SPACInsider

SPACs have been highly active lately in taking public a new generation of nuclear technology companies, but in order for those companies to meet the power demand being driven by the boom in datacenter deployments, they are going to need a steady supply of uranium. This week, we speak with Mark Mukhidja, CEO of uranium mining firm Eagle Energy Metals , and Chris Sorrells, Chairman and CEO of Spring...

This week, we return to the subject of autonomous trucking with a SPAC target that already logged months of its trucks operating autonomously in an industrial setting with rollouts on public highways and defense applications inbound. That company is Kodiak , which announced a $2.6 billion combination with  Ares Acquisition Corporation II  (NYSE:AACT) in April. Kodiak CEO Don Burnette joins us to e...

In this SPACInsider Podcast REPLAY, we go back to January 2022 when the abrupt end of 2021’s SPAC euphoria was setting in, and new strategies were needed to weather the storm. We sat down with Niccolo de Masi of the dMY SPACs to get his takes on how SPACs were going to roll with the punches and his own vision for when a refreshed SPAC cycle would reemerge. Now that SPACs are back, which of these p...

An in-depth discussion with Sebastian Bea, President & Head of Investments at ReserveOne, and Vik Mittal, Managing Member at Meteora Capital Partners If there has been one hot summer trend among SPACs, it has been the crypto treasury business combination. To help better understand this new genre of SPAC deal, we sat down with Sebastian Bea , President and Head of Investments at ReserveOne , wh...

What many of the biggest trends in emerging technology today have in common is that they require significantly more electricity and reliable means of receiving it efficiently. This week, we speak with Simon Irish, CEO of nuclear plant developer Terrestrial Energy, and Shawn Matthews, CEO and Chairman of HCM II Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:HOND). The two announced a $1.3 billion combination in March....

Harry You, Brandon Sun, and Vik Mittal break down the SPAC landscape On this special edition of the SPACInsider Podcast, we bring together a panel of SPAC veterans to explore the state of the market from the perspectives of sponsors, investors, and underwriters. Joining us are serial SPAC sponsor Harry You, Brandon Sun, Head of SPAC Investment Banking at Cohen & Company, and Vik Mittal, Managi...

  This week, we speak with Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov about the company’s $2.2 billion dollar combination with  Cohen Circle Acquisition Corp. I  (NASDAQ:CCIR). Few companies have been had to forge themselves in the flames recently quite like Ukraine’s leading telecom and digital services provider Kyivstar. Now, Kyivstar is not only telling that story but pitching it to public market investors...

After years of investment and excitement, the dawn of self-driving cars and trucks is now here. The question now is which business model among autonomous driving technology companies will win out? This week, we speak with David Liu, CEO of autonomous trucking company Plus . Plus announced a $1.3 billion combination with Churchill Capital Corp. IX (NASDAQ:CCIX) last month. David explains how both P...

CEO Marc Nemati and Colombier II’s Omeed Malik break down the deal, timing, and the strategy. Despite its moniker as the “the everything store” you can’t buy everything on Amazon, and firearms are one of those things. But, GrabAGun has spent years building a platform for regulated online firearms purchases, and soon, consumers will be able to buy GrabAGun stock as well. This week, we speak with Ma...

On this week’s SPACInsider REPLAY, we revisit a 2022 conversation with Harry Sloan of the Eagle SPACs. At the time, Harry had already completed seven SPACs and was closing in on his eighth . As markets cooled and the SPAC boom waned, Harry offered a prescient take on where the market was headed—and what a “post-boom” SPAC cycle might look like. Two years later, his words still resonate. Tune in fo...

Tariffs, Trade Routes, and Tech: Freightos’ View from the Cargo Frontlines 2025 is shaping up to be a wild year for global trade, and few companies have a vantage point on the impacts of every-changing tariff policy quite like digital cargo-booking platform Freightos (NASDAQ:CRGO) . This week, we catch up with Freightos CEO Zvi Schreiber. He shares how the shifting trade flows are showing up in Fr...

This week, we sit down with Rick Hendrix and Adam Fishman from the Live Oak SPAC team. Rick Hendrix is the Founder of Live Oak Merchant Partners, and Chairman and CEO of  Live Oak Acquisition Corp. V  (NASDAQ:LOKV). In addition, he is an operating executive at Crestview Partners, a New York-based middle market focused private equity firm. Adam Fishman is a Managing Partner at Live Oak Merchant and...

This week, we return to another episode from 2021, when we spoke with Will Marshall, Co-founder and CEO of Planet Labs (NYSE:PL). Planet provides data services drawn from its fleet of about 200 satellites that generate a complete image of the earth's surface every day. It just celebrated its  first quarter of EBITDA profitability , but at the time, it was still working to close its combination wit...

In this SPACInsider Podcast Replay, we go back to 2021, when we spoke with Chris Urmson, CEO and Chairman of autonomous truck technology firm Aurora (NASDAQ:AUR) . At the time, Aurora was working to close its $10 billion business combination with Reinvent Technology Y . Chris laid out how the company planned to approach the commercialization of its self-driving heavy truck business model and what...

This week, in a special edition of the SPACInsider Podcast, we focus on the private markets with PM Insights Founder and CEO Nick Fusco . Nick weighs in with his thoughts on the major trends shaping private market valuations today and how the market has evolved since the pandemic years. Plus, how difficult is it to gain reliable data on private funding rounds and what lessons can be learned for SP...

Quantum computing has been one of the hottest investment topics in the past two months and three of the leading listed companies in the space are de-SPACs. But, how close is quantum computing to generating real value and what capabilities are still years away? This week, we speak with Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave (NYSE:QBTS), which went public in a business combination with  DPCM Capital  in 2022. A...

In this special follow-up edition of the SPACInsider Podcast , we check back in with Dimitre Genov, Ed Kovary, and Nick Skibo, who last joined us at the end of Q3 2024, to assess the state of the SPAC market in 2025 and the key dynamics shaping the landscape. Our panel brings together perspectives from across the SPAC ecosystem—banking, investing, and advisory—to provide a well-rounded view of the...

AI assistance is finding its way into an increasing number of corners of the market, and the industrial supply chain is an area that could use help the most. This week,  we speak with Ed Nabrotzky, CEO of industrial technology firm Dot Ai. Dot Ai announced a $130 million combination with  ShoulderUp Technology Acquisition Corp.  (OTC:SUAC) in March 2024. Ed explains how Dot Ai has given clients en...

Innovation in gene therapies is hard, but also potentially ground-breaking and biotechnology firm Medera is taking its decades-long journey in the space to the public markets just as hits its next steps in the clinical process. This week, we speak with Ronald Li, CEO of Medera, and Kenneth Wong, CEO and Chairman of Keen Vision Acquisition Corp.  The two announced a $622 million dollar combination...

This week, we speak with Betsy Cohen and Maxwell Smeal from the Cohen Circle Acquisition Corp. I team to get their views on the current SPAC landscape. Betsy Cohen is already a well-known figure in SPAC circles for having previously led the Fintech Acquisition and FTAC SPACs. Betsy and Max discuss the past, present and future of the SPAC product and how they have managed to craft such a successful...

Most people don’t spend much time thinking about helium, but the resource is critical for some key industries and much of the supply lies with the US’ geopolitical adversaries. There are also no helium mining companies listed on a major worldwide exchange, but that could soon be changing. This week, we speak with Will Gray, co-Founder and CEO of New Era Helium and John Lipman, co-CEO and co-Chairm...

This week, the SPACInsider Podcast delves into some of the tax and accounting issues that SPAC teams and investors should be considering as we approach the Presidential election and the end of 2024. Mark Deters and Ryan Bixenman, partners at WithumSmith+Brown , join us to help break it all down. For example, what does it mean for SPACs searching overseas if Trump enacts a wide range of tariffs? Wh...

This week, SPACInsider founder Kristi Marvin speaks with a panel spanning the banking, investing and advisory sides of SPAC transactions. She is joined by Ed Kovary, Head of SPAC Capital Markets at BTIG, Nick Skibo, Managing Partner at Gritstone Asset Management, and Dimitre Genov, a Managing Director at Brookline Capital Markets advising SPAC sponsors on IPOs and de-SPAC transactions. Kristi chec...

SPAC targets in the healthcare space typically are a few years away from full commercialization, but shareholders in  Exelfin Acquisition Corp.  (NASDAQ:XFIN) will get to vote this week on a combination with a medical device company that is already churning out positive EBITDA. This week, we speak with Brian Sun, Chief Operating Officer of Excelfin and David Kaysen, Senior Advisor and Chief Market...

The world has a long way to go to meet climate goals, especially airlines. There is currently no alternative to jet fuel-powered passenger planes on the horizon, which puts the focus on sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF. This week, we speak with Mihir Dange, CEO of XCF Global and Wray Thorn, co-CEO of Focus Impact BH3 Acquisition Company (NASDAQ:BHAC). The two signed a $1.8 billion combination in...