our Class A common stock. Citadel Securities CALC4, and CSGP maintains shared voting power and shared dispositive power over an aggregate of 2,881 shares of our Class A common stock. According to the Schedule 13G/A filed with the SEC on February 14, 2022, the address of the principal business office of each of the persons referred to in this footnote (4) is 131 S. Dearborn Street, 32nd Floor, Chicago, Illinois 60603. |
| (5) | According to the Schedule 13G filed with the SEC on February 11, 2022, Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. beneficially owns 1,450,000 shares of our Class A common stock. According to the Schedule 13G filed with the SEC on February 11, 2022, the address of the principal business office of each of Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. is 16 York Street, Suite 2900, Toronto, ON, Canada M5J 0E6. |
| (6) | Each of our officers, directors and strategic advisors is, directly or indirectly, a member of our sponsor or have direct or indirect economic interests in our sponsor, and each of them disclaims any beneficial ownership of any shares held by our sponsor except to the extent of his or her ultimate pecuniary interest. |
Tribe Arrow Holdings I LLC, our sponsor, and our executive officers and directors are deemed to be our “promoters” as such term is defined under the federal securities laws.
Transfers of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants
The founder shares, private placement warrants and any shares of Class A common stock issued upon conversion or exercise thereof are each subject to transfer restrictions pursuant to lock-up provisions in the agreements entered into by our initial stockholders and management team. Those lock-up provisions provide that such securities are not transferable or salable (i) in the case of the founder shares, until the earlier of (A) one year after the completion of our initial business combination or earlier if, subsequent to our initial business combination, the closing price of the Class A common stock equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after our initial business combination and (B) the date following the completion of our initial business combination on which we complete a liquidation, merger, capital stock exchange or other similar transaction that results in all of our
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stockholders having the right to exchange their Class A common stock for cash, securities or other property and (ii) in the case of the private placement warrants and the respective shares of Class A common stock underlying such warrants, until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination except in each case (a) to our officers or directors, any affiliate or family member of any of our officers or directors, any affiliate of our sponsor or to any member of the sponsor or any of their affiliates, (b) in the case of an individual, as a gift to such person’s immediate family or to a trust, the beneficiary of which is a member of such person’s immediate family, an affiliate of such person or to a charitable organization; (c) in the case of an individual, by virtue of laws of descent and distribution upon death of such person; (d) in the case of an individual, pursuant to a qualified domestic relations order; (e) by private sales or transfers made in connection with any forward purchase agreement or similar arrangement or in connection with the consummation of a business combination at prices no greater than the price at which the shares or warrants were originally purchased; (f) by virtue of the laws of the State of Delaware or our Sponsor’s limited liability company agreement upon dissolution of our Sponsor, (g) in the event of our liquidation prior to our consummation of our initial business combination; or (h) in the event that, subsequent to our consummation of an initial business combination, we complete a liquidation, merger, capital stock exchange or other similar transaction which results in all of our stockholders having the right to exchange their Class A common stock for cash, securities or other property; provided, however, that in the case of clauses (a) through (f) these permitted transferees must enter into a written agreement agreeing to be bound by these transfer restrictions and the other restrictions contained in the letter agreement.
Registration Rights
The holders of the (i) founder shares, which were issued in a private placement prior to the closing of our initial public offering, (ii) private placement warrants, which will be issued in a private placement simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering and the shares of Class A common stock underlying such private placement warrants and (iii) private placement warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans will have registration rights to require us to register a sale of any of our securities held by them pursuant to a registration rights agreement signed on the effective date of our initial public offering. Pursuant to the registration rights agreement and assuming the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full and $1.5 million of working capital loans are converted into private placement warrants, we will be obligated to register up to 12,913,333 shares of Class A common stock and 6,013,333 warrants. The number of shares of Class A common stock includes (i) 6,900,000 shares of Class A common stock to be issued upon conversion of the founder shares, (ii) 5,013,333 shares of Class A common stock underlying the private placement warrants and (iii) 1,000,000 shares of Class A common stock underlying the private placement warrants issued upon conversion of working capital loans. The number of warrants includes 5,013,333 private placement warrants and 1,000,000 private placement warrants issued upon conversion of working capital loans. The holders of these securities are entitled to make up to three demands, excluding short form demands, that we register such securities. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, Cantor may only make a demand on one occasion and only during the five-year period beginning on the effective date of our IPO registration statement. In addition, the holders have certain “piggy-back” registration rights with respect to registration statements filed subsequent to our completion of our initial business combination; provided that Cantor may participate in a “piggy-back” registration only during the seven-year period beginning on the effective date of our IPO registration statement. We will bear the expenses incurred in connection with the filing of any such registration statements.
ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE.
In December 2020, our sponsor paid $25,000 to cover certain of our offering costs in exchange for 5,750,000 founder shares. In February 2021, we effected a stock dividend of 0.2 shares for each share of Class B common stock outstanding, resulting in our sponsor holding an aggregate of 6,900,000 founder shares. The number of founder shares outstanding was determined based on the expectation that the total size of our initial public offering would be a maximum of 27,600,000 units if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full, and therefore that such founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after our initial public offering.
Our sponsor and Cantor purchased an aggregate of 5,013,333 private placement warrants, of which 4,177,778 private placement warrants will be purchased by our sponsor and 835,555 private placement warrants will be purchased by Cantor, at a price of $1.50 per warrant, or $7,520,000, in a private placement that closed simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering. Each private placement warrant entitles the holder to purchase one share of Class A common stock at $11.50 per share. The private placement warrants (including the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination.
In connection with the consummation of our initial public offering, Arrow has committed, pursuant to a written agreement, to assist us in raising capital in connection with our initial business combination. In the event we are unable to secure investors to invest the amount of capital required for our initial business combination (the “PIPE”), prior to the announcement our initial business combination, Arrow
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Capital has committed to raising up to 30% of the required PIPE amount (the “Arrow PIPE Amount”), from Arrow’s network of investors. Subject to certain limited exceptions, if Arrow fails to raise the Arrow PIPE Amount, then Arrow shall forfeit an amount of up to 50% of the private placement warrants, allocated to it, by virtue of the interests that Arrow holds in our sponsor.
We currently utilize office space at 2700 19th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 from an affiliate of our Sponsor. We pay an affiliate of our sponsor $10,000 per month for office space, secretarial and administrative services provided to members of our management team. Upon completion of our initial business combination or our liquidation, we will cease paying these monthly fees.
Except as otherwise disclosed in this annual report, no compensation of any kind, including finder’s and consulting fees, will be paid by the company to our sponsor, executive officers and directors, or any of their respective affiliates, for services rendered prior to or in connection with the completion of an initial business combination. However, these individuals will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with activities on our behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable business combinations. Our audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to our sponsor, officers, directors or our or their affiliates.
Prior to the closing of our initial public offering, our sponsor loaned us funds to be used for a portion of the expenses of our initial public offering.
In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination, our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required on a non-interest bearing basis. If we complete an initial business combination, we would repay such loaned amounts. In the event that the initial business combination does not close, we may use a portion of the working capital held outside the trust account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from our trust account would be used for such repayment. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants of the post-business combination entity at a price of $1.50 per warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants. Except as set forth above, the terms of such loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in our trust account.
Any of the foregoing payments to our sponsor, repayments of loans from our sponsor or repayments of working capital loans prior to our initial business combination will be made using funds held outside the trust account.
After our initial business combination, members of our management team who remain with us may be paid consulting, management or other fees from the combined company with any and all amounts being fully disclosed to our stockholders, to the extent then known, in the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, furnished to our stockholders. It is unlikely the amount of such compensation will be known at the time of distribution of such tender offer materials or at the time of a stockholder meeting held to consider our initial business combination, as applicable, as it will be up to the directors of the post-combination business to determine executive and director compensation.
We have entered into a registration rights agreement with respect to the founder shares and private placement warrants, which is described elsewhere in this annual report.
Policy for Approval of Related Party Transactions
The audit committee of our board of directors will adopt a policy setting forth the policies and procedures for its review and approval or ratification of “related party transactions.” A “related party transaction” is any consummated or proposed transaction or series of transactions: (i) in which the company was or is to be a participant; (ii) the amount of which exceeds (or is reasonably expected to exceed) the lesser of $120,000 or 1% of the average of the company’s total assets at year-end for the prior two completed fiscal years in the aggregate over the duration of the transaction (without regard to profit or loss); and (iii) in which a “related party” had, has or will have a direct or indirect material interest. “Related parties” under this policy will include: (i) our directors, nominees for director or executive officers; (ii) any record or beneficial owner of more than 5% of any class of our voting securities; (iii) any immediate family member of any of the foregoing if the foregoing person is a natural person; and (iv) any other person who maybe a “related person” pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation S-K under the Exchange Act. Pursuant to the policy, the audit committee will consider (i) the relevant facts and circumstances of each related party transaction, including if the transaction is on terms comparable to those that could be obtained in arm’s-length dealings with an unrelated third party, (ii) the extent of the related party’s interest in the transaction,
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(iii) whether the transaction contravenes our code of ethics or other policies, (iv) whether the audit committee believes the relationship underlying the transaction to be in the best interests of the company and its stockholders and (v) the effect that the transaction may have on a director’s status as an independent member of the board and on his or her eligibility to serve on the board’s committees. Management will present to the audit committee each proposed related party transaction, including all relevant facts and circumstances relating thereto. Under the policy, we may consummate related party transactions only if our audit committee approves or ratifies the transaction in accordance with the guidelines set forth in the policy. The policy will not permit any director or executive officer to participate in the discussion of, or decision concerning, a related person transaction in which he or she is the related party.
ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES.
The following is a summary of fees paid to Marcum LLP, for services rendered.
Audit Fees. Audit fees consist of fees for professional services rendered for the audit of our year-end financial statements, reviews of our quarterly financial statements and services that are normally provided by our independent registered public accounting firm in connection with statutory and regulatory filings. The aggregate fees for Marcum LLP for audit fees, inclusive of the IPO and required filings with the SEC for the period from November 5, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020 and for the year ended December 31, 2021 were approximately $15,000 and $84,000, respectively.
Audit-Related Fees. Audit-related fees consist of fees billed for assurance and related services that are reasonably related to performance of the audit or review of our year-end financial statements and are not reported under “Audit Fees.” These services include attest services that are not required by statute or regulation and consultation concerning financial accounting and reporting standards. During the period from November 5, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020 and for the year ended December 31, 2021, Marcum LLP did not render any audit-related services.
Tax Fees. Tax fees consist of fees billed for professional services relating to tax compliance, tax planning and tax advice. During the period from November 5, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020 and for the year ended December 31, 2021, Marcum LLP did not render any tax services.
All Other Fees. All other fees consist of fees billed for all other services. During the period from November 5, 2020 (inception) through December 31, 2020 and for the year ended December 31, 2021, Marcum LLP did not render any other services.
Pre-Approval Policy
Our audit committee was formed upon the consummation of our IPO. As a result, the audit committee did not pre-approve all of the foregoing services, although any services rendered prior to the formation of our audit committee were approved by our board of directors. Since the formation of our audit committee, and on a going-forward basis, the audit committee has and will pre-approve all auditing services and permitted non-audit services to be performed for us by our auditors, including the fees and terms thereof (subject to the de minimis exceptions for non-audit services described in the Exchange Act which are approved by the audit committee prior to the completion of the audit).
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PART IV
ITEM 15. EXHIBITS, FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES.
| (a) | The following documents are included as part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K: |
| 1. | Financial Statements — See Index to Financial Statements in Item 8. |
| 2. | Financial Statement Schedules — Not Applicable. |
| 3. | Exhibits |
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Exhibit |
| Description | |
3.1* |
| ||
3.2* |
| ||
3.3* |
| ||
4.1* |
| ||
4.2* |
| ||
4.3* |
| ||
4.4* |
| Form of Warrant Agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company and the Registrant. | |
4.5** | |||
5.1* |
| ||
10.1* |
| ||
10.2* |
| ||
10.3* |
| ||
10.4* |
| ||
10.5* |
| ||
10.6* |
| ||
10.7* |
| ||
10.8* |
| Securities Subscription Agreement between the Registrant and Tribe Arrow Holdings I LLC. | |
10.9* |
| Form of Administrative Support Agreement between the Registrant and Tribe Capital Markets LLC. | |
10.10* |
| PIPE Commitment Agreement between the Registrant and Arrow Capital. | |
31.1** |
| ||
31.2** |
| ||
32.1** |
| ||
32.2** |
| ||
99.1* |
| ||
99.2* |
| ||
101.INS |
| XBRL Instance Document. | |
101.SCH |
| XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema. | |
101.CAL |
| XBRL Taxonomy Calculation Linkbase. | |
101.LAB |
| XBRL Taxonomy Label Linkbase | |
101.PRE |
| XBRL Definition Linkbase Document. | |
101.DEF |
| XBRL Definition Linkbase Document. | |
104 | Cover Page Interactive Data File - The cover page interactive data file does not appear in the Interactive Data File because its XBRL tags are embedded within the Inline XBRL document | ||
*Previously filed.
**Filed herewith.
ITEM 16. FORM 10-K SUMMARY.
None.
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SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
Date: | April 18, 2022 | TRIBE CAPITAL GROWTH CORP I | |
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| By: | /s/ Arjun Sethi |
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| Name: | Arjun Sethi |
|
| Title: | Chief Executive Officer |
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated:
Name |
| Position |
| Date |
|
|
|
|
|
/s/ Arjun Sethi |
| Chairman and Chief Executive Officer |
| April 18, 2022 |
Arjun Sethi |
| (Principal Executive Officer) |
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/s/ Omar Chohan |
| Chief Financial Officer |
| April 18, 2022 |
Omar Chohan |
| (Principal Financial and Accounting Officer) |
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/s/ Rohit Nanani |
| Director |
| April 18, 2022 |
Rohit Nanani |
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/s/ Richard Peretz |
| Director |
| April 18, 2022 |
Richard Peretz |
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/s/ Henry Ward |
| Director |
| April 18, 2022 |
Henry Ward |
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/s/ Duriya Farooqui |
| Director |
| April 18, 2022 |
Duriya Farooqui |
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