S-1 1 tm215658-1_s1.htm FORM S-1

 

As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 10, 2021

 

Registration No. 333-

 

 

 

UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

 

 

 

FORM S-1

 

REGISTRATION STATEMENT
UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

 

 

 

Excolere Acquisition Corp.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

Delaware
(State or other jurisdiction of
incorporation or organization)
  6770
(Primary Standard Industrial
Classification Code Number)
  86-1378131
(I.R.S. Employer
Identification No.)

 

2029 Century Park East
Suite 400N
Los Angeles, CA 90067
(310) 867-2758

(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant's principal executive offices)

 

 

 

Anthony Miller
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
2029 Century Park East
Suite 400N
Los Angeles, CA 90067

(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

 

 

Copies:

 

Douglas S. Ellenoff, Esq.

Benjamin S. Reichel, Esq.

Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP

1345 Avenue of the Americas

New York, New York 10105

Telephone: (212) 370-1300

Matthew Pacey, P.C.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP

609 Main Street
Houston, Texas 77002
Tel: (713) 836-3600

Christian O. Nagler

Kirkland & Ellis LLP

601 Lexington Avenue

New York, New York 10022

Telephone: (212) 446-4800

 

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public:
As soon as practicable after this Registration Statement becomes effective.

 

 

 

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933 check the following box:    ¨

 

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.   ¨

 

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.    ¨

 

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.    ¨

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company," and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

 

Large accelerated filer ¨ Accelerated filer ¨ Non-accelerated filer x

Smaller reporting company x

Emerging growth company x

 

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. ¨

 

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE 

 

Title of Each Class of Security
Being Registered
  Amount Being
Registered
  Proposed Maximum
Offering Price Per
Security(1)
   Proposed Maximum
Aggregate Offering
Price(1)
   Amount of
Registration Fee
 
Units, each consisting of one Class A common stock, $0.0001 par value, and one-half of one redeemable warrant(2)  23,000,000 Units  $10.00   $230,000,000   $25,093.00 
Class A common stock included as part of the units(3)  23,000,000 Shares           (4)
Redeemable warrants included as part of the units(3)  11,500,000 Warrants           (4)
Total          $230,000,000   $25,093.00 

 

(1)Estimated solely for the purpose of calculating the registration fee.
(2)Includes 3,000,000 units, consisting of 3,000,000 shares of Class A common stock and 1,500,000 redeemable warrants, which may be issued upon exercise of a 45-day option granted to the underwriters to cover over-allotments, if any.
(3)Pursuant to Rule 416(a), there are also being registered an indeterminable number of additional securities as may be offered or issued to prevent dilution resulting from stock splits, stock dividends, or similar transactions.
(4)No fee pursuant to Rule 457(g).

 

The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

 

 

 

 

The information in this prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. The prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities nor a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer and sale is not permitted.

 

SUBJECT TO COMPLETION, DATED FEBRUARY 10, 2021

 

PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS

 

Excolere Acquisition Corp.

 

$200,000,000

 

20,000,000 Units

 

Excolere Acquisition Corp. is a newly incorporated blank check company whose business purpose is to effect a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities, which we refer to as our initial business combination. We have not selected any business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target. Although we may pursue targets in any industry, we intend to initially focus our search on identifying a prospective target business in the education and human capital technology and services sectors in North America.

 

This is an initial public offering of our securities. Each unit has an offering price of $10.00 and consists of one share of our Class A common stock and one-half of one redeemable warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one share of our Class A common stock at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment, terms and limitations as described herein. The underwriters have a 45-day option from the date of this prospectus to purchase up to 3,000,000 additional units to cover over-allotments, if any.

 

We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their shares of our Class A common stock upon the completion of our initial business combination, subject to the limitations described herein. If we have not completed an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, we will redeem 100% of the public shares for cash, subject to applicable law and certain conditions as described herein.

 

Our sponsor, Excolere Acquisition Sponsor LLC, has agreed to purchase 6,750,000 warrants (or 7,350,000 warrants if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full), each exercisable to purchase one share of our Class A common stock at $11.50 per share, at a price of $1.00 per warrant, in a private placement to occur concurrently with the closing of this offering. We refer to these warrants throughout this prospectus as the private placement warrants. Our sponsor owns 5,750,000 shares of our Class B common stock (up to 750,000 shares of which are subject to forfeiture depending on the extent to which the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised) which will automatically convert into shares of our Class A common stock at the time of our initial business combination as described herein. Prior to our initial business combination, only holders of shares of our Class B common stock will be entitled to vote on the appointment of directors.

 

Currently, there is no public market for our units, shares of our Class A common stock or warrants. We intend to apply to list our units on the Nasdaq Capital Market, or Nasdaq ("Nasdaq"), under the symbol "EXACU" on or promptly after the date of this prospectus. We cannot guarantee that our securities will be approved for listing on the Nasdaq. We expect the shares of our Class A common stock and warrants comprising the units will begin separate trading on the Nasdaq under the symbols "EXAC" and "EXACW," respectively, on the 52nd day following the date of this prospectus (or, if such date is not a business day, the following business day) unless the underwriters inform us of their decision to allow earlier separate trading, subject to our filing a Current Report on Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), containing an audited balance sheet reflecting our receipt of the gross proceeds of this offering and issuing a press release announcing when such separate trading will begin.

 

We are an "emerging growth company" under applicable federal securities laws and will be subject to reduced public company reporting requirements. Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. See "Risk Factors" beginning on page 33 for a discussion of information that should be considered in connection with an investment in our securities. Investors will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors in Rule 419 blank check offerings.

 

 

 

Neither the SEC nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

 

   Per Unit   Total 
Public offering price  $10.00   $200,000,000 
           
Underwriting discounts and commissions(1)  $0.55   $11,000,000 
           
Proceeds before expenses, to us  $9.45   $189,000,000 

 

(1)Includes $0.35 per unit, or $7,000,000 in the aggregate (or up to $8,050,000 in the aggregate if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full), payable to the underwriters for deferred underwriting commissions to be placed in a trust account located in the United States and released to the underwriters only upon the completion of an initial business combination. See also "Underwriting" for a description of compensation and other items of value payable to the underwriters.

 

Of the proceeds we receive from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants described in this prospectus, $200,000,000, or $230,000,000 if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full ($10.00 per unit in either case), will be deposited into a segregated trust account located in the United States at UBS Financial Services Inc., with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, acting as trustee, and $2,750,000 will be available to pay fees and expenses in connection with the closing of this offering and for working capital following the closing of this offering. Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the trust account that may be released to us to pay our taxes, if any, the funds held in the trust account will not be released until the earliest to occur of: (a) the completion of our initial business combination; (b) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (i) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering or (ii) with respect to any other provisions relating to stockholders' rights or pre-initial business combination activity; and (c) the redemption of all of our public shares if we have not completed our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, subject to applicable law. The proceeds deposited in the trust account could become subject to the claims of our creditors, if any, which could have priority over the claims of our public stockholders.

 

The underwriters are offering the units for sale on a firm commitment basis. The underwriters expect to deliver the units to the purchasers on or about                                    , 2021.

 

Sole Book-running Manager

     
UBS Investment Bank

 

The date of this prospectus is                                    , 2021

 

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

SUMMARY 1
   
THE OFFERING 15
   
SUMMARY FINANCIAL DATA 32
   
RISK FACTORS 33
   
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS 70
   
USE OF PROCEEDS 71
   
DIVIDEND POLICY 74
   
DILUTION 75
   
CAPITALIZATION 77
   
MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS 78
   
PROPOSED BUSINESS 84
   
MANAGEMENT 116
   
PRINCIPAL STOCKHOLDERS 128
   
CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS 130
   
DESCRIPTION OF SECURITIES 132
   
TAXATION 150
   
UNDERWRITING 158
   
LEGAL MATTERS 166
   
EXPERTS 166
   
WHERE YOU CAN FIND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 166

 

We are responsible for the information contained in this prospectus. We have not authorized anyone to provide you with different information, and we take no responsibility for any other information others may give to you. We are not, and the underwriters are not, making an offer to sell securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. You should not assume that the information contained in this prospectus is accurate as of any date other than the date on the front of this prospectus.

 

i

 

 

SUMMARY

 

This summary only highlights the more detailed information appearing elsewhere in this prospectus. As this is a summary, it does not contain all of the information that you should consider in making an investment decision. You should read this entire prospectus carefully, including the information under the section of this prospectus entitled “Risk Factors” and our financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus, before investing.

 

Unless otherwise stated in this prospectus, or the context otherwise requires, references to:

 

·“amended and restated certificate of incorporation” are to the amended and restated certificate of incorporation of the Company that will be adopted prior to the consummation of this offering;

 

·“common stock” are to our Class A common stock and our Class B common stock, collectively;

 

·"founder shares" are to shares of our Class B common stock initially purchased by our sponsor in a private placement prior to this offering and the shares of our Class A common stock that will be issued upon the automatic conversion of the shares of our Class B common stock at the time of our initial business combination (for the avoidance of doubt, such shares or our Class A common stock will not be “public shares”);

 

·“initial stockholders” are to holders of our founder shares immediately prior to this offering;

 

·“management” or our “management team” are to our offıcers and directors, and “directors” are to our current directors and director nominees;

 

·“private placement warrants” are to the warrants to be issued to our sponsor in a private placement simultaneously with the closing of this offering and upon conversion of working capital loans, if any.

 

·“public shares” are to shares of our Class A common stock sold as part of the units in this offering (whether they are purchased in this offering or thereafter in the open market);

 

·“public stockholders” are to the holders of our public shares, including our initial stockholders and management team to the extent our initial stockholders and/or members of our management team purchase public shares, provided that each initial stockholder’s and member of our management team’s status as a “public stockholder” shall only exist with respect to such public shares;

 

·“sponsor” are to Excolere Acquisition Sponsor, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, which is owned and controlled by Anthony “Tony” Miller, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and certain other investors; and

 

·“we,” “us,” “our,” “company” or “our company” or "EXAC" are to Excolere Acquisition Corp.

 

Each unit consists of one share of our Class A common stock and one-half of one warrant for each unit purchased. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one share of our Class A common stock at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as described in this prospectus, and only whole warrants are exercisable. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. Accordingly, unless you purchase at least two units, you will not be able to receive or trade a whole warrant.

 

Unless we tell you otherwise, the information in this prospectus assumes that the underwriters will not exercise their over-allotment option.

 

1

 

 

Our Company

 

We are a newly organized 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, which we refer to throughout this prospectus as our initial business combination. We have not selected any specific business combination target, and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target with respect to an initial business combination with us.

 

Our sponsor is an affiliate of Excolere Equity Partners, LLC, a private investment firm focused on middle-market companies in the education and human capital management industries. Anthony “Tony” Miller and Peter “Pete” Davis, founders of Excolere Equity Partners, LLC, have assembled a seasoned team of industry advisors whom we believe will help us execute our differentiated investment strategy. While we may pursue an initial business combination target in any industry or geographical location, we intend to focus our search within the education and human capital technology and services sectors, where we believe our management team has a competitive advantage due to their prior experiences and roles. We intend to focus our search efforts on North American targets with an aggregate enterprise value of $500 million to $2.5 billion.

 

We have built a management team that has extensive, sector-specific operating, regulatory, and investing expertise. We believe our management team is well positioned to identify attractive businesses within the education and human capital technology and services sectors that would benefit from access to the public markets and the skills of our management team. Our objective is to consummate our initial business combination and enhance stockholder value by helping the business to hone its strategic focus, identify and recruit talent, secure and / or accelerate growth (e.g., through enhanced channel development, product and / or platform extension, geographic expansion), scale operational capabilities, and identify and complete follow-on acquisitions. We expect to utilize our management team's experience and network to achieve these objectives. In addition, we intend to focus on evaluating companies with leading competitive positions, strong management teams, and potential for sustained long-term growth and profitability.

 

Our Founders, Management, and Board of Directors

 

Our management team includes Anthony “Tony” Miller, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Peter “Pete” Davis, our President and Chief Operating Officer; and Jeffrey M. Glick, our Chief Financial Officer. These members of our management team bring, on average, approximately 30 years of operating and transactional experience that encompasses a wide array of subsectors within the education and human capital technology and services sectors. We believe our management team also brings unique and complementary regulatory expertise relevant to our target market, as well as a track record of providing creative solutions for complex transactions. Our team’s capabilities are further enhanced by their extensive professional network comprised of industry leaders, senior operating executives, public policy leaders, and private equity and venture capital investment professionals. We believe our management team’s investment experience in our targeted industry, distinct mix of complementary skills, and extensive sector network enable access to advantaged investment opportunities and represent a competitive advantage. Our management team has experience in:

 

·sourcing, structuring, acquiring, financing and selling education and human capital technology and services businesses;

 

·leveraging strategic insight from their mergers and acquisitions and capital structuring experience based on debt and equity capital executions;

 

·operating companies as senior executives and engaging CEOs as board members, to set clear and effective business strategies for companies in the education and human capital technology and services sectors;

 

2

 

 

·deriving actionable insights from the regulatory and legislation environment associated with the education and human capital technology and services sectors; and

 

·deploying a broad value creation toolkit focused on enhancing revenue growth and delivering operating efficiency.

 

Anthony “Tony” Miller, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, has over 29 years of operating, M&A and financing experience in the education and human capital technology and services sectors. In 2019, Mr. Miller began the launch of Excolere Equity Partners, LLC, a private investment firm focused on middle-market companies in the education and human capital management industries, where he currently serves as Managing Partner. Prior to launching Excolere, in 2013, Mr. Miller co-founded The Vistria Group, LLC, a private investment firm with over $1 billion in assets under management, focused on middle-market companies in the healthcare, education, and financial services industries. In addition to his role as Chief Operating Officer at Vistria, Mr. Miller was a Senior Partner, responsible for leading the firm’s education-related investments. During his time at Vistria, Mr. Miller led the over $1 billion take-private of Apollo Education Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL) in partnership with Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO) in 2017. Before his transition back to the private sector in 2013, Mr. Miller served as the Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer at the U.S. Department of Education, a position he was appointed to by President Barack Obama in 2009 and confirmed by the Senate. In this role, Mr. Miller oversaw day-to-day operations of the Department, including policy-making and program management, spanning early learning, K-12, and higher education. Mr. Miller also led the implementation of approximately $100 billion in one-time education program funding as part of the 2009 economic stimulus package. In addition, Mr. Miller led the Department’s international missions to China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, Brazil, and Russia. Before his public service role, Mr. Miller was a Director with Silver Lake, a global leader in technology investing, where he helped launch the firm’s Value Creation Team as an operating partner. From 2006 to 2009, as an inaugural member of the Value Creation Team, Mr. Miller worked closely with Silver Lake’s investment professionals to support due diligence, evaluate investment opportunities, and develop and oversee portfolio company value creation programs. Prior to Silver Lake, Mr. Miller served as a Strategy / M&A advisor to the Founder / CEO of Oversee.net, a leading online performance marketing services company, from 2005 to 2006, where his work with management to execute a key strategic acquisition helped support Oversee’s subsequent acquisition by Oak Hill Capital Partners. From 2002 to 2005, Mr. Miller was an executive with LRN Corporation, a founder-led company providing ethics and compliance software and corporate eLearning solutions to Fortune 500 companies. As the Executive Vice President (one of the two company’s top executives), Mr. Miller had overall responsibility for engineering, product development, content development, marketing, operations, business development and finance. From 1992 to 2002, Mr. Miller was with McKinsey & Company where he was a Partner from 1998 to 2002, serving healthcare and technology companies throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Mr. Miller’s work focused on growth strategy development, company re-structuring and technology commercialization. Mr. Miller began his career with Delco Electronics, a subsidiary of GM Hughes Electronics, where he was responsible for channel marketing programs. Mr. Miller currently serves on the Board of Directors of ACT, Criteria, GoGuardian, University of Phoenix, and Vanta Education. Previously, he served on the boards of Penn Foster, HigherEducation.com, and MSI Information Services. Mr. Miller holds an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University. Our board of directors has determined that Mr. Miller’s operating, investment, and regulatory experience qualifies him to serve as one of our directors.

 

3

 

 

Peter “Pete” Davis, our President, Chief Operating Officer, Secretary and Director, has approximately 20 years of operating, M&A and financing experience in the education and human capital technology and services sectors. Mr. Davis is a founder of Excolere Equity Partners, LLC, along with Anthony “Tony” Miller, and is currently an Advisor for investment firms Avathon Capital (since 2019) and Platform Ventures (since 2017). As an Advisor to Avathon Capital, he is lead independent Board Director to Reading Plus and an Advisor to Emsi, two high growth portfolio companies in education and workforce development, respectively; and as Advisor to Platform Ventures, Mr. Davis works with family office investor groups on Ed-Tech and human capital impact investing. He has served as a Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group since 2012. He also previously served on the Boards of EdTechX (NASDAQ: EDTX) and Greenwich Associates. Mr. Davis served for over a decade (2008-2019) as a Director at Greenwich Associates, where he influenced the company's transformation from a consulting-based information business to a SaaS-based data and analytics provider. At EdTechX, Mr. Davis was a member of the Audit Committee and was involved in the first Ed-Tech SPAC that merged with Meten Edtechx Education Group (NASDAQ: METX) in 2020. Mr. Davis was previously the President of McGraw-Hill Education (2006-2010), the largest segment of The McGraw-Hill Companies (now S&P Global, NYSE: SPGI). In this role he invested in transforming the publishing business into a digital learning company. His efforts over a three year period led to share gains in higher education, creation of AI-based learning platforms in K-12 and higher-education, and the startup of international education services businesses. He left the company in 2011 and was retained by Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO) to advise them on the buyout of the business in a successful $2.4 billion leveraged buyout transaction. Before being appointed President at McGraw-Hill Education, Mr. Davis was Executive VP of Global Strategy and Development for The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) from 2006 to 2008. There he led planning and corporate development for this Fortune 400 company. In this role he led efforts to transform the company from diversified media conglomerate to global financial information provider by working with the CEO and Board to analyze and value the portfolio; then sell media businesses and reinvest the proceeds in financial information businesses to build on the S&P franchise. Mr. Davis began his career at PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP) in strategy and marketing (1982-1987), then entered consulting with The MAC Group in Cambridge, MA (1987-1995); eventually rising to become a Practice Leader and Partner at Booz-Allen & Hamilton (NYSE: BAH) where he led the Commercial Banking/Capital Markets practice in North America (1995-2006). He holds an M.B.A. from the Johnson School of Management, Cornell University and a B.A., awarded with highest distinction, in History from Rutgers College, New Brunswick, NJ. Our board of directors has determined that Mr. Davis’ operating and investment experience qualifies him to serve as one of our directors.

 

Jeffrey M. Glick, our Chief Financial Officer, has more than 35 years of financial, administrative, and logistics management experience. Mr. Glick served as Chief Financial Officer of Schultze Special Purpose Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: SAMA) from September 2018 until it consummated its business combination with Clever Leaves International Inc. (NASDAQ:CLVR), a multi-national cannabis company, in December 2020. In 2011, Mr. Glick founded, and continues to operate, START U UP, LLC, a consulting firm that specializes in providing outsourced CFO and compliance services to the alternative asset management industry. Before founding START U UP, he served as the CFO at Sagard Capital for three years. Sagard is a hybrid fund that invests across the hedge and private equity spectrum. He joined Sagard Capital during its start-up stage and was responsible for all aspects of finance, administration, and operations. He also provided deal-related support. Prior to Sagard, Mr. Glick joined Almaz USA, Inc., an international commodity trading and brokering firm, as it was starting up in 1992, and served as its Chief Financial Officer for 16 years. His contributions toward improving cost-effectiveness while he was an Internal Auditor for Merrill Lynch from 1985 to 1995 earned him the Chairman's Commitment to Excellence Award. Mr. Glick also applied his CPA skills as a Back Office Manager and Manager in the Mergers and Acquisition department of Phibro Energy, the oil trading and refining arm of Salomon Brothers, from 1986 to 1992. Mr. Glick holds a B.S. in accounting from The State University of New York at Binghamton, and has been a standing member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Association and the New York State Society of CPAs since 1985. He holds a FINRA Series 65 designation.

 

William Ethridge, our director nominee, has 40 years of experience in education and is active in the education sector as an investor and a board member of several companies. Mr. Ethridge is currently a Principal at Ethridge Advisors, a role he has held since 2015, where he provides advisory services to education companies, educational institutions, policy makers, and private equity companies. Mr. Ethridge serves on the boards of education technology and services companies Ruffalo Noel Levitz (Chairman), Finalsite, and Apex Learning (Chairman). From 2008 to 2015, Mr. Ethridge was CEO of Pearson North America, an educational content, assessment and digital services company (LON: PSON) and also served on Pearson’s Board of Directors. From 1998 to 2003, Mr. Ethridge served as CEO and President of Pearson’s U.S. Higher Education,and Professional Publishing Group, and he led the successful integration of several companies into the world’s leading higher education company. From 2003 to 2008 he took on the additional responsibilities of management oversight of Pearson’s International Group. Prior to joining Pearson, Mr. Ethridge was at education publishing companies Prentice Hall (1988 to 1998) and Addison Wesley (1986 to 1988), where he was a Senior Executive. Early in his career, Mr. Ethridge was an Editor with Little, Brown and Co (from 1979 to 1986), where he published in the fields of economics and politics. Mr. Ethridge is a former Chairman of the Association of American Publishers. He previously served as Chairman of CourseSmart, a consortium of electronic textbook publishers, and as a Board member of Frontline Education, Interactive Data Corporation, Turnitin, and Study Group. Mr. Ethridge holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Our board of directors has determined that Mr. Ethridge’s education industry, private equity advisory, and board experience qualifies him to serve as one of our directors.

 

4

 

 

Mickie Rosen, our director nominee, has three decades of strategy, operating, investment and board experience at the intersection of media and technology. Ms. Rosen has been a principal at Mickie Rosen Consulting since October 2013 and currently serves on public, private and non-profit boards, including Ascendant Digital Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: ACND), a special purpose acquisition company focused on the attention economy, including interactive digital entertainment, film/television, and music. She also serves on the board of Nine Entertainment Co. (ASX: NEC), Australia’s largest media company, and she advises early to growth stage companies in digital media and commerce. From 2015 to 2019, she served on the board of Pandora Media until it was acquired by SiriusXM and was the President of the Tribune Publishing Company (NASDAQ: TPCO) from 2017 to 2019. Prior to this, from 2016 to 2017 she served as a Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group and was a co-founder and partner of a strategic advisory firm, Whisper Advisors. She was also the Senior Vice President of Global Media & Commerce for Yahoo from 2011 to 2013, where she led Yahoo’s media division worldwide. Prior to Yahoo, from 2008 to 2011, she was a partner with Fuse Capital, a consumer Internet-focused venture capital firm, investing in early stage video, publishing, advertising technology and e-commerce companies. Previously, from 2006 to 2008 Ms. Rosen was the Senior Vice President & General Manager of Entertainment for Fox Interactive Media, where she ran digital businesses such as Rotten Tomatoes, Fox.com and MySpace Entertainment, and played a lead role in envisioning, negotiating and launching OTT leader, Hulu. Earlier in her career, from 2002 to 2006, she was an executive with Fandango, where she helped build the movie information and ticketing company from an early stage start-up to the leader in its space (acquired by Comcast), and from 1998 to 2000, she was an executive with The Walt Disney Company in the Corporate Alliances group. Ms. Rosen built the foundation of her career during her time with McKinsey & Company, from 1990 to 1998. Our board of directors has determined that Ms. Rosen’s digital media, technology and commerce experience as an executive and board director qualifies her to serve as one of our directors.

 

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., our director nominee, has over 20 years of experience as a lawyer, human resources executive and CEO in both the private and not-for-profit sectors. Currently, he serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Society for Human Resource Management ("SHRM"), the largest human resources professional association in the world, a role he has held since 2017. He was a member of the most recent White House American Workforce Policy Advisory Board and was appointed by President Donald Trump as Chair of the President's Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities from 2018 to 2021. Previously, Mr. Taylor was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Mr. Taylor has held Senior and Chief Executive roles at IAC/Interactive Corp (NASDAQ: IAC) from 2005 to 2009, Viacom's Paramount Pictures and Blockbuster Entertainment Group from 1994 to 2002, McGuireWoods LLC in 2004, and Compass Group USA from 2002 to 2004. He currently serves on the Boards of the University of Miami, Jobs for America's Graduates, the American Red Cross, and Guild Education. He is licensed to practice law in Florida, Illinois and Washington, D.C., and is a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources. Our board of directors has determined that Mr. Taylor’s education industry and board experience qualifies him to serve as one of our directors.

 

Our Industry Advisors

 

We have assembled a team of industry advisors to assist in the sourcing, evaluation, due diligence, deal execution, and post-closing strategic involvement with potential business combination partners. None of our industry advisors owe us fiduciary duties. While we expect that they will assist us in identifying business combination targets, they have no obligation to do so and may devote a substantial portion of their business time to activities unrelated to us.

 

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Ana Dutra has agreed to serve as a Special Advisor. She has over 37 years of experience in technology, M&A and global business transformations. Ms. Dutra currently serves as CEO of Mandela Global Advisors, a firm that advises Boards, CEO's and their management teams on how to build and support world-class executive teams through Board Effectiveness, CXO Succession Planning and Top Team Strategic Alignment. From 2014 to 2018, Ms. Dutra served as President and CEO of the Executives' Club of Chicago. From 2008 to 2013, Ms. Dutra was CEO of Korn / Ferry Leadership and Talent Consulting where she created a $400 million new global business through a combination of organic growth, multiple acquisitions, innovative go-to-market approaches and incorporation of technology and digitalization of products and services. From 2004 to 2008, Ms. Dutra served as Global Managing Partner at Accenture (NYSE: ACN). Previously, Ms. Dutra was with Mercer Management Consulting, currently Oliver Wyman, where she served as Managing Partner. From 1994 to 1999, she worked as a Principal at Marakon Management Consulting. Ms. Dutra began her career at IBM (NYSE: IBM) in 1985, where she moved into a Sales Manager and Account Director position and Product Manager for mainframes in Latin America after starting as a software and hardware analyst and consultant. Ms. Dutra currently serves on the Board of Directors of CME Group (NASDAQ: CME), Eletrobras Participacoes SA Eletropar (BOVESPA: LIPR3), Harvest Health & Recreation (CNSX: HARV), First Internet Bank (NASDAQ: INBK), Elkay Manufacturing, Lifespace Communities and M. Holland Company. Ms. Dutra serves as Chair of the Latino Corporate Directors Educational Foundation and as a Board Member of Blessings-in-a-Backpack, Women Business Collaborative, World Sustainability Development Forum and Chicago Innovation. She is a Senior Advisor for AiRo Digital Labs, CoachLogix and Humantelligence, technology companies in the digital, talent and training and development spaces. She also serves on the international advisory board for Fundacao Don Cabral, the top higher education organization in Latin America. Ms. Dutra holds an M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, a Masters in Economics from Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro, a Juris Doctor from Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro and a Bachelor in Economics from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. She is a Certified Cybersecurity Oversight expert by the Carneie Mellon and NACD master program.

 

Manoj Kulkarni has agreed to serve as a Special Advisor. He has over 33 years of experience in e-learning, education, training, retail and technology industries. Currently, Mr. Kulkarni serves as CEO and Board Member at RealizeIt, a personalized learning or adaptive learning software system, a role he has held since 2014. From 2008 to 2013, Mr. Kulkarni held various executive positions at education company Perdoceo (NASDAQ: PRDO), including Chief Information Officer, President of Words of Wisdom LLC, and Chief Technology and Innovation Officer. From 2007 to 2008, Mr. Kulkarni served as Technology Strategy Consultant of Eclipsys, a healthcare information company. From 1993 to 2007, Mr. Kulkarni held various roles at Toys R Us, including Vice President of Information Technology. Mr. Kulkarni began his career at Unisys India as a systems engineer in 1988. Mr. Kulkarni holds an M.B.A. from The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from Savitribai Phule Pune University.

 

Dr. Sean “Jack” Buckley has agreed to serve as a Special Advisor. He has over 27 years of experience in education and technology. Currently, Dr. Buckley serves as Head of Assessment and Learning Sciences at Roblox, an online gaming platform and game creation company. From 2019 to 2020, Dr. Buckley was President and Chief Scientist at Imbellus, a game-based assessment technology startup that was acquired by Roblox. Dr. Buckley was previously Senior Vice President at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), where he led their research and evaluation area from 2016 to 2019, and he still serves as Institute Fellow on several projects. From 2014 to 2016, he was Senior Vice President of Research at The College Board, where he helped lead the redesign of the SAT. From 2011 to 2013, Dr. Buckley served as Commissioner of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), where he was responsible for the measurement of all aspects of US education, including conducting the National Assessment of Educational Progress and coordinating participation in international assessments. While at NCES, he also acted as a senior technical adviser to Department of Education leadership and co-chair of its data strategy team. From 2008 to 2013, Dr. Buckley worked as an Associate Professor at NYU. From 2005 to 2006, Dr. Buckley served as an Analytic Methodologist in the Central Intelligence Agency. From 2003 to 2005, Dr. Buckley was an Assistant Professor at Boston College. Dr. Buckley began his career in the US Navy as a nuclear engineer and surface warfare officer. Dr. Buckley holds an M.A. and PhD in Political Science and Government from Stony Brook University and a B.A. in Government from Harvard University.

  

Eric Pinckert has agreed to serve as a Special Advisor. He has over 28 years of experience across law, strategic branding, corporate communications and agency management. Mr. Pinckert currently is Managing Director of Brand Culture Company, LLC, an agency that he co-founded in 2006 that helps advance business performance through brand development, culture building, and revenue growth. At Brand Culture he has led the strategy practice for the past 15 years to the present, overseeing client engagement for FORTUNE 100, middle market, and early stage companies, and private equity firms and their portfolio companies, including Brentwood Associates, The Gores Group, Skyview Capital, Serent Capital, and Vistria. From 2004 to 2006, he served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for an early-stage search and local marketing technology provider that later became Connectivity, Inc. From 2003 to 2004, he served as the Head of Strategic Marketing and Company Communications and later Head of Corporate Affairs for LRN Corporation, an ethics and compliance software and corporate eLearning company. From 1996 to 2003, he conducted and supervised strategic branding engagements in the finance, healthcare, and technology at branding and interactive media consultancy Siegel + Gale where he was a Senior Vice President from 1999 to 2003. From 1993 to 1996, Mr. Pinckert began his career as an attorney representing technology clients at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati. He also worked for the law firms of Rogers & Wells (now Clifford Chance) from in 1992 and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher from 1989 to 1990. Mr. Pinckert served on the Board of Directors of Optimus Corporation, a logistic management systems and software developer, from 2005 to 2011. Mr. Pinckert holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Journal on Legislation and A.B and A.M. degrees in English from Stanford University.

 

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Jervis Williams has agreed to serve as a Special Advisor. He has over 25 years of public and private company finance experience in the technology industry. Mr. Williams is currently CFO of Metawave Corporation, a venture-funded company in the 5G and autonomous driving markets where he oversees finance, human resources, and investor relations, a role he has held since 2019. Prior to Metawave, Mr. Williams was Principal at Swerve Financial, a consulting firm he founded in 2016 that provides CFO and human resource services to venture-funded companies. Previously, Mr. Williams spent a combined eleven years in various Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) roles at public software companies. In all roles, he supported the SEC reporting requirements. From 2010 to 2015, Mr. Williams worked at Citrix (NASDAQ: CTXS), where he helped support the company’s transition to a SaaS business model. From 2008 to 2010, Mr. Williams was with VMware (NYSE: VMW), where as Senior FP&A manager, he supported VMware’s $200 million acquisition of EMC’s Ionix. From 2004 to 2008, Mr. Williams was Senior Manager, Finance & Operations at Wind River (NASDAQ: WIND). Before Wind River, from 2003 to 2004, Mr. Williams served as Vice President of Business Development for Pillar Vision, dba Noah Basketball, a startup providing athlete training technology to NBA and NCAA teams. Prior to Pillar Vision from 2000 to 2003, Mr. Williams served as CFO and COO for Omega Music, an independent music label that partnered with Universal Music Group and MGM Studios. Before Omega Music, from 1995 to 2000, Mr. Williams had various FP&A and Business Development roles at Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HPQ). Prior, Mr. Williams was a Senior Finance Analyst with Apple Computer (NASDAQ: AAPL) from 1993 to 1995, where he served as the lead analyst for the Higher Education Division. Directly after business school in 1991, Mr. Williams served as controller for Bust-It Records, a joint venture with Capital Records. Mr. Williams holds an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Political Science with emphasis in Business Administration from University of California, Los Angeles.

 

James Sparkman has agreed to serve as a Special Advisor. He has over 30 years of operating, M&A and financing experience in the education and human capital technology and services sectors. Mr. Sparkman is a founder of Excolere Equity Partners, LLC, along with Anthony “Tony” Miller and Peter Davis. Currently, Mr. Sparkman is the founding Partner of Alpha Education LLC, an advisory firm serving colleges and universities (since 2011), and P3•EDU LLC, a media and event company focused on public-private partnerships in higher education (since 2017). From 2006 to 2010, Mr. Sparkman was Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Heald Education. From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Sparkman was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Consor Capital LLC. Mr. Sparkman was the founding Vice President of New Mountain Capital from 1999 to 2003 when the firm raised its first investment fund ($770 million) and led a controlling PIPE investment in Strayer Education, now Strategic Education (NASDAQ: STRA). From 1999 to 2002, Mr. Sparkman also co-founded and served on the Board of Directors of HigherMarkets, Inc., a venture-backed university SaaS company that was sold to SciQuest, Inc., now JAGGAER. Before joining New Mountain Capital, Mr. Sparkman led mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, and other investment banking activities at First Education Group, an affiliate of EduVentures, from 1997 to 1999. From 1995 to 1997, Mr. Sparkman was an early executive and Vice President of private student loan pioneer The First Marblehead Corporation, now Cognition Financial. Mr. Sparkman began his career as a public school teacher and charter corps member with Teach For America. Mr. Sparkman holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in American Civilization from Middlebury College.

 

With respect to the above, past performance of our management team, special advisors, Excolere Acquisition Corp. and its affiliates is not a guarantee of either (i) success with respect to a business combination that may be consummated or (ii) the ability to successfully identify and execute a transaction. You should not rely on the historical record of management, special advisors, or Excolere Acquisition Sponsor LLC and its affiliates as indicative of future performance. See “Risk Factors—Past performance by our management team is not indicative of future performance of an investment in us.”

 

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Our Market Opportunity

 

Our focus will be on the broad North American education and human capital technology and services sectors. The overall market associated with the development and management of human capital from cradle through career is large, with annual spend exceeding $1 trillion, and with various market segments with growth rates that exceed 10%. Attractive segments within our scope of focus include job re-/up-skilling and credentialing; candidate sourcing, assessment, and onboarding (for both permanent and contingent staff); K-12 digital learning infrastructure and content platforms; and tech-enabled services that support early childhood development and engagement. Given the transformational forces at work in the industry, further accelerated by the pandemic, we believe the current outlook for the education and human capital technology and services sectors present investment opportunities that can provide attractive risk-adjusted returns for our stockholders. The key transformational forces and factors shaping the market opportunity include:

 

·Increasing employer demand for new and ever-evolving skills and the growing importance of talent management

 

-Widespread transformation of jobs by new technologies. More than one billion jobs, almost one-third of all jobs worldwide, are likely to be transformed by technology in the next decade.

 

-Skills gap risking economic growth. Approximately $975 billion in cumulative GDP growth is at risk by 2028 if the U.S. is unable to adapt the supply of skills to meet the needs of the new technological era.

 

-Talent management a C-suite issue. Attracting and retaining top talent ranked as the number-one internal challenge pre-pandemic, for CEOs and other C-Suite executives globally.

 

-Increasing use of technology and data analytics by human resource departments. Examples include use in the recruitment and onboarding process to remove bias, improve efficiency, improve candidate experience, and increasing number of organizations appointing people analytics roles or teams.

 

·Increasing linkages between and across the education, training, and employer talent management ecosystem to enable improved student learning outcomes, improved employee performance and retention, and increased system-wide efficiency. Examples of these linkages include:

 

-The deconstruction and cross-mapping of job and career skills, and competencies to specific education and training content (e.g., learning objects, credentials, “nano” degrees and traditional degrees)

 

-Broadening the consideration of factors that might correlate with employee performance and retention (e.g., cognitive skills, technical skills, “soft” skills, personality traits, team composition, and quality / frequency of performance feedback)

 

-Broadening the consideration of factors that might correlate with K-12 and Post-Secondary learning and retention (e.g., social emotional learning profiles, academic learning styles, student engagement metrics, and teacher engagement metrics)

 

·Increasing deployment of technology, including digital content creation and delivery, artificial intelligence / machine learning and big data analytics, supported by cloud-based business models

 

-Realization of tangible efficiency and efficacy benefits creating positive feedback

 

-Increasing exposure to cloud-based services in consumer context helping to reduce resistance to adoption in education and employment-related context

 

The pandemic and the corresponding need for educators, students, parents, employees and employers to adapt, is positively impacting the demand for more digital capabilities and accelerating the pace of industry transformation. The need for effective distance learning tools and capabilities from Pre-K to Post-Secondary is a clear example. Similarly, as the population of remote workers grows, the need for effective human capital management tools and capabilities will also grow. We believe the after-effect of the pandemic and the corresponding economic recovery will translate to attractive investment opportunities as organizations discover their ability to adapt successfully is both enabled and constrained by their ability to scale effective education and human capital technologies and services.

 

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As the market for education and human capital technology and services transforms, it will be subject to ongoing and likely heightened regulatory scrutiny and potential legislative action, at both federal and state levels. We believe our understanding of and ability to derive actionable insights from a complex regulatory and legislative landscape provides us with a competitive advantage in identifying and growing attractive businesses. Examples of some relevant considerations - as regulators confront both the opportunities and potential risks associated with the increasing digitization of the education and labor markets - are highlighted below:

 

·Pre-K: There is likely to be renewed emphasis on expanding early childhood education under a majority Democratic Congress and Administration.

 

·K-12 Education: The federal accountability system, which has been suspended during the pandemic, and which influences State / District budgeting and instructional priorities, will face pressure to be reinstated given concerns about the disproportionate impact of learning loss on low-income and minority communities. Similar concerns about the “digital divide” exacerbating the achievement gap is also likely to be a topic of discussion about potential programmatic and/or legislative remedies.

 

·Post-Secondary: High and rising levels of student debt are increasing the likelihood of legal and regulatory intervention. Support for allowing students to use Pell Grants and Title IV student loan funding (currently limited to traditional degree programs) for “quality” skills training programs is also likely to increase. However, concerns about potential for waste, fraud and abuse will influence the timing and terms of such program eligibility.

 

·Sourcing / Recruiting: The potential for increased scrutiny, litigation, and regulation related to the role of algorithms in candidate and employee screening and assessments to ensure illegal biases are mitigated.

 

·Staffing: As the role of the contingent workforce continues to grow, increased litigation, regulatory, and legislative efforts are likely to ensure that employer benefits from a more flexible workforce are balanced against the risk that more workers will struggle to achieve a sustainable living wage with appropriate benefits and protections.

 

·Human Resource Administration: Benefits management is already a source of complexity with respect to ensuring compliance. The potential expansion of benefit management systems into education may bring additional exposure.

 

We believe equity capital will continue to be in high demand given the stress that COVID-19 and the corresponding economic headwinds have imposed on some businesses within our target market. We believe this presents an opportunity for founder-owned and private equity-owned companies to benefit from a public listing, access to new capital and our team’s distinctive expertise set. This disruption creates a unique opportunity for our team to leverage their operational and financial experience (demonstrated during both up and down industry cycles), to identify a business that would benefit from a business combination with a special purpose acquisition company and access to the public markets as they emerge from the pandemic. We also believe our identified target strategy and focus in the education and human capital technology and services sectors offers clear differentiators in the marketplace for companies and owners seeking solutions and strategic alternatives in a post-COVID-19 market.

 

Our Business Strategy

 

Our business strategy is to identify, combine with and maximize the value of a company with operations that benefit from growing human capital and technology resources initiatives. The target company will complement the experience of our management team and benefit from their expertise and proprietary global network of contacts. In executing this strategy, we will look for a target that has an enterprise value between $500 million and $2.5 billion.

 

We will focus our efforts on opportunities where we feel we have a competitive advantage and are best situated to enhance the value of the business after completion of the business combination. The ultimate goal of this business strategy is to maximize stockholder value.

 

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We believe our management team can provide the validation, credibility, and operating support needed to both ensure a successful IPO and support achievement of the growth projections post-initial business combination. Our management team and directors have an extensive network of investors and senior operating executives; relevant insights into key strategic, regulatory and operating issues that resonate most with targets; and access to a broad array of public forums to enhance EXAC’s profile.

 

Additionally, our management team and directors have defined clear criteria and procedures for identifying attractive target businesses that align with our collective expertise and have the greatest potential for achieving growth projections. We believe our relationship network and methodical approach to deal sourcing will be advantageous in the business combination process. We also believe that the reputation, experience and track record of our sponsor, management team, board of directors and industry advisors will make us a preferred counterparty for companies that we target.

 

We believe that many privately held, and publicly traded companies consider our management team a trustworthy partner and recognize our ability to support value and enhance returns. We also believe our management team has a strong post-merger skillset to provide strategic and operating value-add to help secure the growth trajectory of the target.

 

Our Acquisition Criteria and Process

 

Consistent with our business strategy, we have identified the following general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses. We expect to conduct a comprehensive due diligence review which will include, among other things, management meetings, review of financial information, facility inspection, and an extensive review of all other material target company information. We intend to use these criteria as guidelines in evaluating potential acquisition opportunities, but an acquisition may be executed even if it does not meet our guidelines. Our acquisition criteria and approach is described below:

 

·We will focus on businesses in the education and human capital technology services sectors, that benefit from positive macro-economic trends, technology application and are poised for accelerated growth.

 

·We will target market leaders and potential market leaders within their particular industry segments but where some combination of the below are true:

 

-Historical growth rates may not be aligned with the business’s growth projections going forward;

 

-The basis for the company’s sustainable competitive differentiation needs further explanation, validation, or development;

 

-The business’s growth vectors are aligned with our management team's industry expertise and experience;

 

-Operational capability gaps may be emerging along one or more of the business’s key growth vectors; and our management team's association or expertise can facilitate performance improvement; and

 

-Significant regulatory issues are on the horizon that could enhance or threaten the business’s growth.

 

·We intend to seek businesses that have strong leadership teams, that may benefit from the additional industry expertise of our management team.

 

·We will target platforms that can be expanded through bolt-on M&A and / or through targeted capital deployment, such as those within fragmented markets.

 

·We will target companies that can benefit from being publicly traded and having access to the public capital markets. We will primarily seek a target that we believe will grow and benefit from capital investment, and will be able to effectively utilize the broader access to capital and the more visible profile that is associated with being a publicly traded company.

 

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·We will seek businesses that are owned by entrepreneurs and / or owners where our credibility, depth and breadth of sector expertise, and experience growing businesses would be a critical complement in executing the next stage of growth.

 

We believe that the unprecedented global pandemic has created once in a generation opportunities to invest in enabling technologies and innovations by education and human capital companies that could benefit from our management’s experience and network; and that in combination, we can positively impact millions of lives and create attractive investment returns.

 

These criteria 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 management 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 prospectus, would be in the form of proxy solicitation materials or tender offer documents that we would file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC.

 

Initial Business Combination

 

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 deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on the interest earned on the trust account) at the time of signing the agreement to enter into the initial business combination. If our board of directors is not able to independently determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses or we are considering an initial business combination with an affiliated entity, we will obtain an opinion with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria from an independent investment banking or an independent valuation or accounting firm. We do not intend to purchase multiple businesses in unrelated industries in conjunction with our initial business combination. Subject to this requirement, our management will have virtually unrestricted flexibility in identifying and selecting one or more prospective businesses, although we will not be permitted to effectuate our initial business combination with another blank check company or a similar company with nominal operations.

 

We anticipate structuring our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public stockholders own shares will own or acquire 100% of the 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 stockholders 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 or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, or the Investment Company Act. Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 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-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 of a target. 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 stockholders immediately prior to our initial business combination could own less than a majority of our 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% of net assets test. If the business combination involves more than one target business, the 80% of net assets test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses and we will treat the target businesses together as the initial business combination for purposes of a tender offer or for seeking stockholder approval, as applicable.

 

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To the extent we effect our initial business combination with a company or business that may be financially unstable or in its early stages of development or growth, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in such company or business. Although our management will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all significant risk factors.

 

In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct a thorough due diligence review which will encompass, among other things, meetings with incumbent management and employees, document reviews, inspection of facilities, as well as a review of financial, operational, legal and other information which will be made available to us.

 

Each of our directors and officers will, directly or indirectly, own founder shares and/or private placement warrants following this offering 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, such 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.

 

Certain of our officers and directors presently have, 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 subject to his or her fiduciary duties. As a result, 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, then, subject to such officer's and director's fiduciary duties under Delaware law, he or she will need to honor such fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity, before we can pursue such opportunity. If these other entities decide to pursue any such opportunity, we may be precluded from pursuing the same. However, we do not expect these duties to materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that we renounce our interest in any business combination 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 it is an opportunity that we are able to complete on a reasonable basis.

 

The time required to select and evaluate a target business and to structure and complete our initial business combination, and the costs associated with this process, are not currently ascertainable with any degree of certainty. Any costs incurred with respect to the identification and evaluation of a prospective target business with which our initial business combination is not ultimately completed will result in our incurring losses and will reduce the funds we can use to complete another business combination.

 

Risk Factors Summary

 

Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including those highlighted in the section titled “Risk Factors” immediately following this prospectus summary. These risks include, but are not limited to:

 

·Our public stockholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial business combination, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our public stockholders do not support such a combination. ​

 

·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. ​

 

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·The recent coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the impact on business and debt and equity markets could have a material adverse effect on our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination. ​

 

·We may not be able to complete an initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of the 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, in which case our public stockholders may only receive $10.00 per share, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless. ​

 

·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 an initial business combination.

 

·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 stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share.

 

·We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders until after the completion of our initial business combination. ​

 

·Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses and our strategy will be to identify, acquire and build a company in our target investment area, 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. ​

 

·We are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent accounting or investment banking 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. ​

 

·We may issue notes or other debt securities, or otherwise incur substantial debt, to complete a business combination, which may adversely affect our leverage and financial condition and thus negatively impact the value of our stockholders' investment in us. ​

 

·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. ​

 

·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 do not agree. ​

 

·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. ​

 

·Our sponsor controls 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. ​

 

·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. ​

 

·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 this offering), a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination. ​

 

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·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.

 

·We may seek acquisition opportunities in industries or sectors which may or may not be outside of our management's area of expertise. ​

 

·Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination and to be successful thereafter will be totally 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 negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business. ​

 

·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 sponsor paid an aggregate of $25,000, or approximately $0.004 per founder share, and, accordingly, you will experience immediate and substantial dilution from the purchase of the shares of our Class A common stock.​

 

·We may redeem your unexpired warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to you, thereby making your warrants worthless. ​

 

·We are a recently incorporated company with no operating history and no revenues, and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective. ​

 

·Past performance by entities managed by our founders, and their affiliates (including our management team and special advisors), including the businesses referred to herein, may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us or in the future performance of any business that we may acquire.

 

Corporate Information

 

Our executive offices are located at 2029 Century Park East, Suite 400N, Los Angeles, CA 90067 and our telephone number is (310) 867-2758.

 

We are an "emerging growth company," as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), as modified by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (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 of 2002 (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 this offering, (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 (as defined below) of our Class A common stock that is held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $700.0 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" will 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 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 30, or (2) our annual revenues exceed $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 30.

 

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The Offering

 

               In deciding whether to invest in our securities, you should take into account not only the backgrounds of the members of our management team, but also the special risks we face as a blank check company and the fact that this offering is not being conducted in compliance with Rule 419 promulgated under the Securities Act. You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded.

 

Securities offered   20,000,000 units, at $10.00 per unit, each unit consisting of:
     
    •  one share of Class A common stock; and
     
    •  one-half of one redeemable warrant.
     
Proposed Nasdaq symbols   Class A common stock: "EXAC"
     
    Warrants: "EXACW"
     
    Units: "EXACU"
     
Trading commencement and separation of shares of our Class A common stock and warrants   The units are expected to begin trading on or promptly after the date of this prospectus. The shares of our Class A common stock and warrants comprising the units will begin separate trading on the 52nd day following the date of this prospectus (or, if such date is not a business day, the following business day) unless UBS Securities LLC informs us of its decision to allow earlier separate trading, subject to our having filed the Current Report on Form 8-K described below and having issued a press release announcing when such separate trading will begin. Once the shares of our Class A common stock and warrants commence separate trading, holders will have the option to continue to hold units or separate their units into the component securities. Holders will need to have their brokers contact our transfer agent in order to separate the units into shares of our Class A common stock and warrants. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. Accordingly, unless you purchase at least two units, you will not be able to receive or trade a whole warrant.
     
    Additionally, the units will automatically separate into their component parts and will not be traded after completion of our initial business combination.
     

Separate trading of the Class A common stock and warrants is prohibited until we have filed a Current Report on Form 8-K

 

 

In no event will the Class A common stock and warrants be traded separately until we have filed with the SEC a Current Report on Form 8-K which includes an audited balance sheet reflecting our receipt of the gross proceeds at the closing of this offering. We will file the Current Report on Form 8-K promptly after the closing of this offering. If the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised following the initial filing of such Current Report on Form 8-K, a second or amended Current Report on Form 8-K will be filed to provide updated financial information to reflect the exercise of the underwriters' over-allotment option.

 

 

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Units:    
     
Number outstanding before this offering   0
     
Number outstanding after this offering   20,000,000(1)
     
Common stock:    
     
Number outstanding before this offering   5,750,000 shares of Class B common stock(2)(3)
     
Number outstanding after this offering   25,000,000 shares of Class A and Class B common stock(1)(2)(4)
     
Warrants:    
     
Number of private placement warrants to be sold in a private placement simultaneously with this offering   6,750,000(1)
     
Number of warrants to be outstanding after this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants   16,750,000(1)

 

 

(1)Assumes no exercise of the underwriters' over-allotment option and the forfeiture by our sponsor of 750,000 founder shares.

 

(2)Founder shares are currently classified as shares of our Class B common stock, which shares will automatically convert into Class A common stock at the time of our initial business combination as described below adjacent to the caption "Founder shares conversion and anti-dilution rights" and in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation.

 

(3)Consists solely of founder shares outstanding as of the date of this prospectus and includes up to 750,000 shares that are subject to forfeiture depending on the extent to which the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised.

 

(4)Includes 20,000,000 public shares and 5,000,000 founder shares, assuming 750,000 founder shares have been forfeited following expiration of the underwriters' over-allotment option.

 

Exercisability   Each whole warrant sold in this offering is exercisable to purchase one share of our Class A common stock. Only whole warrants are exercisable.

 

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    We structured each unit to contain one-half of one redeemable warrant, with each whole warrant exercisable for one share of our Class A common stock, as compared to units issued by some other similar blank check companies which contain whole warrants exercisable for one whole share, in order to reduce the dilutive effect of the warrants upon completion of a business combination as compared to units that each contain a warrant to purchase one whole share, thus making us, we believe, a more attractive business combination partner for target businesses.
Exercise price   $11.50 per whole share, subject to adjustments as described herein. In addition, if (x) we issue additional shares of our Class A common stock or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of our initial business combination at an issue price or effective issue price of less than $9.20 per share of our Class A common stock (with such issue price or effective issue price to be determined in good faith by us and, in the case of any such issuance to our sponsor or its affiliates, without taking into account any founder shares held by our sponsor or such affiliates, as applicable, prior to issuance) (the "Newly Issued Price"), (y) the aggregate gross proceeds from such issuances represent more than 60% of the total equity proceeds, and interest thereon, available for the funding of our initial business combination on the date of the completion of our initial business combination (net of redemptions), and (z) the volume-weighted average trading price of our Class A common stock during the 20 trading day period starting on the trading day prior to the day on which we complete our initial business combination (such price, the "Market Value") is below $9.20 per share, the exercise price of the warrants will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 115% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, and the $10.00 and $18.00 per share redemption trigger prices described adjacent to "Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A common stock equals or exceeds $18.00" and "Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A common stock equals or exceeds $10.00" will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 100% and 180% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, respectively.
Exercise period   The warrants will become exercisable on the later of:
    •  30 days after the completion of our initial business combination; and
    •  twelve months from the closing of this offering;
     
    provided in each case that we have an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering the shares of our Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants and a current prospectus relating to them is available and such shares are registered, qualified or exempt from registration under the securities, or blue sky, laws of the state of residence of the holder (or holders are permitted to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis under the circumstances specified in the warrant agreement as a result of (i) our failure to have an effective registration statement by the 60th business day after the closing of the initial business combination as described in the immediately following paragraph or (ii) a notice of redemption described below under "Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A common stock equals or exceeds $10.00"). 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.

 

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    We are not registering the shares of our Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants at this time. However, we have agreed that as soon as practicable, but in no event later than twenty business days after the closing of our initial business combination, we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to file with the SEC and have an effective registration statement covering the shares of our Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants and to maintain a current prospectus relating to those shares of our Class A common stock until the warrants expire or are redeemed, as specified in the warrant agreement. If a registration statement covering the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants is not effective by the 60th 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 we 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.
    The warrants will expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, five years after the completion of our initial business combination or earlier upon redemption or liquidation. On the exercise of any warrant, the warrant exercise price will be paid directly to us and not placed in the trust account.
Redemption of warrants when the price per share of our Class A common stock equals or exceeds $18.00   Once the warrants become exercisable, we may redeem the outstanding warrants (except as described herein with respect to the private placement warrants):
     
    •  in whole and not in part;
    •  at a price of $0.01 per warrant;
    •  upon a minimum of 30 days' prior written notice of redemption, which we refer to as the "30-day redemption period"; and
    •  if, and only if, the last reported sale price of our Class A common stock for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders (the "Reference Value") equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like).
    However, in this case, we will not redeem the warrants unless an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants is effective and a current prospectus relating to those shares of our Class A common stock is available throughout the 30-day redemption period. Any such exercise would not be on a "cashless" basis and would require the exercising warrant holder to pay the exercise price for each warrant being exercised.
Redemption of warrants when the price per share of our Class A common stock equals or exceeds $10.00   Once the warrants become exercisable, we may redeem the outstanding warrants (except as described herein with respect to the private placement warrants):
    •  in whole and not in part;

 

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    •  at $0.10 per warrant upon a minimum of 30 days' prior written notice of redemption, provided that holders will be able to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis prior to redemption and receive that number of shares determined by reference to the table set forth under "Description of Securities—Warrants—Public Stockholders' Warrants" based on the redemption date and the "fair market value" of our Class A common stock (as defined below);
    •  if, and only if, the Reference Value (as defined above under "Redemption of warrants when the price per Class A common stock equals or exceeds $18.00") equals or exceeds $10.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, rights issuances, subdivisions, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like); and
     
    •  if the Reference Value is less than $18.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, rights issuances, subdivisions, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like), the private placement warrants must also concurrently be called for redemption on the same terms (except as described herein with respect to a holder's ability to cashless exercise its warrants) as the outstanding public warrants, as described above.
    The "fair market value" of our Class A common stock shall mean the volume-weighted average price of our Class A common stock for the 10 trading days immediately following the date on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of warrants. This redemption feature differs from the typical warrant redemption features used in other blank check offerings. We will provide our warrant holders with the final fair market value no later than one business day after the 10-day trading period described above ends. In no event will the warrants be exercisable in connection with this redemption feature for more than 0.361 shares of our Class A common stock per warrant (subject to adjustment).
    No fractional shares of our Class A common stock will be issued upon redemption. If, upon redemption, a holder would be entitled to receive a fractional interest in a share, we will round down to the nearest whole number of the number of shares of our Class A common stock to be issued to the holder. Please see the section entitled "Description of Securities—Warrants—Public Stockholders' Warrants" for additional information.
     
Founder shares   On January 15, 2021, our sponsor paid $25,000, or approximately $0.004 per share,  for the purchase of 5,750,000 shares of our Class B common stock, par value $0.0001. Prior to the initial investment in the company of $25,000, the company had no assets, tangible or intangible. The per share 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 was determined based on the expectation that the founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after this offering (assuming our sponsor does not purchase any units in this offering). If we increase or decrease the size of this offering, we will effect a stock capitalization or a share surrender or redemption or other appropriate mechanism, as applicable, with respect to the shares of our Class B common stock immediately prior to the completion of this offering in such amount as to maintain the ownership of our sponsor (and its permitted transferees), on an as-converted basis, at 20% of our issued and outstanding shares of Class A common stock upon the completion of this offering. Up to 750,000 founder shares will be subject to forfeiture by our sponsor depending on the extent to which the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised so that our sponsor will maintain ownership of 20% of our Class A common stock after this offering.

 

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    The founder shares are identical to the shares of our Class A common stock included in the units being sold in this offering, except that:
    •  only holders of the founder shares have the right to vote on the appointment of directors prior to our initial business combination and holders of a majority of our founder shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason;
    •  the founder shares are subject to certain transfer restrictions, as described in more detail below;
     
    •  each of our sponsor, officers and directors have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive (i) their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and public shares in connection with the completion of our initial business combination; (ii) their redemption rights with respect to their founder shares and public shares in connection with a stockholder vote to approve an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we have not completed an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering or (B) with respect to any other provisions relating to stockholders' rights or pre-initial business combination activity; and (iii) waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to their founder shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, although they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any public shares they hold if we do not complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame. If we submit our initial business combination to our public stockholders for a vote, pursuant to the terms of a letter agreement entered into with us, our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed to vote their founder shares and any public shares purchased during or after this offering, in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in addition to our initial stockholders' founder shares, we would need 7,500,001, or 37.5%, of the 20,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to have our initial business combination approved (assuming all issued and outstanding shares are voted and the over-allotment option is not exercised);
    •  the founder shares will automatically convert into shares of our Class A common stock at the time of our initial business combination as described below adjacent to the caption "Founder shares conversion and anti-dilution rights" and in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation; and
    •  the founder shares are entitled to registration rights.
     

 

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Transfer restrictions on founder shares   Our initial stockholders have agreed not to transfer, assign or sell any of their founder shares and any shares of our Class A common stock issuable upon conversion thereof until the earlier to occur of: (i) one year after the completion of our initial business combination or (ii) the date on which we complete a liquidation, merger, capital stock exchange or other similar transaction after our initial business combination that results in all of our stockholders having the right to exchange their Class A common stock for cash, securities or other property; except to certain permitted transferees and under certain circumstances as described herein under "Principal Stockholders—Restrictions on Transfers of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants". Any permitted transferees will be subject to the same restrictions and other agreements of our initial stockholders with respect to any founder shares. We refer to such transfer restrictions throughout this prospectus as the lock-up. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if (1) the last reported sale 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 or (2) if we complete a transaction after our initial business combination which results in all of our stockholders having the right to exchange their shares for cash, securities or other property, the converted shares of our Class A common stock will be released from the lock-up.
     
Founder shares conversion and anti-dilution rights   The founder shares are designated as shares of our Class B common stock and will automatically convert into shares of our Class A common stock on the first business day following the completion of our initial business combination at a ratio such that the number of shares of our Class A common stock issuable upon conversion of all founder shares will equal, in the aggregate, on an as-converted basis, 20% of the sum of (i) the total number of shares of our Class A common stock issued and outstanding upon completion of this offering, plus the total number of shares of our Class A common stock issued or deemed issued or issuable upon conversion or exercise of any equity-linked securities (as defined herein) or rights issued or deemed issued, by the Company in connection with or in relation to the completion of the initial business combination, excluding any shares of our Class A common stock or equity-linked securities exercisable for or convertible into shares of our 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 upon conversion of working capital loans. In no event will the shares of our Class B common stock convert into shares of our Class A common stock at a rate of less than one to one.
Appointment of directors; Voting rights   Prior to our initial business combination, only holders of our founder shares will have the right to vote on the appointment of directors. Holders of our public shares will not be entitled to vote on the appointment of directors during such time. In addition, prior to the completion of an initial business combination, holders of a majority of our founder shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason. These provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation may only be amended by approval of a majority of at least 90% of the shares of our Class B common stock voting in an annual meeting. With respect to any other matter submitted to a vote of our stockholders, including any vote in connection with our initial business combination, except as required by law, holders of our founder shares and holders of our public shares will vote together as a single class, with each share entitling the holder to one vote.
Private placement warrants   Our sponsor has committed, pursuant to a written agreement, to purchase an aggregate of 6,750,000 private placement warrants (or 7,350,000 private placement warrants if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full), each exercisable to purchase one share of our Class A common stock at $11.50 per share, at a price of $1.00 per whole warrant ($6,750,000 in the aggregate or $7,350,000 in the aggregate if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full), in a private placement that will close simultaneously with the closing of this offering.

 

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    A portion of the purchase price of the private placement warrants will be added to the proceeds from this offering to be held in the trust account such that at the time of closing $200,000,000 (or $230,000,000 if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full) will be held in the trust account. If we do not complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, the proceeds from the sale of the private placement warrants held in the trust account will be used to fund the redemption of our public shares (subject to the requirements of applicable law) and the private placement warrants will expire worthless.
    The private placement warrants will be non-redeemable (except as set forth under "Description of Securities—Warrants—Redemption of Warrants When the Price per Share of Our Class A Common Stock Equals or Exceeds $10.00") and exercisable on a cashless basis so long as they are held by our sponsor or its permitted transferees (see "Description of Securities—Warrants—Private Placement Warrants"). If the private placement warrants are held by holders other than our sponsor or its permitted transferees, the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us and exercisable by the holders on the same basis as the warrants included in the units being sold in this offering. Our sponsor, as well as its permitted transferees, have the option to exercise the private placement warrants on a cashless basis.
Transfer restrictions on private placement warrants   The private placement warrants (including the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants) will not be transferable, assignable or salable until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination (except as described herein under the section of this prospectus entitled "Principal Stockholders—Restrictions on Transfers of Founder Shares and Private Placement Warrants.")
Proceeds to be held in trust account   Of the proceeds we will receive from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants described in this prospectus, $200,000,000, or $230,000,000 if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full ($10.00 per unit in either case), will be deposited into a segregated trust account located in the United States at UBS Financial Services Inc., with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, acting as trustee, and $2,750,000 will be used to pay expenses in connection with the closing of this offering and for working capital following this offering. The proceeds to be placed into the trust account include $7,000,000 (or $8,050,000 if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full) in deferred underwriting commissions.

 

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    Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the trust account that may be released to us to pay our taxes, if any, the funds held in the trust account will not be released until the earliest to occur of: (a) the completion of our initial business combination; (b) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (i) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering or (ii) with respect to any other provisions relating to stockholders' rights or pre-initial business combination activity; and (c) the redemption of all of our public shares if we have not completed our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, subject to applicable law. Public stockholders who redeem their shares of our Class A common stock in connection with a stockholder vote described in clause (b) in the preceding sentence shall not be entitled to funds from the trust account upon the subsequent completion of an initial business combination or liquidation if we are unable to complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, with respect to such shares of our Class A common stock so redeemed. The proceeds deposited in the trust account could become subject to the claims of our creditors, if any, which could have priority over the claims of our public stockholders.
Anticipated expenses and funding sources   Except as described above with respect to the payment of taxes, unless and until we complete our initial business combination, no proceeds held in the trust account will be available for our use. The proceeds held in the trust account, if invested, 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. Assuming an interest rate of 0.1% per year, we estimate the interest earned on the trust account to generate approximately $200,000 per year; however we can provide no assurances regarding this amount. Except as described above, unless and until we complete our initial business combination, we may pay our expenses only from:
    the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants not held in the trust account, which will be approximately $1,000,000 in working capital after the payment of approximately $1,750,000 in expenses relating to this offering; and
     
    any loans or additional investments from our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors, although they are under no obligation to advance funds or invest in us, and provided that any such loans will not have any claim on the proceeds held in the trust account unless such proceeds are released to us upon completion of our initial business combination.
Conditions to completing our initial business combination   There is no limitation on our ability to raise funds privately or through loans in connection with our initial business combination. Nasdaq rules require that 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 our 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.

 

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    If our board of directors is not able to independently determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses or we are considering an initial business combination with an affiliated entity, we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or an independent accounting firm. Our stockholders may not be provided with a copy of such opinion nor will they be able to rely on such opinion. We will complete our initial business combination only if the post-transaction company in which our public stockholders own shares will own or acquire 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or is otherwise not required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our stockholders prior to our initial 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 transaction. 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% of net assets test, provided that in the event that the business combination involves more than one target business, the 80% of net assets test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses and we will treat the target businesses together as the initial business combination for purposes of a tender offer or for seeking stockholder approval, as applicable.
     
Permitted purchases of public shares and public warrants by our affiliates   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, directors, executive officers, advisors 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 where otherwise permissible under applicable laws, rule and regulations. However, 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 held in the trust account will be used to purchase shares or public warrants in such transactions. If they engage in such transactions, they will not make any such purchases when they are in possession of any material non-public information not disclosed to the seller or if such purchases are prohibited by Regulation M under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"). We do not currently anticipate that such purchases, if any, would constitute a tender offer subject to the tender offer rules under the Exchange Act or a going-private transaction subject to the going-private rules under the Exchange Act; however, if the purchasers determine at the time of any such purchases that the purchases are subject to such rules, the purchasers will comply with such rules. 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. See "Proposed Business—Permitted Purchases of Our Securities" for a description of how our sponsor, directors, executive officers, advisors or any of their affiliates will select which stockholders to purchase securities from in any private transaction.
     

 

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    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. In addition, if such purchases are made, the public "float" of our Class A common stock or warrants may be reduced and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, which may make it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
Redemption rights for public stockholders upon completion of our initial business combination   We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Class A common stock upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account calculated as of two business days prior to the completion of the initial business combination, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, if any (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses) divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described herein. The amount in the trust account is initially anticipated to be approximately $10.00 per public share. The per-share amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters. The redemption rights will include the requirement that a beneficial holder must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. There will be no redemption rights upon the completion of our initial business combination with respect to our warrants. Our sponsor and each member of our management team have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares held by them and any public shares they may acquire during or after this offering in connection with the completion of our initial business combination or otherwise.
     
Limitation on redemptions   Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that we will only redeem our public shares so long as (after redemption) our net tangible assets will be at least $5,000,001 either immediately prior to or upon consummation of our initial business combination, after payment of the deferred underwriting commission (so that we are not subject to the SEC's "penny stock" rules). However, a greater net tangible asset or cash requirement may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination. For example, the proposed business combination may require: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash to be transferred to the target for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions in accordance with the terms of the proposed business combination. Furthermore, although we will only redeem shares so long as (after redemption) our net tangible assets will be at least $5,000,001 either immediately prior to or upon consummation of our initial business combination, after payment of the deferred underwriting commission, we do not have a maximum redemption threshold based on the percentage of shares sold in this offering, as many blank check companies do. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all 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, and all Class A common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof.

 

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Manner of conducting redemptions   We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public shares upon the completion of our 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 we will seek stockholder approval of a proposed business combination or conduct 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 require us to seek stockholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements. Asset acquisitions and stock purchases would not typically require stockholder approval, while direct mergers with our company where we do not survive and any transactions where we issue more than 20% of our outstanding shares of Class A common stock or seek to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation would require stockholder approval. We currently intend to conduct redemptions in connection with a stockholder vote unless stockholder approval is not required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement and we choose to conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC for business or other legal reasons.
     
    If we hold a stockholder vote to approve our initial business combination, we will:
    •  conduct the redemptions in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies, and not pursuant to the tender offer rules, and
    •  file proxy materials with the SEC
    If we seek stockholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock voted are voted in favor of the initial business combination. A quorum for such meeting will consist of the holders present in person or by proxy of shares of outstanding capital stock of the Company representing a majority of the voting power of all outstanding shares of capital stock of the Company entitled to vote at such meeting. Our initial stockholders will count towards this quorum and, pursuant to the terms of a letter agreement entered into with us, our sponsor and each member of our management team have agreed (and their permitted transferees will agree) to vote their founder shares held by them and any public shares purchased during or after this offering (including in open market and privately-negotiated transactions) in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in addition to our sponsor's founder shares, we would need 7,500,001, or 37.5%, of the 20,000,000 public shares sold in this 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). The other members of our management team have entered into agreements similar to the one entered into by our sponsor with respect to any public shares acquired by them in or after this offering. Each public stockholder may elect to redeem its public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction or whether they were a stockholder on the record date for the stockholder meeting held to approve the proposed transaction.
    If a stockholder vote is not required and we do not decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other legal reasons, we will:
    •  conduct the redemptions pursuant to Rule 13e-4 and Regulation 14E of the Exchange Act, which regulate issuer tender offers, and

 

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    •  file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our initial business combination which contain substantially the same financial and other information about the initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies.
     
    Upon the public announcement of our initial business combination, if we elect to conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, we or our sponsor will terminate any plan established in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 to purchase shares of our Class A common stock in the open market, in order to comply with Rule 14e-5 under the Exchange Act.
    In the event we conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, our offer to redeem will remain open for at least 20 business days, in accordance with Rule 14e-1(a) under the Exchange Act, and we will not be permitted to complete our initial business combination until the expiration of the tender offer period. In addition, the tender offer will be conditioned on public stockholders not tendering more than the number of public shares we are permitted to redeem. If public stockholders tender more shares than we have offered to purchase, we will withdraw the tender offer and not complete such initial business combination.
    Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that we will only redeem our public shares so long as (after redemption) our net tangible assets will be at least $5,000,001 either immediately prior to or upon consummation of our initial business combination, after payment of the deferred underwriting commission (so that we are not subject to the SEC's "penny stock" rules). Redemptions of our public shares may also be subject to a higher net tangible asset test or cash requirement pursuant to an agreement relating to our initial business combination. For example, the proposed business combination may require: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash to be transferred to the target for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions in accordance with the terms of the proposed business combination. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all 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, and all common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof.
     

 

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Limitation on redemption rights of stockholders holding 15% or more of the shares sold in this offering if we hold stockholder vote   Notwithstanding the foregoing redemption rights, 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 will provide 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 redeeming its shares with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in this offering, without our prior consent. We believe the restriction described above will discourage stockholders from accumulating large blocks of shares, and subsequent attempts by such holders to use their ability to redeem their shares as a means to force us or our management to purchase their shares at a significant premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. Absent this provision, a public stockholder holding more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in this offering could threaten to exercise its redemption rights against a business combination if such holder's shares are not purchased by us, our sponsor or our management at a premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. By limiting our stockholders' ability to redeem to no more than 15% of the shares sold in this offering, we believe we will limit the ability of a small group of stockholders to unreasonably attempt to block our ability to complete our initial business combination, particularly in connection with a business combination with a target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. However, we would not be restricting our stockholders' ability to vote all of their shares (including all shares held by those stockholders that hold more than 15% of the shares sold in this offering) for or against our initial business combination. Our sponsor, directors and each member of our management team have, pursuant to a letter agreement entered into with us, waived their right to have any founder shares or public shares redeemed in connection with our initial business combination. Unless any of our other affiliates acquires founder shares through a permitted transfer from our sponsor, and thereby becomes subject to the letter agreement, no such affiliate is subject to this waiver. However, to the extent any such affiliate acquires public shares in this offering or thereafter through open market purchases, it would be a public stockholder and subject to the 15% limitation in connection with any such redemption right.
     
Release of funds in trust account on closing of our initial business combination   On the completion of our initial business combination, the funds held in the trust account will be disbursed directly by the trustee to pay amounts due to any public stockholders who exercise their redemption rights as described above under "Proposed Business—Redemption Rights for Public Stockholders upon Completion of our Initial Business Combination," to pay the underwriters their deferred underwriting commissions, to pay all or a portion of the consideration payable to the target or owners of the target of our initial business combination and to pay other expenses associated with our initial business combination. If our initial business combination is paid for using equity or debt securities or not all of the funds released from the trust account are used for payment of the consideration in connection with our initial business combination, we may apply the balance of the cash released to us from the trust account for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of post-transaction businesses, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing our initial business combination, to fund the purchase of other companies or for working capital.
     

 

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Redemption of public shares and distribution and liquidation if no initial business combination   Our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed that we will have only 24 months from the closing of this offering to complete our initial business combination. If we have not completed an initial business combination within 24-months from the closing of this offering, we will: (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten 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 and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, if any (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of the then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders' rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidation distributions, if any), subject to applicable law; 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. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions with respect to our warrants, which will expire worthless if we do not complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering.
    Our sponsor, directors and each member of our management team have entered into letter agreements with us, pursuant to which they have waived their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to their founder shares if we do not complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering. However, if our sponsor, directors or members of our management team acquire public shares in or after this offering, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we do not complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering.
    The underwriters have agreed to waive their rights to their deferred underwriting commission held in the trust account in the event we do not complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering and, in such event, such amounts will be included with the funds held in the trust account that will be available to fund the redemption of our public shares.
     
    Our sponsor, executive officers, directors and director nominees have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, or with respect to any other provisions relating to stockholders' 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 and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, if any (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses) divided by the number of the then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described above under "Proposed Business—Limitations on Redemptions." For example, our board of directors may propose such an amendment if it determines that additional time is necessary to complete our initial business combination. In such event, we will conduct a proxy solicitation and distribute proxy materials pursuant to Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act seeking stockholder approval of such proposal and, in connection therewith, provide our public stockholders with the redemption rights described above upon stockholder approval of such amendment. This redemption right shall apply in the event of the approval of any such amendment, whether proposed by our sponsor, any executive officer, director or director nominee, or any other person.

 

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Limited payments to insiders   There will be no finder's fees, reimbursements or cash payments made by the company to our sponsor, officers or directors, or our or their affiliates, for services rendered to us prior to or in connection with the completion of our initial business combination, other than the following payments, none of which will be made from the proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants held in the trust account prior to the completion of our initial business combination:
    •  Reimbursement of funds advanced to us by our sponsor to cover offering-related and organizational expenses;
    •  Reimbursement for office space and administrative support services provided to us by our Sponsor, in the amount of $10,000 per month;
     
    •  Reimbursement of legal fees and expenses incurred by our sponsor, officers or directors in connection with our formation, the initial business combination and their services to us;
    •  Payment of fees and reimbursement for any out-of-pocket expenses related to identifying, investigating, negotiating and completing an initial business combination; and
    •  Repayment of loans which may be made by our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended 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 $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period. Except for the foregoing, the terms of such loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans.
    Any such payments will be made either (i) prior to our initial business combination using proceeds of this offering held outside the trust account or from loans made to us by our sponsor or (ii) in connection with or after the completion of our initial business combination.
Audit Committee   We will establish and maintain an audit committee in compliance with Nasdaq listing rules. Among its responsibilities, the audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made to our sponsor, officers or directors, or our or their affiliates and monitor compliance with the other terms relating to this offering. If any noncompliance is identified, then the audit committee will be charged with the responsibility to promptly take all action necessary to rectify such noncompliance or otherwise to cause compliance with the terms of this offering. For more information, see the section entitled "Management—Committees of the Board of Directors—Audit Committee."
     

 

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Conflicts of interest   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. 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 opportunity to such entity. 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 business combination. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide 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 our company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue.
    In addition, our sponsor, officers and directors may participate in the formation of, or become an officer or director of, any other blank check company prior to completion of our initial business combination. As a result, our sponsor, officers or directors could have conflicts of interest in determining whether to present business combination opportunities to us or to any other blank check company with which they may become involved. However, we do not believe that any potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.
     
Indemnity   Our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party (other than our independent public accountants) for services rendered or products sold to us, or by a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below (i) $10.00 per public share or (ii) such lesser amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest which may be withdrawn to pay our taxes. This liability will not apply with respect to any claims by a third party who executed a waiver of any and all rights to seek access to the trust account and except as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of this offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, then our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third party claims. We have not independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and believe that our sponsor's only assets are securities of our company. None of our officers will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.

 

Risks

 

               We are a newly incorporated company that has conducted no operations and has generated no revenues. Until we complete our initial business combination, we will have no operations and will generate no operating revenues. In making your decision whether to invest in our securities, you should take into account not only the background of our management team, but also the special risks we face as a blank check company. This offering is not being conducted in compliance with Rule 419 promulgated under the Securities Act. Accordingly, you will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors in Rule 419 blank check offerings. For additional information concerning how Rule 419 blank check offerings differ from this offering, please see "Proposed Business—Comparison of This Offering to Those of Blank Check Companies Subject to Rule 419." You should carefully consider these and the other risks set forth in the section of this prospectus entitled "Risk Factors."
 

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SUMMARY FINANCIAL DATA

 

The following table summarizes the relevant financial data for our business and should be read with our financial statements, which are included in this prospectus. We have not had any significant operations to date, so only balance sheet data is presented.

 

  January 25, 2021 
Actual  As Adjusted 
Balance Sheet Data:      
Working capital (deficiency)(1) $(18,500) $194,024,000 
Total assets(2)  67,500   201,024,000 
Total liabilities(3)  43,500   7,000,000 
Value of common stock subject to possible conversion/tender(4)     189,023,990 
Stockholder’s equity(5)  24,000   5,000,010 

 

(1)The “as adjusted” calculation includes $200,000,000 of cash held in trust from the proceeds of this offering, assuming the over-allotment option is not exercised, and the sale of the private placement warrants, plus $1,000,000 of cash held outside the trust account, plus $24,000 of actual stockholder’s equity on January 25, 2021, less $7,000,000 of deferred underwriting commissions, assuming the over-allotment option is not exercised.

 

(2)The “as adjusted” calculation equals $200,000,000 of cash held in trust from the proceeds of this offering, assuming the over-allotment option is not exercised, and the sale of the private placement warrants, plus $1,000,000 in cash held outside the trust account, plus $24,000 of actual stockholder’s equity on January 25, 2021.

 

(3)The “as adjusted” calculation equals $7,000,000 of deferred underwriting commissions, assuming the over-allotment option is not exercised.

 

(4)The “as adjusted” calculation equals the “as adjusted” total assets, less the “as adjusted” total liabilities, less the “as adjusted” stockholder’s equity, which is set to approximate the minimum net tangible assets threshold of at least $5,000,001 either immediately prior to or upon consummation of our initial business combination.

 

(5)Excludes 18,902,399 shares of Class A common stock purchased in the public market which are subject to redemption in connection with our initial business combination. The “as adjusted” calculation equals the “as adjusted” total assets, less the “as adjusted” total liabilities, less the value of shares of Class A common stock that may be redeemed in connection with our initial business combination ($10.00 per share).

 

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RISK FACTORS

 

An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully all of the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this prospectus, before making a decision to invest in our units. If any of the following events occur, our business, financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

 

Risks Relating to Our Search For, and Consummation of or Inability to Consummate, a Business Combination

 

Our public stockholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed initial business combination, 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 before we complete our initial business combination if the business combination would not require stockholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement. For instance, if we were seeking to acquire a target business where the consideration we were paying in the transaction was all cash, we would not be required to seek stockholder approval to complete such a transaction. Except as required by law or stock exchange, the decision as to whether we will seek stockholder approval of a proposed 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. Accordingly, we may complete our initial business combination even if a majority of our public stockholders do not approve of the business combination we complete.

 

Please see the section of this prospectus entitled "Proposed Business—Stockholders May Not Have the Ability to Approve our Initial Business Combination" for additional information.

 

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 one or more target businesses. 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 a potential 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.

 

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 an 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 companies preparing for an initial public offering. As a result, at times, fewer attractive targets may be available 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 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 and consummate an initial business combination, and may result in our inability to consummate an initial business combination on terms favorable to our investors.

 

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If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, directors and members of our management team have agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public stockholders vote.

 

Our sponsor will own, on an as-converted basis, 20% of our outstanding shares of Class A common stock immediately following the completion of this offering. Our sponsor, directors and members of our 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 will provide 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. If we submit our initial business combination to our public stockholders for a vote, pursuant to the terms of a letter agreement entered into with us, our sponsor, directors and members of our management team have agreed to vote their founder shares and any shares purchased during or after the offering, in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in addition to our initial stockholders' founder shares, we would need 7,500,001, or 37.5%, of the 20,000,000 public shares sold in this offering to be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to have our initial business combination approved (assuming all issued and 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 sponsor, our directors and each member of our 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 a prospective target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. 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, we will only redeem our public shares so long as (after redemption) our net tangible assets will be at least $5,000,001 either immediately prior to or upon consummation of our initial business combination, after payment of the deferred underwriting commission (so that we are not subject to the SEC's "penny stock" rules) or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement which may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination. Consequently, if accepting all properly submitted redemption requests would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 or such greater amount necessary to satisfy a closing 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 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 are 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 additional third party financing. Raising additional third party financing may involve dilutive equity issuances or the incurrence of indebtedness at higher than desirable levels. The above considerations may limit our ability to complete the most desirable business combination available to us or optimize our capital structure. The amount of the deferred underwriting commissions payable to the underwriters will not be adjusted for any shares that are redeemed in connection with an 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.

 

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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 our redemption until we liquidate or you are able to sell your shares in the open market.

 

The requirement that we complete an initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of this 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 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 an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this 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 an initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of the 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, in which case our public stockholders may only receive $10.00 per share, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless.

 

Our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed that we must complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering. We may not be able to find a suitable target business and complete an initial business combination within 24 months after the closing of this offering. Our ability to complete our initial business combination may be negatively impacted by general market conditions, volatility in the capital and debt markets and the other risks described herein. If we have not completed an initial business combination within such applicable 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 ten 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 and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, if any (less 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), subject to applicable law; 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 Islands law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law.

 

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The recent coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the impact on business and debt and equity markets could have a material adverse effect on our search for a business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination.

 

In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus (COVID-19) was reported to have surfaced and is continuing to spread throughout the world, including the United States and Europe. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the coronavirus a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern." On January 31, 2020, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar II declared a public health emergency for the United States to aid the U.S. health care community in responding to the coronavirus, and on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization characterized the outbreak as a "pandemic." A significant outbreak of the coronavirus and other infectious diseases could result in a widespread health crisis that could adversely affect the economies and financial markets worldwide, business operations and the conduct of commerce generally and could have a material adverse effect on the business of any potential target business with which we consummate a business combination. Furthermore, we may be unable to complete a business combination if continued concerns relating to the coronavirus 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 the coronavirus 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 the coronavirus pandemic and the actions to contain the coronavirus or treat its impact, among others. If the disruptions posed by the coronavirus or other matters of global concern continue for an extensive period of time, it could have a material adverse effect on our ability to consummate a business combination, or the operations of a target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination.

 

In addition, our ability to consummate a transaction may be dependent on the ability to raise equity and debt financing and the coronavirus pandemic and other related events could have a material adverse effect on our ability to raise adequate financing.

 

If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, directors, executive officers, advisors 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, directors, executive officers, advisors 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, where otherwise permissible under applicable laws, rules and regulations, although they are under no obligation to do so. 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 a purchase 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. In the event that our sponsor, directors, executive officers, advisors 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. 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. See "Proposed Business—Permitted Purchases of Our Securities" for a description of how our sponsor, directors, executive officers, advisors or any of their affiliates will select which stockholders to purchase securities from in any private transaction.

 

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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 maintain or obtain 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 solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, such stockholder may not become aware of the opportunity to redeem its shares. In addition, the proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, 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 redeem or tender public shares. For example, we may require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in "street name," to either tender their certificates to our transfer agent prior to the date set forth in the tender offer documents or proxy materials mailed to such holders, or up to two business days prior to the vote on the proposal to approve the business combination in the event we distribute proxy materials, or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically. In the event that a stockholder fails to comply with these or any other procedures, its shares may not be redeemed. See the section of this prospectus entitled "Proposed Business—Tendering Share Certificates in Connection with a Tender Offer or Redemption Rights."

 

You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.

 

Since the net proceeds of this 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 successful completion of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants and will file 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 this 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. For a more detailed comparison of our offering to offerings that comply with Rule 419, please see the section of this prospectus entitled "Proposed Business—Comparison of This Offering to Those of Blank Check Companies Subject to Rule 419."

 

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 will provide 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 this 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.

 

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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 do not 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 intense 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 greater technical, human and other resources 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 this 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 do not 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.

 

If the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants not being held in the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate for at least the next 24 months, 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.

 

The funds available to us outside of the trust account to fund our working capital requirements may not be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the next 24 months, assuming that our initial business combination is not completed during that time. We believe that, upon closing of this offering, the funds available to us outside of the trust account, together with funds available from loans from our sponsor will be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the next 24 months; however, we cannot assure you that our estimate is accurate. Of the funds available to us, we expect to 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 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 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. If we do not complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless. In certain circumstances, our public stockholders may receive less than $10.00 per share upon our liquidation. See "—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 stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share" and other risk factors below.

 

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In the event that our offering expenses exceed our estimate of $1,750,000, we may fund such excess with funds not to be held in the trust account. In such case, unless funded by the proceeds of loans available from our sponsor, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would decrease by a corresponding amount. Conversely, in the event that the offering expenses are less than our estimate of $1,750,000, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would increase by a corresponding amount. The amount held in the trust account will not be impacted as a result of such increase or 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 $1.00 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 obtain these loans, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination. If we do not 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. In certain circumstances, our public stockholders may receive less than $10.00 per share on the redemption of their shares. See "—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 stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share" and other risk factors below.

 

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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 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 auditors), 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 perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will only enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver if management believes that such third party's engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative. Making such a request of potential target businesses may make our acquisition proposal less attractive to them and, to the extent prospective target businesses refuse to execute such a waiver, it may limit the field of potential target businesses that we might pursue.

 

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 have not completed an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, 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 ten 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 to claims of such creditors. Pursuant to the letter agreement the form of which is filed as an exhibit to the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party (other than our independent auditors) for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amounts in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.00 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest that may be withdrawn to pay our taxes, if any, provided that such liability will not apply to any claims by a third party or prospective target business that executed a waiver of any and all rights to seek access to the trust account nor will it apply to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of this offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third party claims. 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 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.

 

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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 share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.00 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest that may be withdrawn to pay our taxes, if any, and our sponsor assert 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 (except to the extent they are entitled to funds from the trust account due to their ownership of public shares). 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 complete an 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 or winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy or insolvency 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 or winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by stockholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy or insolvency laws as either a "preferential transfer" or a "fraudulent conveyance." As a result, a bankruptcy or insolvency 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, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages, by paying public stockholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors.

 

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If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy or winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding-up 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 or winding-up petition or an involuntary bankruptcy or winding-up petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy or insolvency 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:

 

•    restrictions on the nature of our investments; and

 

•    restrictions on the issuance of securities, each of which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.

 

In addition, we may have imposed upon us burdensome requirements, including:

 

•    registration as an investment company;

 

•    adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and

 

•    reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and other rules and regulations.

 

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.

 

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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. This offering 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: (a) the completion of our initial business combination; (b) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (i) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering or (ii) with respect to any other provisions relating to the rights of holders of our Class A common stock; or (c) absent our completing an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, 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 do not 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.

 

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.

 

If we have not completed an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, our public stockholders may be forced to wait beyond such 24 months before redemption from our trust account.

 

If we have not completed an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, the proceeds then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, if any (less up to $100,000 of the interest to pay dissolution expenses), will be used to fund the redemption of our public shares, as further described herein. Any redemption of public stockholders from the trust account will be effected automatically by function of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation prior to any voluntary winding up. If we are required to wind-up, liquidate the trust account and distribute such amount therein, pro rata, to our public stockholders, as part of any liquidation process, such winding up, liquidation and distribution must comply with the applicable provisions of the DGCL. In that case, investors may be forced to wait beyond 24 months from the closing of this offering before the redemption proceeds of our trust account become available to them, and they receive the return of their pro rata portion of the proceeds from our trust account. We have no obligation to return funds to investors prior to the date of our redemption or liquidation unless we complete our initial business combination prior thereto and only then in cases where investors have sought to redeem their Class A common stock. Only upon our redemption or any liquidation will public stockholders be entitled to distributions if we do not complete our initial business combination.

 

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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.

 

In recent months, the market for directors and officers liability insurance for special purpose acquisition companies has changed. 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. There can be no assurance that these trends will not continue.

 

The increased cost and decreased availability of directors and officers liability insurance could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to negotiate 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, accept less favorable terms or both. However, any failure to obtain adequate directors and officers liability insurance could have an adverse impact on the post-business combination’s ability to attract and retain qualified officers and directors.

 

In addition, even after we were to complete an initial business combination, our directors and officers could still be subject to potential liability from claims arising from conduct alleged to have occurred prior to the 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 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 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 this 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 this 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 this 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.

 

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We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders until after the completion of our initial business combination.

 

In accordance with the 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 the 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 amended and restated 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.

 

Holders of our Class A common stock will not be entitled to vote on any appointment of directors we hold prior to our initial business combination.

 

Prior to our initial business combination, only holders of our founder shares will have the right to vote on the appointment of directors. Holders of our public shares will not be entitled to vote on the appointment of directors during such time. In addition, prior to the completion of an initial business combination, holders of a majority of our founder shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason. Accordingly, you may not have any say in the management of our company prior to the completion of an initial business combination.

 

The grant of registration rights to our sponsor 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 the shares of our Class A common stock.

 

Pursuant to an agreement to be entered into concurrently with the issuance and sale of the securities in this offering, our sponsor and its permitted transferees can demand that we register the shares of our Class A common stock into which founder shares are convertible, the private placement warrants and the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants, and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans and 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. 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 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 securities owned by our sponsor or its 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.

 

We may pursue business combination opportunities in any sector, except that we will not, under our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, be permitted to effectuate our initial business combination with another blank check company or similar company with nominal operations. Because we have not yet selected or approached 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 who choose to remain stockholders following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders 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.

 

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Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses and our strategy will be to identify, acquire and build a company in our target investment area, 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 and our strategy will be to identify, acquire and build a company in our target investment area, it is possible that a target business with which we enter into our initial business combination will not have attributes consistent with our general criteria and guidelines. 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 transaction 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 do not 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 accounting or investment banking 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, we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent accounting firm or independent investment banking firm 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 solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, related to our initial business combination.

 

We may engage one or more of our underwriters or one of their respective affiliates to provide additional services to us after this offering, which may include acting as financial advisor in connection with an initial business combination or as placement agent in connection with a related financing transaction. Our underwriters are entitled to receive deferred commissions that will be released from the trust only on a completion of an initial business combination. These financial incentives may cause them to have potential conflicts of interest in rendering any such additional services to us after this offering, including, for example, in connection with the sourcing and consummation of an initial business combination.

 

We may engage one or more of our underwriters or one of their respective affiliates to provide additional services to us after this offering, including, for example, identifying potential targets, providing financial advisory services, acting as a placement agent in a private offering or arranging debt financing. We may pay such underwriter or its affiliate fair and reasonable fees or other compensation that would be determined at that time in an arm’s length negotiation; provided that no agreement will be entered into with any of the underwriters or their respective affiliates and no fees or other compensation for such services will be paid to any of the underwriters or their respective affiliates prior to the date that is 60 days from the date of this prospectus, unless FINRA determines that such payment would not be deemed underwriters’ compensation in connection with this offering. The underwriters are also entitled to receive deferred commissions that are conditioned on the completion of an initial business combination. The fact that the underwriters’ or their respective affiliates’ financial interests tied to the consummation of a business combination transaction may give rise to potential conflicts of interest in providing any such additional services to us, including potential conflicts of interest in connection with the sourcing and consummation of an initial business combination.

 

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Resources could be wasted in researching acquisitions that are not completed, which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we do not 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 do not 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 may issue notes or other debt securities, or otherwise incur substantial debt, to complete a business combination, which may adversely affect our leverage and financial condition and thus negatively impact the value of our stockholders' investment in us.

 

Although we have no commitments as of the date of this prospectus to issue any notes or other debt securities, or to otherwise incur outstanding debt following this offering, 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:

 

• default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after an initial business combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations;

 

• acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant;

 

• our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt security is payable on demand;

 

• our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt security contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt security is outstanding;

 

• our inability to pay dividends on our Class A common stock;

 

• using a substantial portion of our cash flow to pay principal and interest on our debt, which will reduce the funds available for dividends on our Class A common stock if declared, our ability to pay expenses, make capital expenditures and acquisitions and fund other general corporate purposes;

 

• limitations on our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in our business and in the industry in which we operate;

 

• increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation; and

 

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• limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements and execution of our strategy and other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt.

 

We may only be able to complete one business combination with the proceeds of this 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 negatively impact our operations and profitability.

 

Of the net proceeds from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, $193,000,000 (or $221,950,000 if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full) will be available to complete our business combination and pay related fees and expenses (which excludes up to $7,000,000 (or $8,050,000 if the over-allotment option is exercised in full), of deferred underwriting commissions being held in the trust account and the estimated expenses of this offering).

 

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:

 

• solely dependent upon the performance of a single business, property or asset; or

 

• dependent upon the development or market acceptance of a single or limited number of products, processes or services.

 

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 negatively 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 (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.

 

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 acquisition strategy, we may seek to effectuate our initial business combination with a privately held company. By definition, 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.

 

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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 do not agree.

 

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will not provide a specified maximum redemption threshold, except that we will only redeem our public shares so long as (after redemption) our net tangible assets will be at least $5,000,001 either immediately prior to or upon consummation of our initial business combination, after payment of the deferred underwriting commission (such that we are not subject to the SEC's "penny stock" rules) or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement which may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination. 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 business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, have entered into privately negotiated agreements to sell their shares to our sponsor, officers, directors, advisors or any of their affiliates. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all shares of our 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, all shares of our 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, blank check companies have, in the recent 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, blank check companies have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. For example, blank check companies have amended the definition of business combination, increased redemption thresholds, changed industry focus 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 60% of our common stock, and amending our warrant agreement will require a vote of holders of at least 50% of the public warrants. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will require 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 that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering or with respect to any other provisions relating to stockholders' rights or pre-initial business combination activity. To the extent any of such amendments would be deemed to fundamentally change the nature of any 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.

 

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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 at least 60% of our common stock, which is a lower amendment threshold than that of some other blank check 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.

 

Some other blank check companies have a provision in their charter which prohibits the amendment of certain of its provisions, including those which relate to a company's pre-business combination activity, without approval by a certain percentage of the company's stockholders. In those companies, amendment of these provisions typically requires approval by 90% of the company's stockholders attending and voting at an annual meeting. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that any of its provisions related to pre-business combination activity (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of this 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 herein) may be amended if approved by holders of 60% 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 at least 60% of our common stock entitled to vote thereon. In all other instances, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation may be amended by holders of a majority of our outstanding shares of common stock entitled to vote thereon, subject to applicable provisions of the DGCL or applicable stock exchange rules. Our sponsor and its permitted transferees, if any, who will collectively beneficially own, on an as converted basis, 20% of our Class A common stock upon the closing of this offering (assuming they do not purchase any units in this offering), will 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 blank check 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 a written agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that would affect the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, 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 and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, if any (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses) divided by the number of then outstanding public shares. These agreements are contained in letter agreements that we have entered into with our sponsor, directors and each member of our management team. 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.

 

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. If we do not 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.

 

Although we believe that the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants will be sufficient to allow us to complete our initial business combination, because we have not yet selected any prospective target business we cannot ascertain the capital requirements for any particular transaction. If the net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants prove to be insufficient, either because of the size of our initial business combination, the depletion of the available net proceeds in search of a target business, the obligation to redeem for cash a significant number of shares from stockholders who elect redemption in connection with our initial business combination or the terms of negotiated transactions to purchase shares in connection with our initial business combination, we may be required to seek additional financing or to abandon the proposed business combination. We cannot assure you that such financing will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. The current economic environment may make it difficult for companies to obtain acquisition financing. 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 business combination and seek an alternative target business candidate. If we do not 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 not previously released to us to pay our taxes on the liquidation of our trust account, 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. If we do not complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may only receive approximately $10.00 per share on the liquidation of our trust account, and our warrants will expire worthless.

 

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Our sponsor controls 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.

 

Upon closing of this offering, our sponsor will own, on an as-converted basis, 20% of our issued and outstanding Class A common stock (assuming they do not purchase any units in this offering). 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 sponsor purchases any units in this offering or if our sponsor purchases any additional shares of our Class A common stock in the aftermarket or in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase their control. Neither our sponsor nor, to our knowledge, any of our officers or directors, have any current intention to purchase additional securities, other than as disclosed in this prospectus. 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 three classes, each of which will generally serve for a terms for three years with only 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 sponsor, because of its ownership position, will have considerable influence regarding the outcome. In addition, prior to the completion of an initial business combination, holders of a majority of our founder shares may remove a member of the board of directors for any reason. Accordingly, our sponsor will continue to exert control at least until the completion of our initial business combination.

 

Our warrants and founder shares may have an adverse effect on the market price of the shares of our Class A common stock and make it more difficult to effectuate our initial business combination.

 

We will be issuing warrants to purchase 10,000,000 of our Class A common stock (or up to 11,500,000 shares of our Class A common stock if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full) as part of the units offered by this prospectus and, simultaneously with the closing of this offering, we will be issuing in a private placement an aggregate of 6,750,000 private placement warrants (or up to 7,350,000 private placement warrants if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full), each exercisable to purchase one share of our Class A common stock at $11.50 per share. Our sponsor currently owns an aggregate of 5,750,000 founder shares. The founder shares are convertible into Class A common stock on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment as set forth herein. In addition, if our sponsor makes any working capital loans, up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be converted into warrants, at the price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period. Our public warrants are also redeemable by us for shares of our Class A common stock as described in "Description of Securities—Warrants—Redemption of Warrants When the Price per Share of Our Class A Common Stock Equals or Exceeds $10.00."

 

To the extent we issue Class A common stock for any reason, including to effectuate a business combination, the potential for the issuance of a substantial number of additional shares of our Class A common stock upon exercise of these warrants and conversion rights 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 our Class A common stock and reduce the value of the Class A common stock issued to complete the business transaction. Therefore, our warrants and founder shares may make it more difficult to effectuate a business transaction or increase the cost of acquiring the target business.

 

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The private placement warrants are identical to the warrants sold as part of the units in this offering except that, so long as they are held by our sponsor or its permitted transferees, (i) they will not be redeemable by us (except as described under “Description of Securities—Warrants—Redemption of Warrants When the Price per Class A Common Stock Equals or Exceeds $10.00”), (ii) they (including the shares of our Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of these warrants) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by our sponsor until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, (iii) they may be exercised by the holders on a cashless basis and (iv) are subject to registration rights.

 

A provision of our warrant agreement may make it more difficult for us to complete an initial business combination.

 

Unlike most blank check companies, if (i) we issue additional common stock or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of our initial business combination at a Newly Issued Price of less than $9.20 per common stock, (ii) the aggregate gross proceeds from such issuances represent more than 60% of the total equity proceeds, and interest thereon, available for the funding of our initial business combination on the date of the completion of our initial business combination (net of redemptions), and (iii) the Market Value is below $9.20 per share, then the exercise price of the warrants will be adjusted to be equal to 115% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, and the $10.00 and $18.00 per share redemption trigger prices will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 100% and 180% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, respectively. This may make it more difficult for us to complete an initial business combination with a 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 a proxy statement with respect to a vote on a business combination meeting certain financial significance tests include historical and/or pro forma financial statement disclosure in periodic reports. 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 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.

 

Risks Relating to Potential Conflicts

 

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, including, without limitation, those described under the section of this prospectus entitled "Management—Conflicts of Interest." Our directors and officers, form or participate in other blank check companies similar to ours during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. 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 a business combination as set forth in the section of this prospectus entitled "Proposed Business—Evaluation of a Target Business and Structuring of 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 an independent accounting firm, 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.

 

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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 this offering), a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination.

 

On January 15, 2021, our sponsor purchased 5,750,000 founder shares for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000, or approximately $0.004 per share. Prior to the initial investment in the company of $25,000 by our sponsor, the company had no assets, tangible or intangible. The number of founder shares issued was determined based on the expectation that such founder shares would represent 20% of the outstanding shares after this offering. The founder shares will be worthless if we do not complete an initial business combination. In addition, our sponsor has committed, pursuant to a written agreement, to purchase an aggregate of 6,750,000 private placement warrants (or 7,350,000 private placement warrants if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full), each exercisable to purchase one share of our Class A common stock at $11.50 per share, for a purchase price of $6,750,000 (or $7,350,000 if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full), or $1.00 per whole warrant, that will also be worthless if we do not complete a business combination. Holders of founder shares have agreed (A) to vote any shares owned by them in favor of any proposed business combination and (B) not to redeem any founder shares in connection with a stockholder vote to approve a proposed initial business combination. In addition, we may obtain loans from our sponsor, affiliates of our sponsor or an officer or director, and we may pay our sponsor, officers, directors and any of their respective affiliates fees and expenses in connection with identifying, investigating and completing an initial business combination.

 

The personal and financial interests of our executive officers and directors may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business combination, completing an 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 this 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 our share price, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.

 

Even if we conduct due diligence on a target business with which we combine, we cannot assure you that this diligence will surface all material issues 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 post-combination debt financing. Accordingly, any stockholders who choose to remain stockholders following the business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders 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.

 

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Our management may not be able to maintain control of a target business after our initial business combination. Upon the loss of control of a target business, new management may not 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 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 our initial 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 our Class A common stock in exchange for all of the outstanding capital stock, shares or other equity interests 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 our Class A common stock, our stockholders immediately prior to such transaction could own less than a majority of our issued and 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.

 

We may seek business combination opportunities with a high degree of complexity that require significant operational improvements, which could delay or prevent us from achieving our desired results.

 

We may seek business combination opportunities with large, highly complex companies that we believe would benefit from operational improvements. While we intend to implement such improvements, to the extent that our efforts are delayed or we are unable to achieve the desired improvements, the business combination may not be as successful as we anticipate.

 

To the extent we complete our initial business combination with a large complex business or entity with a complex operating structure, we may also be affected by numerous risks inherent in the operations of the business with which we combine, which could delay or prevent us from implementing our strategy. Although our management team will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business and its operations, we may not be able to properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors until we complete our business combination. If we are not able to achieve our desired operational improvements, or the improvements take longer to implement than anticipated, we may not achieve the gains that we anticipate. Furthermore, some of these risks and complexities may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks and complexities will adversely impact a target business. Such combination may not be as successful as a combination with a smaller, less complex organization.

 

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Risks Relating to Our Management Team

 

We may seek acquisition opportunities in industries or sectors which may or may not be outside of our management's area of expertise.

 

We will consider a business combination outside of our management's area of expertise if a business combination candidate is presented to us and we determine that such candidate offers an attractive acquisition 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 investors in this offering than a direct investment, if an opportunity were available, in a business combination candidate. In the event we elect to pursue an acquisition 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 prospectus 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 adequately ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors. Accordingly, any stockholder who choose to remain stockholders following our 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 ability to successfully effect our initial business combination and to be successful thereafter will be totally 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 negatively 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, director 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.

 

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 his or her fiduciary duties under Delaware law. However, we believe the ability of such individuals to remain with us after the completion of our business combination will not be the determining factor in our decision as to whether or not we will proceed with any potential business combination. There is no certainty, however, that any of our key personnel will remain with us after the completion of our business combination. We cannot assure you that any of our key personnel will remain in senior management or advisory positions with us. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with us will be made at the time of our initial business combination. In addition, pursuant to an agreement to be entered into concurrently with the issuance and sale of the securities in this offering, our sponsor, upon completion of an initial business combination, will be entitled to nominate three individuals for election to our board of directors, as long as our sponsor holds any securities covered by the registration and stockholder rights agreement.

 

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We may have a limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and, as a result, may affect 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 negatively impacted. Accordingly, any stockholders who choose to remain stockholders following the 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 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.

 

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 negatively 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 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 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 and directors is engaged in several other business endeavors for which he may be entitled to substantial compensation, and our executive officers and directors 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. For a complete discussion of our executive officers' and directors' other business affairs, please see the section of this prospectus entitled "Management—Officers, Directors and Director Nominees."

 

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Our officers and directors presently have, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities, including another blank check company, and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in allocating their time and determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.

 

Following the completion of this offering and until we complete 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, subject to his or her fiduciary duties under Delaware law. 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, subject to their fiduciary duties under Delaware law. However, we do not believe that any potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to complete our initial business combination.

 

In addition, our directors and officers may in the future become affiliated with other blank check companies that may have acquisition objectives that are similar to ours. 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 such other blank check companies prior to its presentation to us, subject to our officers' and directors' fiduciary duties under Delaware law. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that we renounce our interest in any business combination 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 it is an opportunity that we are able to complete on a reasonable basis.

 

For a complete discussion of our executive officers' and directors' business affiliations and the potential conflicts of interest that you should be aware of, please see the sections of this prospectus entitled "Management—Officers, Directors and Director Nominees," "Management—Conflicts of Interest" and "Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions."

 

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 a 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, including the formation or participation in one or more other blank check companies. Accordingly, such persons or entities may have a conflict between their interests and ours.

 

The personal and financial interests of our directors and officers may influence their motivation in timely identifying and selecting a target business and completing a 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. See the section titled "Description of Securities—Certain Differences in Corporate Law—Stockholders' Suits" for further information on the ability to bring such claims. However, we might not ultimately be successful in any claim we may make against them for such reason.

 

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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) our completion of an initial business combination, and then only in connection with those shares of our Class A common stock that such stockholder properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations described herein, (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering or (B) with respect to any other provisions relating to the rights of our Class A common stock, and (iii) the redemption of our public shares if we have not completed an initial business within 24 months from the closing of this offering, subject to applicable law and as further described herein. Public stockholders who redeem their Class A common stock in connection with a stockholder vote described in clause (ii) in the preceding sentence shall not be entitled to funds from the trust account upon the subsequent completion of an initial business combination or liquidation if have not completed an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, with respect to such Class A common stock so redeemed. In addition, if we do not complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this 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 this 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.

 

We intend to apply to have our units listed on the Nasdaq on or promptly after the date of this prospectus and our Class A common stock and warrants listed on or promptly after their date of separation. Although after giving effect to this offering we expect to meet, on a pro forma basis, the minimum initial listing standards set forth in the Nasdaq listing standards, we cannot assure you that our securities will be, or will continue to be, listed on the Nasdaq in the future or prior to our initial business combination. In order to continue listing our securities on the Nasdaq prior to our initial business combination, we must maintain certain financial, distribution and share price levels. Generally, we must maintain a minimum amount in stockholders' equity (generally $2,500,000) and a minimum number of holders of our securities (generally 300 public holders).

 

Additionally, our units will not be traded after completion of our initial business combination and, in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with the Nasdaq's initial listing requirements, which are more rigorous than the Nasdaq's continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities on the Nasdaq. For instance, our share price would generally be required to be at least $4.00 per share and our stockholders' equity would generally be required to be at least $5.0 million and we would be required to have a minimum of 300 round lot holders (with at least 50% of such round lot holders holding securities with a market value of at least $2,500). We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time.

 

If the 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:

 

a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;

 

reduced liquidity for our securities;

 

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a determination that our Class A common stock are a "penny stock" which will require brokers trading in our Class A common stock to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our securities;

 

a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and

 

a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.

 

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 we expect that our units and eventually our Class A common stock and warrants will be listed on the Nasdaq, our units, Class A common stock and warrants will qualify as covered securities under the statute. 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, 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 the Nasdaq, our securities would not qualify as covered securities under the statute, and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities.

 

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, and such registration may not be in place when an investor desires to exercise warrants, thus precluding such investor from being able to exercise its warrants except on a cashless basis and potentially causing such warrants to expire worthless.

 

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 to use our commercially reasonable efforts to file a registration statement under the Securities Act covering such shares and 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 our Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act, we will be required to permit holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis, in which case the number of shares of our Class A common stock that you will receive upon cashless exercise will be based on a formula subject to a maximum number of shares equal to 0.361 shares of our Class A common stock per warrant (subject to adjustment).

 

However, no such warrant will 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, unless an exemption from state registration is available.

 

Notwithstanding the above, if the shares of our Class A common stock are at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that it satisfies the definition of a "covered security" under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, we may, at our 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 we so elect, we will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, but we will be required to use our commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available.

 

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In no event will we be required to net cash settle any warrant, or issue securities 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 and there is no exemption available. If the issuance of the shares upon exercise of the warrants is not so registered or qualified or exempt from registration or qualification, the holder of such warrant will not be entitled to exercise such warrant and such warrant 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 shares of our Class A common stock included in the units. There may be a circumstance where an exemption from registration exists for holders of our private placement warrants to exercise their warrants while a corresponding exemption does not exist for holders of the warrants included as part of units sold in this offering. In such an instance, our sponsor and its permitted transferees (which may include our directors and executive officers) would be able to sell the common stock underlying their warrants while holders of our public warrants would not be able to exercise their warrants and sell the underlying common stock. There may be a circumstance where an exemption from registration exists for holders of our private placement warrants to exercise their warrants while a corresponding exemption does not exist for holders of the warrants included as part of units sold in this offering. In such an instance, our sponsor and its permitted transferees (which may include our directors and executive officers) would be able to sell the shares of common stock underlying their warrants while holders of our public warrants would not be able to exercise their warrants and sell the underlying shares of common stock. 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.

 

Our ability to require holders of our warrants to exercise such warrants on a cashless basis after we call the warrants for redemption or if there is no effective registration statement covering the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of these warrants will cause holders to receive fewer shares of our Class A common stock upon their exercise of the warrants than they would have received had they been able to pay the exercise price of their warrants in cash.

 

If we call the warrants for redemption, we will have the option, in our sole discretion, to require all holders that wish to exercise warrants to do so on a cashless basis in the circumstances described in "Description of Securities—Warrants—Redemption of Warrants When the Price per Class A Common stock Equals or Exceeds $10.00". If we choose to require holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis or if holders elect to do so when there is no effective registration statement, the number of shares of our Class A common stock received by a holder upon exercise will be fewer than it would have been had such holder exercised his or her warrant for cash. For example, if the holder is exercising 875 public warrants at $11.50 per share through a cashless exercise when the Class A common stock have a fair market value of $17.50 per share when there is no effective registration statement, then upon the cashless exercise, the holder will receive 300 shares of our Class A common stock. The holder would have received 875 shares of our Class A common stock if the exercise price was paid in cash. This will have the effect of reducing the potential "upside" of the holder's investment in our company because the warrant holder will hold a smaller number of shares of our Class A common stock upon a cashless exercise of the warrants they hold.

 

The warrants may become exercisable and redeemable for a security other than the Class A common stock, and you will not have any information regarding such other security at this time.

 

In certain situations, including if we are not the surviving entity in our initial business combination, the warrants may become exercisable for a security other than the Class A common stock. As a result, if the surviving company redeems your warrants for securities pursuant to the warrant agreement, you may receive a security in a company of which you do not have information at this time. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, the surviving company will be required to use commercially reasonable efforts to register the issuance of the security underlying the warrants within twenty business days of the closing of an initial business combination.

 

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We may issue additional shares of our Class A common stock or 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 our 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 will authorize the issuance of up to 100,000,000 shares of our Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, 10,000,000 shares of our Class B common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, and 1,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value $0.0001 per share. Immediately after this offering, there will be 80,000,000 and 5,000,000 (assuming in each case that the underwriters have not exercised their over-allotment option) authorized but unissued shares of our 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 exercise of outstanding warrants or shares issuable upon conversion of the Class B common stock, if any. The Class B common stock is automatically convertible into Class A common stock at the time of our initial business combination as described herein and in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. Immediately after this offering, there will be no shares of preferred stock issued and outstanding.

 

We may issue a substantial number of additional shares of our 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. The number of authorized shares of the Class A common stock or preferred stock may be increased or decreased (but not below the number of shares thereof then outstanding) by the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority in voting power of the stock of the corporation entitled to vote thereon irrespective of the provisions of Section 242(b)(2) of the DGCL (or any successor provision thereto), and no vote of the holders of any of the Class A common stock or the preferred stock voting separately as a class shall be required therefor, unless a vote of any such holder is required pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (including any certificate of designation relating to any series of preferred stock). The holders of Class B common stock are entitled to vote as a separate class to increase the authorized number of shares of Class B common stock.

 

We may also issue Class A common stock to redeem the warrants as described in "Description of Securities—Warrants—Redemption of Warrants When the Price per Share of Our Class A Common Stock Equals or Exceeds $10.00" or 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 contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. However, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide, among other things, that prior to or in connection with 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 on any initial business combination or on any other proposal presented to stockholders prior to or in connection with the completion of an initial business combination. 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:

 

may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in this offering;

 

may subordinate the rights of holders of our Class A common stock if share of preferred stock are issued with rights senior to those afforded our Class A common stock;

 

could cause a change in control if a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock is issued, which may affect, among other things, our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards, if any, and could result in the resignation or removal of our present officers and directors;

 

may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our units, Class A common stock and/or warrants; and

 

will not result in adjustment to the exercise price of our warrants.

 

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Unlike most other similarly structured blank check companies, our initial stockholders will receive additional shares of our Class A common stock if we issue shares to complete an initial business combination.

 

The founder shares will automatically convert into shares of our Class A common stock on the first business day following the completion of our initial business combination at a ratio such that the number of shares of our 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 our Class A common stock issued and outstanding upon completion of this offering, plus (ii) the sum of (a) the total number of shares of our 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 completion of the initial business combination, excluding any shares of our Class A common stock or equity-linked securities exercisable for or convertible into shares of our 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 upon conversion of working capital loans. In no event will the shares of our Class B common stock convert into shares of our Class A common stock at a rate of less than one to one. This is different than most other similarly structured blank check companies in which our sponsor will only be issued an aggregate of 20% of the total number of shares to be outstanding prior to the initial business combination.

 

Our sponsor paid an aggregate of $25,000, or approximately $0.004 per founder share, and, accordingly, you will experience immediate and substantial dilution from the purchase of the shares of our Class A common stock.

 

The difference between the public offering price per share (allocating all of the unit purchase price to the share of our Class A common stock and none to the one-half of a warrant included in the unit) and the pro forma net tangible book value per share of our Class A common stock after this offering constitutes the dilution to you and the other investors in this offering. Our sponsor acquired the founder shares at a nominal price, significantly contributing to this dilution. Upon closing of this offering, and assuming no value is ascribed to the warrants included in the units, you and the other public stockholders will incur an immediate and substantial dilution of approximately 91.8% (or $9.18 per share, assuming no exercise of the underwriters' over-allotment option), the difference between the pro forma net tangible book value per share of 0.82 and the initial offering price of $10.00 per unit. This dilution would increase to the extent that the anti-dilution provisions of the founder shares result in the issuance of shares of our 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 50% 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 our 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 for the purpose of (i) curing any ambiguity or correct any mistake, including to conform the provisions of the warrant agreement to the description of the terms of the warrants and the warrant agreement set forth in this prospectus, or defective provision (ii) amending the provisions relating to cash dividends on common stock as contemplated by and in accordance with the warrant agreement or (iii) adding or changing any provisions with respect to matters or questions arising under the warrant agreement as the parties to the warrant agreement may deem necessary or desirable and that the parties deem to not adversely affect the rights of the registered holders of the warrants, provided that the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then-outstanding public warrants is required 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 50% 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 50% 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, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of shares of our Class A common stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.

 

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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 the outstanding warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant, if, among other things, the Reference Value equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like). Please see "Description of Securities—Warrants—Redemption of Warrants When the Price per Class A Common stock Equals or Exceeds $18.00." 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 as described above 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, we expect would be substantially less than the Market Value of your warrants. None of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us (except as described below under "Description of Securities—Warrants—Redemption of Warrants When the Price per Class A Common Stock Equals or Exceeds $10.00") so long as they are held by our sponsor or its permitted transferees.

 

In addition, we have the ability to redeem the outstanding warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.10 per warrant if, among other things, the Reference Value equals or exceeds $10.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, rights issuances, subdivisions, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like). In such a case, the holders will be able to exercise their warrants prior to redemption for a number of shares of our Class A common stock determined based on the redemption date and the fair market value of our Class A common stock. Please see "Description of Securities—Warrants—Redemption of Warrants When the Price per Share of Our Class A Common Stock Equals or Exceeds $10.00." The value received upon exercise of the warrants (1) may be less than the value the holders would have received if they had exercised their warrants at a later time where the underlying share price is higher and (2) may not compensate the holders for the value of the warrants, including because the number of common stock received is capped at 0.361 shares of our Class A common stock per warrant (subject to adjustment) irrespective of the remaining life of the warrants.

 

Because each unit contains one-half of one warrant and only a whole warrant may be exercised, the units may be worth less than units of other blank check companies.

 

Each unit contains one-half 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 our 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 third 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.

 

The determination of the offering price of our units and the size of this offering is more arbitrary than the pricing of securities and size of an offering of an operating company in a particular industry. You may have less assurance, therefore, that the offering price of our units properly reflects the value of such units than you would have in a typical offering of an operating company.

 

Prior to this offering there has been no public market for any of our securities. The public offering price of the units and the terms of the warrants were negotiated between us and the underwriters. In determining the size of this offering, management held customary organizational meetings with the underwriters, both prior to our inception and thereafter, with respect to the state of capital markets, generally, and the amount the underwriters believed they

reasonably could raise on our behalf. Factors considered in determining the size of this offering, prices and terms of the units, including the Class A common stock and warrants underlying the units, include:

 

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  the history and prospects of companies whose principal business is the acquisition of other companies;

 

  prior offerings of those companies;

 

  our prospects for acquiring an operating business at attractive values;

 

  a review of debt to equity ratios in leveraged transactions;

 

  our capital structure;

 

  an assessment of our management and their experience in identifying operating companies;

 

  general conditions of the securities markets at the time of this offering; and

 

  other factors as were deemed relevant.

 

Although these factors were considered, the determination of our offering price is more arbitrary than the pricing of securities of an operating company in a particular industry since we have no historical operations or financial results.

 

There is currently no market for our securities and a market for our securities may not develop, which would adversely affect the liquidity and price of our securities.

 

There is currently no market for our securities. Stockholders therefore have no access to information about prior market history on which to base their investment decision. Following this offering, 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 never develop or, if developed, it may not be sustained. You may be unable to sell your securities unless a market can be established and sustained.

 

General Risks

 

We are a recently incorporated 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 recently incorporated company incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware with no operating results, and we will not commence operations until obtaining funding through this offering. 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 with one or more target businesses. 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 do not complete our initial business combination, we will never generate any operating revenues.

 

Our independent registered public accounting firm's report contains an explanatory paragraph that expresses substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a "going concern."

 

As of January 25, 2021, we had $25,000 in cash and a working capital deficiency of $18,500. Further, we have incurred and expect to continue to incur significant costs in pursuit of an initial business combination. Management's plans to address this need for capital through this offering are discussed in the section of this prospectus titled "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations." We cannot assure you that our plans to raise capital or to consummate an initial business combination will be successful. These factors, among others, raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. The financial statements contained elsewhere in this prospectus do not include any adjustments that might result from our inability to consummate this offering or our inability to continue as a going concern.

 

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Past performance by entities managed by our founders, advisors, and their affiliates (including our management team), including the businesses referred to herein, may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us or in the future performance of any business that we may acquire.

 

Information regarding past performance of investments made by our management team or advisors is presented for informational purposes only. Any past experience and performance of our management team, advisors or the other companies referred to herein is not a guarantee either: (1) that we will be able to successfully identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination or (2) of any results with respect to any initial business combination we may complete. You should not rely on the historical record of our management team's performance or the performance of the advisors or the other companies referred to herein as indicative of the future performance of an investment in us or the returns we will, or are likely to, generate going forward.

 

We are an emerging growth company within the meaning of the Securities Act, and if we take advantage of certain exemptions from disclosure requirements available to emerging growth 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 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 equals or exceeds $700.0 million as of any June 30th 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.

 

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 accountant standards used.

 

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Compliance obligations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may make it more difficult for us to effectuate a business combination, require substantial financial and management resources, and increase the time and costs of completing an acquisition.

 

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 acquisition.

 

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 shares of our Class A common stock and could entrench management.

 

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will contain provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that stockholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions will 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, and the fact that prior to the completion of our initial business combination only holders of shares of our Class B common stock, which have been issued to our sponsor, are entitled to vote on the appointment of directors, 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.

 

Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and Delaware law may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers.

 

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will require, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, that (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any director, officer or other employee to us or our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim against us, our directors, officers or employees arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL or our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or amended and restated bylaws, or (iv) any action asserting a claim against us, our directors, officers or employees governed by the internal affairs doctrine may be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware, except any claim (A) as to which the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware determines that there is an indispensable party not subject to the jurisdiction of the Court of 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, (C) for which the Court of Chancery does not have subject matter jurisdiction, or (D) any action arising under the Securities Act, as to which the Court of Chancery and the federal district court for the District of Delaware shall have concurrent jurisdiction. If an action is brought outside of Delaware, the stockholder bringing the suit will be deemed to have consented to service of process on such stockholder's counsel. Although we believe this provision benefits us by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law in the types of lawsuits to which it applies, a court may determine that this provision is unenforceable, and to the extent it is enforceable, the provision may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers, although our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.

 

Notwithstanding the foregoing, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that the exclusive forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. 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. Although we believe this provision benefits us by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law in the types of lawsuits to which it applies, the provision may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers.

 

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Our warrant agreement will designate 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 will provide 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.

 

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.

 

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Since only holders of our founder shares will have the right to vote on the appointment of directors, upon the listing of our shares on the Nasdaq, the Nasdaq may consider us to be a 'controlled company' within the meaning of the Nasdaq rules and, as a result, we may qualify for exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements.

 

After completion of this offering, only holders of our founder shares will have the right to vote on the appointment of directors. As a result, the Nasdaq may consider us to be a 'controlled company' within the meaning of the Nasdaq corporate governance standards. Under the Nasdaq corporate governance standards, a company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by an individual, group or another company is a 'controlled company' and may elect not to comply with certain corporate governance requirements, including the requirements that:

 

we have a board that includes a majority of 'independent directors,' as defined under the rules of the Nasdaq and subject to applicable phase-in rules;

 

we have a compensation committee of our board that is comprised entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee's purpose and responsibilities; and

 

we have a nominating and corporate governance committee of our board that is comprised entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee's purpose and responsibilities.

 

We do not intend to utilize these exemptions and intend to comply with the corporate governance requirements of the Nasdaq, subject to applicable phase-in rules. However, if we determine in the future to utilize some or all of these exemptions, you will not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the Nasdaq corporate governance requirements.

 

We would be subject to a second level of U.S. federal income tax on a portion of our income if we are determined to be a personal holding company (a "PHC"), for U.S. federal income tax purposes.

 

A U.S. corporation generally will be classified as a PHC for U.S. federal income tax purposes in a given taxable year if (i) at any time during the last half of such taxable year, five or fewer individuals (without regard to their citizenship or residency and including as individuals for this purpose certain entities such as certain tax exempt organizations, pension funds and charitable trusts) own or are deemed to own (pursuant to certain constructive ownership rules) more than 50% of the stock of the corporation by value and (ii) at least 60% of the corporation's adjusted ordinary gross income, as determined for U.S. federal income tax purposes, for such taxable year consists of PHC income (which includes, among other things, dividends, interest, certain royalties, annuities and, under certain circumstances, rents).

 

Depending on the date and size of our initial business combination, it is possible that at least 60% of our adjusted ordinary gross income may consist of PHC income as discussed above. In addition, depending on the concentration of our stock in the hands of individuals, including the members of our sponsor and certain tax exempt organizations, pension funds and charitable trusts, it is possible that more than 50% of our stock may be owned or deemed owned (pursuant to the constructive ownership rules) by such persons during the last half of a taxable year. Thus, no assurance can be given that we will not become a PHC following this offering or in the future. If we are or were to become a PHC in a given taxable year, we would be subject to an additional PHC tax, currently 20%, on our undistributed PHC income, which generally includes our taxable income, subject to certain adjustments.

 

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 negatively 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.

 

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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:

 

costs and difficulties inherent in managing cross-border business operations and complying with different commercial and legal requirements of overseas markets;

 

rules and regulations regarding currency redemption;

 

complex corporate withholding taxes on individuals;

 

laws governing the manner in which future business combinations may be effected;

 

exchange listing and/or delisting requirements;

 

tariffs and trade barriers;

 

regulations related to customs and import/export matters;

 

local or regional economic policies and market conditions;

 

unexpected changes in regulatory requirements;

 

longer payment cycles;

 

tax issues, such as tax law changes and variations in tax laws as compared to the United States;

 

currency fluctuations and exchange controls;

 

rates of inflation;

 

challenges in collecting accounts receivable;

 

cultural and language differences;

 

employment regulations;

 

underdeveloped or unpredictable legal or regulatory systems;

 

corruption;

 

protection of intellectual property;

 

social unrest, crime, strikes, riots and civil disturbances;

 

regime changes and political upheaval;

 

terrorist attacks, natural disasters and wars;

 

deterioration of political relations with the United States; and

 

government appropriation of assets.

 

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 combination, our operations might suffer, either of which may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

 

Some of the statements contained in this prospectus may constitute "forward-looking statements" for purposes of the federal securities laws. Our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our or our management team'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," "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 prospectus may include, for example, statements about:

 

our ability to complete our initial business combination;

 

disruptions to our planned initial business combination efforts that may result from limitations imposed by the COVID-19 outbreak;

 

our success in retaining or recruiting, or changes required in, our officers, key employees or directors following our initial business combination;

 

our officers and directors allocating their time to other businesses and potentially having conflicts of interest with our business or in approving our initial business combination;

 

our potential ability to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination;

 

our pool of prospective target businesses;

 

the ability of our officers and directors to generate a number of potential investment opportunities;

 

our public securities' potential liquidity and trading;

 

the lack of a market for our securities;

 

the use of proceeds not held in the trust account or available to us from interest income on the trust account balance;

 

the trust account not being subject to claims of third parties; or

 

our financial performance following this offering.

 

The forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on us. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting us will 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 under the section of this prospectus entitled "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.

 

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USE OF PROCEEDS

 

We are offering 20,000,000 units at an offering price of $10.00 per unit. We estimate that the net proceeds of this offering together with the funds we will receive from the sale of the private placement warrants will be used as set forth in the following table:

 

  Without Over-
Allotment Option
  Over-Allotment
Option Fully
Exercised
Gross proceeds          
Gross proceeds from units offered to public(1)  $200,000,000   $230,000,000 
Gross proceeds from private placement warrants offered in the private placement   6,750,000    7,350,000 
Total gross proceeds  $206,750,000   $237,350,000 
Estimated Offering expenses(2)          
Underwriting commissions (2% of gross proceeds from units offered to public, excluding deferred portion)(3)  $4,000,000   $4,600,000 
Legal fees and expenses   300,000    300,000 
Printing and engraving expenses   40,000    40,000 
Accounting fees and expenses   35,000    35,000 
SEC/FINRA Expenses   60,093    60,093 
Travel and road show   15,000    15,000 
Nasdaq listing and filing fees   75,000    75,000 
Director and Officer liability insurance premiums   1,100,000    1,100,000 
Miscellaneous   124,907    124,907 
Total offering expenses (excluding underwriting commissions)  $1,750,000   $1,750,000 
Proceeds after offering expenses  $201,000,000   $231,000,000 
Held in trust account(3)  $200,000,000   $230,000,000 
% of public offering size   100%   100%
Not held in trust account after offering expenses  $1,000,000   $1,000,000 

 

The following table shows the use of the approximately $1,000,000 of net proceeds not held in the trust account.(4)(5)

 

   Amount   % of
Total
 
Legal, accounting, due diligence, travel and other expenses in connection with any business combination(6)  $300,000    30.0%
Legal and accounting fees related to regulatory reporting obligations   100,000    10.0%
Payment for office space and administrative support services ($10,000 per month for up to 24 months)  $240,000    24.0%
Consulting, travel and miscellaneous expenses incurred during search for initial business combination target   100,000    10.0%
Working capital to cover miscellaneous expenses (including franchise taxes net of anticipated interest income)   260,000    26.0%
Total  $1,000,000    100.0%

 

 

(1)Includes amounts payable to public stockholders who properly redeem their shares in connection with our successful completion of our initial business combination.

 

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(2)A portion of the offering expenses will be paid from the proceeds of loans from our sponsor. These funds will be reimbursed up to $300,000 as described in this prospectus. As of January 25, 2021, we had borrowed $42,500 under the promissory note with our sponsor to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. The loan will be repaid upon completion of this offering out of the $1,750,000 of offering proceeds that has been allocated for the payment of offering expenses (other than underwriting commissions) and amounts not to be held in the trust account. In the event that offering expenses are less than set forth in this table, any such amounts will be used for post-closing working capital expenses. In the event that the offering expenses are more than as set forth in this table, we may fund such excess with funds not held in the trust account.

 

(3)The underwriters have agreed to defer underwriting commissions of 3.5% of the gross proceeds of this offering. Upon and concurrently with the completion of our initial business combination, $7,000,000, which constitutes the underwriters' deferred commissions (or $8,050,000 if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full) will be paid to the underwriters from the funds held in the trust account, see "Underwriting." The remaining funds, less amounts released to the trustee to pay redeeming stockholders will be released to us and can be used to pay all or a portion of the purchase price of the business or businesses with which our initial business combination occurs or for general corporate purposes, including payment of principal or interest on indebtedness incurred in connection with our initial business combination, to fund the purchases of other companies or for working capital. The underwriters will not be entitled to any interest accrued on the deferred underwriting discounts and commissions.

 

(4)These expenses are estimates only. Our actual expenditures for some or all of these items may differ from the estimates set forth herein. For example, we may incur greater legal and accounting expenses than our current estimates in connection with negotiating and structuring our initial business combination based upon the level of complexity of such business combination. In the event we identify a business combination target in a specific industry subject to specific regulations, we may incur additional expenses associated with legal due diligence and the engagement of special legal counsel. In addition, our staffing needs may vary and as a result, we may engage a number of consultants to assist with due diligence. We do not anticipate any change in our intended use of proceeds, other than fluctuations among the current categories of allocated expenses, which fluctuations, to the extent they exceed current estimates for any specific category of expenses, would not be available for our expenses. The amount in the table above does not include interest available to us from the trust account. 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. Assuming an interest rate of 0.1% per year, we estimate the interest earned on the trust account will be approximately $200,000 per year; however, we can provide no assurances regarding this amount.

 

(5)Assumes no exercise of the underwriters' over-allotment option.

 

(6)Includes estimated amounts that may also be used in connection with our initial business combination to fund a "no shop" provision and commitment fees for financing.

 

Of the $206,750,000 in proceeds we receive from this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants described in this prospectus, or $237,350,000 if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full, $200,000,000 ($10.00 per unit), or $230,000,000 if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full ($10.00 per unit), will be deposited into a segregated trust account located in the United States at UBS Financial Services Inc., with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, acting as trustee, and $2,750,000 will be available be used to pay expenses in connection with the closing of this offering and for working capital following this offering. Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the trust account that may be released to us to pay our taxes, if any, the funds held in the trust account will not be released until the earliest to occur of: (a) the completion of our initial business combination; (b) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (i) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering or (ii) with respect to any other provisions relating to stockholders' rights or pre-initial business combination activity; and (c) the redemption of all of our public shares if we have not completed our business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering, subject to applicable law. Based on current interest rates, we expect that interest income earned on the trust account (if any) will be sufficient to pay our income and franchise taxes.

 

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The net proceeds held in the trust account may be used as consideration to pay the sellers of a target business with which we ultimately complete our initial business combination. If our initial business combination is paid for using equity or debt securities, or not all of the funds released from the trust account are used for payment of the consideration in connection with our initial business combination, we may apply the balance of the cash released from the trust account for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-transaction company, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing our initial business combination, to fund the purchase of other companies or for working capital. There is no limitation on our ability to raise funds privately or through loans in connection with our initial business combination.

 

We believe that amounts not held in trust, together with funds available to us from loans from our sponsor, will be sufficient to pay the costs and expenses to which such proceeds are allocated. This belief is based on the fact that while we may begin preliminary due diligence of a target business in connection with an indication of interest, we intend to undertake in-depth due diligence, depending on the circumstances of the relevant prospective acquisition, only after we have negotiated and signed a letter of intent or other preliminary agreement that addresses the terms of a business combination. However, if our estimate of the costs of undertaking in-depth due diligence and negotiating a business combination is less than the actual amount necessary to do so, we may be required to raise additional capital, the amount, availability and cost of which is currently unascertainable. If we are required to seek additional capital, we could seek such additional capital through loans or additional investments from our sponsor, members of our management team or their affiliates, but such persons are not under any obligation to advance funds to, or invest in, us.

 

We will reimburse our Sponsor a total of $10,000 per month for office space and administrative support services. Upon completion of our initial business combination or our liquidation, we will cease paying these monthly fees.

 

Prior to the closing of this offering, our sponsor has agreed to loan us up to $300,000 to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. As of January 25, 2021, we had borrowed $42,500 under the promissory note with our sponsor to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. This loan is non-interest bearing, unsecured and is due at the earlier of June 30, 2021 or the closing of this offering. The loan will be repaid upon the closing of this offering out of the $1,000,000 of offering proceeds not held in the trust account that has been allocated for the payment of offering expenses.

 

In addition, in order to finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required. If we complete our initial business combination, we would repay such loaned amounts out of the proceeds of the trust account released to us. Otherwise, such loans would be repaid only out of funds held outside the trust account. In the event that our 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 to repay such loaned amounts. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants of the post business combination entity, at a price of $1.00 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.

 

If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination. However, 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. If they engage in such transactions, they will not make any such purchases when they are in possession of any material non-public information not disclosed or if such subject to the going-private rules under the Exchange Act; however, if the purchasers determine at the time of any such purchases that the purchases are subject to such rules, the purchasers will comply with such rules.

 

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We will only redeem our public shares so long as (after redemption) our net tangible assets will be at least $5,000,001 either immediately prior to or upon consummation of our initial business combination, after payment of the deferred underwriting commission (so that we are not subject to the SEC's "penny stock" rules) and the agreement for our business combination may require as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. If too many public stockholders exercise their redemption rights so that we cannot satisfy the net tangible asset requirement or any net worth or cash requirements, we would not proceed with the redemption of our public shares or the business combination, and instead may search for an alternate business combination.

 

A public stockholder will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only upon the earliest to occur of: (a) our completion of an initial business combination, (b) the redemption of any public shares properly tendered in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (i) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of this offering or (ii) with respect to any other provisions relating to stockholders' rights or pre-initial business combination activity and (c) the redemption of our public shares if we have not completed our business combination within 24 months following the closing of this offering, subject to applicable law and as further described herein and any limitations (including but not limited to cash requirements) created by the terms of the proposed business combination. In no other circumstances will a public stockholder have any right or interest of any kind to or in the trust account.

 

Our sponsor, directors and each member of our management team have entered into a letter agreements with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and any public shares held by them in connection with the completion of our initial business combination. In addition, our sponsor has agreed to waive its rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares held by them if we do not complete our business combination within the prescribed time frame. However, if our sponsor or any of our officers, directors or affiliates acquires public shares in or after this offering, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame.

 

DIVIDEND POLICY

 

We have not paid any cash dividends on our 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 condition 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. If we increase the size of this offering, we will effect a stock capitalization or other appropriate mechanism immediately prior to the completion of this offering in such amount as to maintain the number of founder shares, on an as-converted basis, at 20% of our issued and outstanding shares of Class A common stock upon the completion of this offering. Further, if we incur any indebtedness in connection with our business combination, our ability to declare dividends may be limited by restrictive covenants we may agree to in connection therewith.

 

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DILUTION

 

The difference between the public offering price per share of Class A common stock, assuming no value is attributed to the warrants included in the units we are offering pursuant to this prospectus or the private placement warrants, and the pro forma net tangible book value per share of Class A common stock after this offering constitutes the dilution to investors in this offering. Such calculation does not reflect any dilution associated with the sale and exercise of warrants, including the private placement warrants, which would cause the actual dilution to the public stockholders to be higher, particularly where a cashless exercise is utilized. Net tangible book value per share is determined by dividing our net tangible book value, which is our total tangible assets less total liabilities (including the value of Class A common stock which may be redeemed for cash), by the number of issued and outstanding shares of Class A common stock.

 

At January 25, 2021, our net tangible book value deficit was $18,500 or approximately $(0.00) per share of Class B common stock. After giving effect to the sale of 20,000,000 shares of Class A common stock included in the units we are offering by this prospectus, the sale of the private placement warrants and the deduction of underwriting commissions and estimated expenses of this offering, our pro forma net tangible book value at January 25, 2021 would have been $5,000,010 or $0.82 per share (or $0.72 per share if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option), representing an immediate increase in net tangible book value (as decreased by the value of the approximately 18,902,399 shares of Class A common stock that may be redeemed for cash and assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option (or 21,797,399 shares of Class A common stock if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option)) of $0.82 per share (or $0.72 per share if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option) to our sponsor as of the date of this prospectus and an immediate dilution of $9.18 per share or 91.8% to our public stockholders not exercising their redemption rights. The dilution to new investors if the underwriters exercise the over-allotment option in full would be an immediate dilution of $9.28 per share or 92.8%.

 

The following table illustrates the dilution to the public stockholders on a per-share basis, assuming no value is attributed to the warrants included in the units or the placement warrants:

 

    Without
Over-Allotment
    With
Over-Allotment
 
Public offering price           $ 10.00           $ 10.00  
Net tangible book value before this offering   $ (0.00 )           $ (0.00 )      
Increase attributable to new investors     0.82               0.72        
Pro forma net tangible book value after this offering and the sale of the placement units             0.82             0.72  
Dilution to public shareholders           $ 9.18           $ 9.28  
Percentage of dilution to new investors             91.8 %           92.8 %

 

For purposes of presentation, we have reduced our pro forma net tangible book value after this offering (assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option) by $189,023,990 because holders of up to approximately 94.5% of our public shares may redeem their shares for a pro rata share of the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account at a per-share redemption price equal to the amount in the trust account as set forth in our tender offer or proxy materials (initially anticipated to be the aggregate amount held in trust two days prior to the commencement of our tender offer or general meeting, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable) divided by the number of shares of Class A common stock sold in this offering).

 

The following table sets forth information with respect to our sponsor and the public stockholders:

 

   Shares Purchased(1)   Total Consideration   Average Price per 
   Number   Percentage   Amount   Percentage   Share 
Initial Stockholders(1)   5,000,000    20.0%  $25,000    0.01%  $0.01 
Public Stockholders   20,000,000    80.0%   200,000,000    99.99%  $                 10.00 
    25,000,000    100.0%  $200,025,000    100.00%     

 

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(1)Assumes no exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option and the corresponding forfeiture of 750,000 shares of Class B common stock by our sponsor.

 

The pro forma net tangible book value per share after the offering is calculated as follows:

 

   Without
Over-Allotment
   With
Over-Allotment
 
Numerator:          
Net tangible book value deficit before this offering  $(18,500)  $(18,500)
Proceeds from this offering and sale of the private placement warrants, net of expenses (1)   201,000,000    231,000,000 
Offering costs accrued for and paid in advance, excluded from net tangible book value before this offering   42,500    42,500 
Less: deferred underwriters’ commissions   (7,000,000)   (8,050,000)
Less: amount of Class A common stock subject to redemption to maintain net tangible assets of at least $5,000,001 (2)   (189,023,990)   (217,973,990)
   $5,000,010   $5,000,010 
Denominator:          
Class B common stock outstanding prior to this offering   5,750,000    5,750,000 
Shares forfeited if over-allotment is not exercised   (750,000)    
Class A common stock included in the units offered   20,000,000    23,000,000 
Less: shares subject to redemption to maintain net tangible assets of at least $5,000,001   (18,902,399)   (21,797,399)
    6,097,601    6,952,601 

 

(1)

Expenses applied against gross proceeds include offering expenses of $1,750,000 and underwriting commissions of $4,000,000 (excluding deferred underwriting fees). See “Use of Proceeds.”

 

(2)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, advisors 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. In the event of any such purchases of our shares prior to the completion of our initial business combination, the number of shares of Class A common stock subject to redemption will be reduced by the amount of any such purchases, increasing the pro forma net tangible book value per share. See “Proposed Business — Effecting Our Initial Business Combination — Permitted Purchases of Our Securities.”

 

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CAPITALIZATION

 

The following table sets forth our capitalization at January 25, 2021, and as adjusted to give effect to the sale of our units in this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants and the application of the estimated net proceeds derived from the sale of such securities, assuming no exercise by the underwriters of its over-allotment option:

 

   January 25, 2021 
   Actual   As Adjusted(1) 
Deferred underwriting commissions  $   $7,000,000 
Notes payable(2)   42,500     
Class A common stock, subject to redemption(3)       189,023,990 
Stockholders’ equity:          
Preferred stock, $0.0001 par value, 1,000,000 shares authorized; no shares issued or outstanding (actual and as adjusted)        
Common stock, $0.0001 par value, 110,000,000 shares authorized (actual and as adjusted)          
Class A common stock, 100,000,000 shares authorized; no shares issued or outstanding (actual); 1,097,601 shares issued and outstanding (excluding 18,902,399 shares subject to redemption) (as adjusted)       110 
Class B common stock, 10,000,000 shares authorized; 5,750,000(4) shares issued and outstanding (actual); 5,000,000(4) shares issued and outstanding (as adjusted)   575    500 
Additional paid-in capital   24,425    5,000,400 
Accumulated deficit   (1,000)   (1,000)
Total shareholders’ equity   24,000    5,000,010 
           
Total capitalization  $66,500   $201,024,000 

 

 

 

(1)Assumes the full forfeiture of 750,000 shares that are subject to forfeiture by our sponsor depending on the extent to which the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised.

 

(2)Our sponsor has agreed to loan us up to $300,000 under an unsecured promissory note to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. As of January 25, 2021, we had borrowed $42,500 under the promissory note with our sponsor.

 

(3)Upon the completion of our initial business combination, we will provide our stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash equal to their pro rata share of the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account as of two business days prior to the consummation of the initial business combination including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our franchise and income taxes, subject to the limitations described herein whereby our net tangible assets will be maintained at a minimum of $5,000,001 upon consummation of our initial business combination and any limitations (including, but not limited to, cash requirements) created by the terms of the proposed initial business combination.

 

(4)Actual share amount is prior to any forfeiture of founder shares by our sponsor and as adjusted share amount assumes no exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option.

 

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MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

 

Overview

 

We are a blank check company incorporated on January 6, 2021 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 business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions directly or indirectly, with any business combination target. We intend to effectuate our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of this offering and the private placement of the private placement warrants, our shares, debt or a combination of cash, equity and debt.

 

The issuance of additional shares in a business combination:

 

may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in this offering, which dilution would increase if the anti-dilution provisions in our Class B common stock resulted in the issuance of our Class A common stock on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of our Class B common stock;

 

may subordinate the rights of holders of our Class A common stock if shares of preferred stock are issued with rights senior to those afforded our Class A common stock;

 

could cause a change in control if a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock are issued, which may affect, among other things, our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards, if any, and could result in the resignation or removal of our present officers and directors;

 

may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of us by diluting the share ownership or voting rights of a person seeking to obtain control of us; and

 

may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our Class A common stock and/or warrants.

 

Similarly, if we issue debt securities, or otherwise incur significant debt, it could result in:

 

default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after an initial business combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations;

 

acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant;

 

our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt security is payable on demand;

 

our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt security contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt security is outstanding;

 

our inability to pay dividends on our Class A common stock;

 

using a substantial portion of our cash flow to pay principal and interest on our debt, which will reduce the funds available for dividends on our Class A common stock if declared, our ability to pay expenses, make capital expenditures and acquisitions and fund other general corporate purposes;

 

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limitations on our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in our business and in the industry in which we operate;

 

increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation; and

 

limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements and execution of our strategy and other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt.

 

As indicated in the accompanying financial statements, as of January 25, 2021, we had $25,000 in cash and deferred offering costs of $42,500. Further, we expect to incur significant costs in the pursuit of our initial business combination. We cannot assure you that our plans to raise capital or to complete our initial business combination will be successful. These factors, among others, raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.

 

Results of Operations and Known Trends or Future Events

 

We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenues to date. Our only activities since inception have been organizational activities and those necessary to prepare for this offering. Following this offering, we will not generate any operating revenues until after completion of our initial business combination. We will generate non-operating income in the form of interest income on cash and cash equivalents after this offering. There has been no significant change in our financial or trading position and no material adverse change has occurred since the date of our audited financial statements. After this offering, we expect to incur increased expenses as a result of being a public company (for legal, financial reporting, accounting and auditing compliance), as well as for due diligence expenses. We expect our expenses to increase substantially after the closing of this offering.

 

Liquidity and Capital Resources

 

Our liquidity needs have been satisfied prior to the completion of this offering through receipt of (i) a $25,000 capital contribution from our sponsor in exchange for the issuance of the founder shares to our sponsor and (ii) the advancement of funds by our sponsor to cover our expenses in connection with this offering.

 

We estimate that the net proceeds from (i) the sale of the units in this offering, after deducting offering expenses of approximately $1,750,000 and underwriting commissions of $4,000,000 ($4,600,000 if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full) (excluding deferred underwriting commissions of $7,000,000 (or $8,050,000, if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full)), and (ii) the sale of the private placement warrants for a purchase price of $6,750,000 (or $7,350,000 if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full), will be $201,000,000 (or $231,000,000 if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full). $200,000,000 (or $230,000,000 if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full) will be held in the trust account, which includes the deferred underwriting commissions described above. 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. The remaining approximately $1,000,000 will not be held in the trust account. In the event that our offering expenses exceed our estimate of $1,750,000, 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. Conversely, in the event that the offering expenses are less than our estimate of $1,750,000, the amount of funds we intend to be held outside the trust account would increase by a corresponding amount.

 

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We intend to use substantially all of the funds held in the trust account, including any amounts representing interest earned on the trust account (less taxes payable and deferred underwriting commissions), to complete our initial business combination. We may withdraw interest income (if any) to pay our taxes, if any. We estimate our annual franchise tax obligations, based on the number of shares of our common stock authorized and outstanding after the completion of this offering, to be $200,000, which is the maximum amount of annual franchise taxes payable by us as a Delaware corporation per annum, which we may pay from funds from this offering held outside of the trust account or from interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and released to us for this purpose. Our annual income tax obligations will depend on the amount of interest and other income earned on the amounts held in the trust account. Based on assumed interest rates, we expect that the interest income earned on the amount in the trust account (if any), will be sufficient to pay our income and franchise taxes. To the extent that our equity or debt is used, in whole or in part, as consideration to complete our initial business combination, the remaining proceeds held in the trust account will be used as working capital to finance the operations of the target business or businesses, make other acquisitions and pursue our growth strategies.

 

Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we will have available to us the approximately $1,000,000 of proceeds held outside the trust account, as well as certain funds from loans from our sponsor. We will use these funds to primarily identify and evaluate target businesses, perform business due diligence on prospective target businesses, travel to and from the offices, plants or similar locations of prospective target businesses or their representatives or owners, review corporate documents and material agreements of prospective target businesses, and structure, negotiate and complete a business combination.

 

We do not believe we will need to raise additional funds following this offering in order to meet the expenditures required for operating our business prior to our initial business combination, other than funds available from loans from our sponsor. However, if our estimates of the costs of identifying a target business, undertaking in-depth due diligence and negotiating an initial business combination are less than the actual amount necessary to do so, we may have insufficient funds available to operate our business prior to our initial business combination. In order to fund working capital deficiencies or 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. If we complete our initial business combination, we would repay such loaned amounts. In the event that our 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 $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period. The terms of such loans by our officers and directors, 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.

 

We expect our primary liquidity requirements during that period to include approximately $300,000 for legal, accounting, due diligence, travel and other expenses associated with structuring, negotiating and documenting successful business combinations; $100,000 for legal and accounting fees related to regulatory reporting requirements; $240,000 for office space and administrative support services; $100,000 for consulting, travel and miscellaneous expenses incurred during the search for a business combination target; and approximately $260,000 for working capital that will be used for miscellaneous expenses and reserves (including franchise taxes net of anticipated interest income).

 

These amounts are estimates and may differ materially from our actual expenses. In addition, we could use a portion of the funds not being placed in trust to pay commitment fees for financing, fees to consultants to assist us with our search for a target business or as a down payment or to fund a "no-shop" provision (a provision 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 an agreement where we paid for the right to receive exclusivity from a target business, the amount that would be used as a down payment or to fund a "no-shop" provision would be determined based on the terms of the specific business combination and the amount of our available funds at the time. Our forfeiture of such funds (whether as a result of our breach or otherwise) could result in our not having sufficient funds to continue searching for, or conducting due diligence with respect to, prospective target businesses.

 

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We do not believe we will need to raise additional funds following this offering in order to meet the expenditures required for operating our business. However, if our estimates of the costs of identifying a target business, undertaking in-depth due diligence and negotiating an initial business combination are less than the actual amount necessary to do so, we may have insufficient funds available to operate our business prior to our business combination. Moreover, we may need to obtain additional financing either 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 our 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 business combination. If we do not 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. 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.

 

Controls and Procedures

 

We are not currently required to maintain an effective system of internal controls as defined by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We will be required to comply with the internal control requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022. Only in the event that we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer and no longer an emerging growth company would we be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement. Further, for as long as we remain an emerging growth company as defined in the JOBS Act, we intend 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 independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement.

 

Prior to the closing of this offering, we have not completed an assessment, nor have our auditors tested our systems, of our internal controls. We expect to assess the internal controls of our target business or businesses prior to the completion of our initial business combination and, if necessary, to implement and test additional controls as we may determine are necessary in order to state that we maintain an effective system of internal controls. A target business may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding the adequacy of internal controls. Many small and mid-sized target businesses we may consider for our initial business combination may have internal controls that need improvement in areas such as:

 

• staffing for financial, accounting and external reporting areas, including segregation of duties;

 

• reconciliation of accounts;

 

• proper recording of expenses and liabilities in the period to which they relate;

 

• evidence of internal review and approval of accounting transactions;

 

• documentation of processes, assumptions and conclusions underlying significant estimates; and

 

• documentation of accounting policies and procedures.

 

Because it will take time, management involvement and perhaps outside resources to determine what internal control improvements are necessary for us to meet regulatory requirements and market expectations for our operation of a target business, we may incur significant expense in meeting our public reporting responsibilities, particularly in the areas of designing, enhancing, or remediating internal and disclosure controls. Doing so effectively may also take longer than we expect, thus increasing our exposure to financial fraud or erroneous financing reporting.

 

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Once our management's report on internal controls is complete, we will retain our independent auditors to audit and render an opinion on such report when required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The independent auditors may identify additional issues concerning a target business's internal controls while performing their audit of internal control over financial reporting.

 

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

 

The net proceeds of this offering and the sale of the private placement warrants held in the trust account will be invested 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. Due to the short-term nature of these investments, we believe there will be no associated material exposure to interest rate risk.

 

Related Party Transactions

 

On January 15, 2021, our sponsor purchased 5,750,000 founder shares for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000, or approximately $0.004 per share. The number of founder shares issued was determined based on the expectation that such founder shares would represent 20% of the issued and outstanding shares upon completion of this offering. The per share purchase price of the founder shares was determined by dividing the amount of cash contributed to the company by the aggregate number of founder shares issued.

 

Commencing on the date of this prospectus, we have agreed to pay our Sponsor a total of $10,000 per month for office space and administrative support services. Upon completion of our initial business combination or our liquidation, we will cease paying these monthly fees.

 

We may pay our sponsor or any of our existing officers or directors, or any entity with which they are affiliated, a finder's fee, consulting fee or other compensation in connection with identifying, investigating and completing our initial business combination. These individuals will also 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 and will determine which fees and expenses and the amount of expenses that will be reimbursed. There is no cap or ceiling on payments that may be made to our sponsor, officers, directors or any of their respective affiliates.

 

Prior to the closing of this offering, our sponsor has agreed to loan us up to $300,000 to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. As of January 25, 2021, we had borrowed $42,500 under the promissory note with our sponsor to be used for a portion of the expenses of this offering. This loan is non-interest bearing, unsecured and is due at the earlier of June 30, 2021 or the closing of this offering. The loan will be repaid upon the closing of this offering out of the $1,000,000 of offering proceeds not held in the trust account.

 

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. If we complete our initial business combination, we would repay such loaned amounts. In the event that our 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, at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period. The terms of such loans by our officers and directors, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. 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.

 

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Our sponsor has committed to purchase an aggregate of 6,750,000 private placement warrants (or 7,350,000 if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full) at a price of $1.00 per whole warrant ($6,750,000 in the aggregate or $7,350,000 if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full) in a private placement that will occur simultaneously with the closing of this offering. Each whole private placement warrant is exercisable for one Class A common stock at $11.50 per share. Our sponsor will be permitted to transfer the private placement warrants held by it to certain permitted transferees, including our officers and directors and other persons or entities affiliated with or related to it, but the transferees receiving such securities will be subject to the same agreements with respect to such securities as our sponsor. Otherwise, these warrants will not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferable or salable until 30 days after the completion of our business combination. The private placement warrants will be non-redeemable (except as described under "Description of Securities—Warrants—Redemption of Warrants When the Price per Class A Common Stock Equals or Exceeds $10.00.") so long as they are held by our sponsor or their permitted transferees. The private placement warrants may also be exercised by our sponsor and its permitted transferees for cash or on a cashless basis. Otherwise, the private placement warrants have terms and provisions that are identical to those of the warrants being sold as part of the units in this offering, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period.

 

Pursuant to a registration and stockholder rights agreement we will enter into with our sponsor on or prior to the closing of this offering, we may be required to register certain securities for sale under the Securities Act. These holders, and holders of warrants issued upon conversion of working capital loans, if any, are entitled under the registration and stockholder rights agreement to make up to three demands that we register certain of our securities held by them for sale under the Securities Act and to have the securities covered thereby registered for resale pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act. In addition, these holders have the right to include their securities in other registration statements filed by us. However, the registration and stockholder rights agreement will provide that we will not permit any registration statement filed under the Securities Act to become effective until the securities covered thereby are released from their lock-up restrictions, as described herein. We will bear the costs and expenses of filing any such registration statements. See the section of this prospectus entitled "Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions."

 

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements; Commitments and Contractual Obligations; Quarterly Results

 

As of January 25, 2021, we did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements as defined in Item 303(a)(4)(ii) of Regulation S-K and did not have any commitments or contractual obligations. No unaudited quarterly operating data is included in this prospectus, as we have not conducted any operations to date.

 

JOBS Act

 

The JOBS Act contains provisions that, among other things, relax certain reporting requirements for qualifying public companies. We will qualify as an "emerging growth company" and under the JOBS Act will be allowed to comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements based on the effective date for private (not publicly traded) companies. We are electing 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.

 

Additionally, we are in the process of evaluating the benefits of relying on the other reduced reporting requirements provided by the JOBS Act. Subject to certain conditions set forth in the JOBS Act, if, as an "emerging growth company," we choose to rely on such exemptions we may not be 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 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, (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 initial public offering or until we are no longer an "emerging growth company," whichever is earlier.

 

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PROPOSED BUSINESS

 

Our Company

 

We are a newly organized 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, which we refer to throughout this prospectus as our initial business combination. We have not selected any specific business combination target, and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target with respect to an initial business combination with us.

 

Our sponsor is an affiliate of Excolere Equity Partners, LLC, a private investment firm focused on middle-market companies in the education and human capital management industries. Anthony “Tony” Miller and Peter “Pete” Davis, founders of Excolere Equity Partners, LLC, have assembled a seasoned team of industry advisors whom we believe will help us execute our differentiated investment strategy. While we may pursue an initial business combination target in any industry or geographical location, we intend to focus our search within the education and human capital technology and services sectors, where we believe our management team has a competitive advantage due to their prior experiences and roles. We intend to focus our search efforts on North American targets with an aggregate enterprise value of $500 million to $2.5 billion.

 

We have built a management team that has extensive, sector-specific operating, regulatory, and investing expertise. We believe our management team is well positioned to identify attractive businesses within the education and human capital technology and services sectors that would benefit from access to the public markets and the skills of our management team. Our objective is to consummate our initial business combination and enhance stockholder value by helping the business to hone its strategic focus, identify and recruit talent, secure and / or accelerate growth (e.g., through enhanced channel development, product and / or platform extension, geographic expansion), scale operational capabilities, and identify and complete follow-on acquisitions. We expect to utilize our management team's experience and network to achieve these objectives. In addition, we intend to focus on evaluating companies with leading competitive positions, strong management teams, and potential for sustained long-term growth and profitability.

 

Our Founders, Management, and Board of Directors

 

Our management team includes Anthony “Tony” Miller, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Peter “Pete” Davis, our President and Chief Operating Officer; and Jeffrey M. Glick, our Chief Financial Officer. These members of our management team bring, on average, approximately 30 years of operating and transactional experience that encompasses a wide array of subsectors within the education and human capital technology and services sectors. We believe our management team also brings unique and complementary regulatory expertise relevant to our target market, as well as a track record of providing creative solutions for complex transactions. Our team’s capabilities are further enhanced by their extensive professional network comprised of industry leaders, senior operating executives, public policy leaders, and private equity and venture capital investment professionals. We believe our management team’s investment experience in our targeted industry, distinct mix of complementary skills, and extensive sector network enable access to advantaged investment opportunities and represent a competitive advantage. Our management team has experience in:

 

·sourcing, structuring, acquiring, financing and selling education and human capital technology and services businesses;

 

·leveraging strategic insight from their mergers and acquisitions and capital structuring experience based on debt and equity capital executions;

 

·operating companies as senior executives and engaging CEOs as board members, to set clear and effective business strategies for companies in the education and human capital technology and services sectors;

 

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·deriving actionable insights from the regulatory and legislation environment associated with the education and human capital technology and services sectors; and

 

·deploying a broad value creation toolkit focused on enhancing revenue growth and delivering operating efficiency.

 

Anthony “Tony” Miller, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, has over 29 years of operating, M&A and financing experience in the education and human capital technology and services sectors. In 2019, Mr. Miller began the launch of Excolere Equity Partners, LLC, a private investment firm focused on middle-market companies in the education and human capital management industries, where he currently serves as Managing Partner. Prior to launching Excolere, in 2013, Mr. Miller co-founded The Vistria Group, LLC, a private investment firm with over $1 billion in assets under management, focused on middle-market companies in the healthcare, education, and financial services industries. In addition to his role as Chief Operating Officer at Vistria, Mr. Miller was a Senior Partner, responsible for leading the firm’s education-related investments. During his time at Vistria, Mr. Miller led the over $1 billion take-private of Apollo Education Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL) in partnership with Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO) in 2017. Before his transition back to the private sector in 2013, Mr. Miller served as the Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer at the U.S. Department of Education, a position he was appointed to by President Barack Obama in 2009 and confirmed by the Senate. In this role, Mr. Miller oversaw day-to-day operations of the Department, including policy-making and program management, spanning early learning, K-12, and higher education. Mr. Miller also led the implementation of approximately $100 billion in one-time education program funding as part of the 2009 economic stimulus package. In addition, Mr. Miller led the Department’s international missions to China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, Brazil, and Russia. Before his public service role, Mr. Miller was a Director with Silver Lake, a global leader in technology investing, where he helped launch the firm’s Value Creation Team as an operating partner. From 2006 to 2009, as an inaugural member of the Value Creation Team, Mr. Miller worked closely with Silver Lake’s investment professionals to support due diligence, evaluate investment opportunities, and develop and oversee portfolio company value creation programs. Prior to Silver Lake, Mr. Miller served as a Strategy / M&A advisor to the Founder / CEO of Oversee.net, a leading online performance marketing services company, from 2005 to 2006, where his work with management to execute a key strategic acquisition helped support Oversee’s subsequent acquisition by Oak Hill Capital Partners. From 2002 to 2005, Mr. Miller was an executive with LRN Corporation, a founder-led company providing ethics and compliance software and corporate eLearning solutions to Fortune 500 companies. As the Executive Vice President (one of the two company’s top executives), Mr. Miller had overall responsibility for engineering, product development, content development, marketing, operations, business development and finance. From 1992 to 2002, Mr. Miller was with McKinsey & Company where he was a Partner from 1998 to 2002, serving healthcare and technology companies throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Mr. Miller’s work focused on growth strategy development, company re-structuring and technology commercialization. Mr. Miller began his career with Delco Electronics, a subsidiary of GM Hughes Electronics, where he was responsible for channel marketing programs. Mr. Miller currently serves on the Board of Directors of ACT, Criteria, GoGuardian, University of Phoenix, and Vanta Education. Previously, he served on the boards of Penn Foster, HigherEducation.com, and MSI Information Services. Mr. Miller holds an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University. Our board of directors has determined that Mr. Miller’s operating, investment, and regulatory experience qualifies him to serve as one of our directors.

 

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Peter “Pete” Davis, our President, Chief Operating Officer, Secretary and Director, has approximately 20 years of operating, M&A and financing experience in the education and human capital technology and services sectors. Mr. Davis is a founder of Excolere Equity Partners, LLC, along with Anthony “Tony” Miller, and is currently an Advisor for investment firms Avathon Capital (since 2019) and Platform Ventures (since 2017). As an Advisor to Avathon Capital, he is lead independent Board Director to Reading Plus and an Advisor to Emsi, two high growth portfolio companies in education and workforce development, respectively; and as Advisor to Platform Ventures, Mr. Davis works with family office investor groups on Ed-Tech and human capital impact investing. He has served as a Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group since 2012. He also previously served on the Boards of EdTechX (NASDAQ: EDTX) and Greenwich Associates. Mr. Davis served for over a decade (2008-2019) as a Director at Greenwich Associates, where he influenced the company's transformation from a consulting-based information business to a SaaS-based data and analytics provider. At EdTechX, Mr. Davis was a member of the Audit Committee and was involved in the first Ed-Tech SPAC that merged with Meten Edtechx Education Group (NASDAQ: METX) in 2020. Mr. Davis was previously the President of McGraw-Hill Education (2006-2010), the largest segment of The McGraw-Hill Companies (now S&P Global, NYSE: SPGI). In this role he invested in transforming the publishing business into a digital learning company. His efforts over a three year period led to share gains in higher education, creation of AI-based learning platforms in K-12 and higher-education, and the startup of international education services businesses. He left the company in 2011 and was retained by Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO) to advise them on the buyout of the business in a successful $2.4 billion leveraged buyout transaction. Before being appointed President at McGraw-Hill Education, Mr. Davis was Executive VP of Global Strategy and Development for The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) from 2006 to 2008. There he led planning and corporate development for this Fortune 400 company. In this role he led efforts to transform the company from diversified media conglomerate to global financial information provider by working with the CEO and Board to analyze and value the portfolio; then sell media businesses and reinvest the proceeds in financial information businesses to build on the S&P franchise. Mr. Davis began his career at PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP) in strategy and marketing (1982-1987), then entered consulting with The MAC Group in Cambridge, MA (1987-1995); eventually rising to become a Practice Leader and Partner at Booz-Allen & Hamilton (NYSE: BAH) where he led the Commercial Banking/Capital Markets practice in North America (1995-2006). He holds an M.B.A. from the Johnson School of Management, Cornell University and a B.A., awarded with highest distinction, in History from Rutgers College, New Brunswick, NJ. Our board of directors has determined that Mr. Davis’ operating and investment experience qualifies him to serve as one of our directors.

 

Jeffrey M. Glick, our Chief Financial Officer, has more than 35 years of financial, administrative, and logistics management experience. Mr. Glick served as Chief Financial Officer of Schultze Special Purpose Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: SAMA) from September 2018 until it consummated its business combination with Clever Leaves International Inc. (NASDAQ:CLVR), a multi-national cannabis company, in December 2020. In 2011, Mr. Glick founded, and continues to operate, START U UP, LLC, a consulting firm that specializes in providing outsourced CFO and compliance services to the alternative asset management industry. Before founding START U UP, he served as the CFO at Sagard Capital for three years. Sagard is a hybrid fund that invests across the hedge and private equity spectrum. He joined Sagard Capital during its start-up stage and was responsible for all aspects of finance, administration, and operations. He also provided deal-related support. Prior to Sagard, Mr. Glick joined Almaz USA, Inc., an international commodity trading and brokering firm, as it was starting up in 1992, and served as its Chief Financial Officer for 16 years. His contributions toward improving cost-effectiveness while he was an Internal Auditor for Merrill Lynch from 1985 to 1995 earned him the Chairman's Commitment to Excellence Award. Mr. Glick also applied his CPA skills as a Back Office Manager and Manager in the Mergers and Acquisition department of Phibro Energy, the oil trading and refining arm of Salomon Brothers, from 1986 to 1992. Mr. Glick holds a B.S. in accounting from The State University of New York at Binghamton, and has been a standing member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Association and the New York State Society of CPAs since 1985. He holds a FINRA Series 65 designation.

 

William Ethridge, our director nominee, has 40 years of experience in education and is active in the education sector as an investor and a board member of several companies. Mr. Ethridge is currently a Principal at Ethridge Advisors, a role he has held since 2015, where he provides advisory services to education companies, educational institutions, policy makers, and private equity companies. Mr. Ethridge serves on the boards of education technology and services companies Ruffalo Noel Levitz (Chairman), Finalsite, and Apex Learning (Chairman). From 2008 to 2015, Mr. Ethridge was CEO of Pearson North America, an educational content, assessment and digital services company (LON: PSON) and also served on Pearson’s Board of Directors. From 1998 to 2003, Mr. Ethridge served as CEO and President of Pearson’s U.S. Higher Education,and Professional Publishing Group, and he led the successful integration of several companies into the world’s leading higher education company. From 2003 to 2008 he took on the additional responsibilities of management oversight of Pearson’s International Group. Prior to joining Pearson, Mr. Ethridge was at education publishing companies Prentice Hall (1988 to 1998) and Addison Wesley (1986 to 1988), where he was a Senior Executive. Early in his career, Mr. Ethridge was an Editor with Little, Brown and Co (from 1979 to 1986), where he published in the fields of economics and politics. Mr. Ethridge is a former Chairman of the Association of American Publishers. He previously served as Chairman of CourseSmart, a consortium of electronic textbook publishers, and as a Board member of Frontline Education, Interactive Data Corporation, Turnitin, and Study Group. Mr. Ethridge holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Our board of directors has determined that Mr. Ethridge’s education industry, private equity advisory, and board experience qualifies him to serve as one of our directors.

 

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Mickie Rosen, our director nominee, has three decades of strategy, operating, investment and board experience at the intersection of media and technology. Ms. Rosen has been a principal at Mickie Rosen Consulting since October 2013 and currently serves on public, private and non-profit boards, including Ascendant Digital Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: ACND), a special purpose acquisition company focused on the attention economy, including interactive digital entertainment, film/television, and music. She also serves on the board of Nine Entertainment Co. (ASX: NEC), Australia’s largest media company, and she advises early to growth stage companies in digital media and commerce. From 2015 to 2019, she served on the board of Pandora Media until it was acquired by SiriusXM and was the President of the Tribune Publishing Company (NASDAQ: TPCO) from 2017 to 2019. Prior to this, from 2016 to 2017 she served as a Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group and was a co-founder and partner of a strategic advisory firm, Whisper Advisors. She was also the Senior Vice President of Global Media & Commerce for Yahoo from 2011 to 2013, where she led Yahoo’s media division worldwide. Prior to Yahoo, from 2008 to 2011, she was a partner with Fuse Capital, a consumer Internet-focused venture capital firm, investing in early stage video, publishing, advertising technology and e-commerce companies. Previously, from 2006 to 2008 Ms. Rosen was the Senior Vice President & General Manager of Entertainment for Fox Interactive Media, where she ran digital businesses such as Rotten Tomatoes, Fox.com and MySpace Entertainment, and played a lead role in envisioning, negotiating and launching OTT leader, Hulu. Earlier in her career, from 2002 to 2006, she was an executive with Fandango, where she helped build the movie information and ticketing company from an early stage start-up to the leader in its space (acquired by Comcast), and from 1998 to 2000, she was an executive with The Walt Disney Company in the Corporate Alliances group. Ms. Rosen built the foundation of her career during her time with McKinsey & Company, from 1990 to 1998. Our board of directors has determined that Ms. Rosen’s digital media, technology and commerce experience as an executive and board director qualifies her to serve as one of our directors.

 

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., our director nominee, has over 20 years of experience as a lawyer, human resources executive and CEO in both the private and not-for-profit sectors. Currently, he serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Society for Human Resource Management ("SHRM"), the largest human resources professional association in the world, a role he has held since 2017. He was a member of the most recent White House American Workforce Policy Advisory Board and was appointed by President Donald Trump as Chair of the President's Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities from 2018 to 2021. Previously, Mr. Taylor was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Mr. Taylor has held Senior and Chief Executive roles at IAC/Interactive Corp (NASDAQ: IAC) from 2005 to 2009, Viacom's Paramount Pictures and Blockbuster Entertainment Group from 1994 to 2002, McGuireWoods LLC in 2004, and Compass Group USA from 2002 to 2004. He currently serves on the Boards of the University of Miami, Jobs for America's Graduates, the American Red Cross, and Guild Education. He is licensed to practice law in Florida, Illinois and Washington, D.C., and is a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources. Our board of directors has determined that Mr. Taylor’s education industry and board experience qualifies him to serve as one of our directors.

 

Our Industry Advisors

 

We have assembled a team of industry advisors to assist in the sourcing, evaluation, due diligence, deal execution, and post-closing strategic involvement with potential business combination partners. None of our industry advisors owe us fiduciary duties. While we expect that they will assist us in identifying business combination targets, they have no obligation to do so and may devote a substantial portion of their business time to activities unrelated to us.

 

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Ana Dutra has agreed to serve as a Special Advisor. She has over 37 years of experience in technology, M&A and global business transformations. Ms. Dutra currently serves as CEO of Mandela Global Advisors, a firm that advises Boards, CEO's and their management teams on how to build and support world-class executive teams through Board Effectiveness, CXO Succession Planning and Top Team Strategic Alignment. From 2014 to 2018, Ms. Dutra served as President and CEO of the Executives' Club of Chicago. From 2008 to 2013, Ms. Dutra was CEO of Korn / Ferry Leadership and Talent Consulting where she created a $400 million new global business through a combination of organic growth, multiple acquisitions, innovative go-to-market approaches and incorporation of technology and digitalization of products and services. From 2004 to 2008, Ms. Dutra served as Global Managing Partner at Accenture (NYSE: ACN). Previously, Ms. Dutra was with Mercer Management Consulting, currently Oliver Wyman, where she served as Managing Partner. From 1994 to 1999, she worked as a Principal at Marakon Management Consulting. Ms. Dutra began her career at IBM (NYSE: IBM) in 1985, where she moved into a Sales Manager and Account Director position and Product Manager for mainframes in Latin America after starting as a software and hardware analyst and consultant. Ms. Dutra currently serves on the Board of Directors of CME Group (NASDAQ: CME), Eletrobras Participacoes SA Eletropar (BOVESPA: LIPR3), Harvest Health & Recreation (CNSX: HARV), First Internet Bank (NASDAQ: INBK), Elkay Manufacturing, Lifespace Communities and M. Holland Company. Ms. Dutra serves as Chair of the Latino Corporate Directors Educational Foundation and as a Board Member of Blessings-in-a-Backpack, Women Business Collaborative, World Sustainability Development Forum and Chicago Innovation. She is a Senior Advisor for AiRo Digital Labs, CoachLogix and Humantelligence, technology companies in the digital, talent and training and development spaces. She also serves on the international advisory board for Fundacao Don Cabral, the top higher education organization in Latin America. Ms. Dutra holds an M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, a Masters in Economics from Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro, a Juris Doctor from Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro and a Bachelor in Economics from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. She is a Certified Cybersecurity Oversight expert by the Carneie Mellon and NACD master program.

 

Manoj Kulkarni has agreed to serve as a Special Advisor. He has over 33 years of experience in e-learning, education, training, retail and technology industries. Currently, Mr. Kulkarni serves as CEO and Board Member at RealizeIt, a personalized learning or adaptive learning software system, a role he has held since 2014. From 2008 to 2013, Mr. Kulkarni held various executive positions at education company Perdoceo (NASDAQ: PRDO), including Chief Information Officer, President of Words of Wisdom LLC, and Chief Technology and Innovation Officer. From 2007 to 2008, Mr. Kulkarni served as Technology Strategy Consultant of Eclipsys, a healthcare information company. From 1993 to 2007, Mr. Kulkarni held various roles at Toys R Us, including Vice President of Information Technology. Mr. Kulkarni began his career at Unisys India as a systems engineer in 1988. Mr. Kulkarni holds an M.B.A. from The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from Savitribai Phule Pune University.

 

Dr. Sean “Jack” Buckley has agreed to serve as a Special Advisor. He has over 27 years of experience in education and technology. Currently, Dr. Buckley serves as Head of Assessment and Learning Sciences at Roblox, an online gaming platform and game creation company. From 2019 to 2020, Dr. Buckley was President and Chief Scientist at Imbellus, a game-based assessment technology startup that was acquired by Roblox. Dr. Buckley was previously Senior Vice President at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), where he led their research and evaluation area from 2016 to 2019, and he still serves as Institute Fellow on several projects. From 2014 to 2016, he was Senior Vice President of Research at The College Board, where he helped lead the redesign of the SAT. From 2011 to 2013, Dr. Buckley served as Commissioner of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), where he was responsible for the measurement of all aspects of US education, including conducting the National Assessment of Educational Progress and coordinating participation in international assessments. While at NCES, he also acted as a senior technical adviser to Department of Education leadership and co-chair of its data strategy team. From 2008 to 2013, Dr. Buckley worked as an Associate Professor at NYU. From 2005 to 2006, Dr. Buckley served as an Analytic Methodologist in the Central Intelligence Agency. From 2003 to 2005, Dr. Buckley was an Assistant Professor at Boston College. Dr. Buckley began his career in the US Navy as a nuclear engineer and surface warfare officer. Dr. Buckley holds an M.A. and PhD in Political Science and Government from Stony Brook University and a B.A. in Government from Harvard University.

 

Eric Pinckert has agreed to serve as a Special Advisor. He has over 28 years of experience across law, strategic branding, corporate communications and agency management. Mr. Pinckert currently is Managing Director of Brand Culture Company, LLC, an agency that he co-founded in 2006 that helps advance business performance through brand development, culture building, and revenue growth. At Brand Culture he has led the strategy practice for the past 15 years to the present, overseeing client engagement for FORTUNE 100, middle market, and early stage companies, and private equity firms and their portfolio companies, including Brentwood Associates, The Gores Group, Skyview Capital, Serent Capital, and Vistria. From 2004 to 2006, he served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for an early-stage search and local marketing technology provider that later became Connectivity, Inc. From 2003 to 2004, he served as the Head of Strategic Marketing and Company Communications and later Head of Corporate Affairs for LRN Corporation, an ethics and compliance software and corporate eLearning company. From 1996 to 2003, he conducted and supervised strategic branding engagements in the finance, healthcare, and technology at branding and interactive media consultancy Siegel + Gale where he was a Senior Vice President from 1999 to 2003. From 1993 to 1996, Mr. Pinckert began his career as an attorney representing technology clients at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati. He also worked for the law firms of Rogers & Wells (now Clifford Chance) from in 1992 and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher from 1989 to 1990. Mr. Pinckert served on the Board of Directors of Optimus Corporation, a logistic management systems and software developer, from 2005 to 2011. Mr. Pinckert holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Journal on Legislation and A.B and A.M. degrees in English from Stanford University.

  

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Jervis Williams has agreed to serve as a Special Advisor. He has over 25 years of public and private company finance experience in the technology industry. Mr. Williams is currently CFO of Metawave Corporation, a venture-funded company in the 5G and autonomous driving markets where he oversees finance, human resources, and investor relations, a role he has held since 2019. Prior to Metawave, Mr. Williams was Principal at Swerve Financial, a consulting firm he founded in 2016 that provides CFO and human resource services to venture-funded companies. Previously, Mr. Williams spent a combined eleven years in various Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) roles at public software companies. In all roles, he supported the SEC reporting requirements. From 2010 to 2015, Mr. Williams worked at Citrix (NASDAQ: CTXS), where he helped support the company’s transition to a SaaS business model. From 2008 to 2010, Mr. Williams was with VMware (NYSE: VMW), where as Senior FP&A manager, he supported VMware’s $200 million acquisition of EMC’s Ionix. From 2004 to 2008, Mr. Williams was Senior Manager, Finance & Operations at Wind River (NASDAQ: WIND). Before Wind River, from 2003 to 2004, Mr. Williams served as Vice President of Business Development for Pillar Vision, dba Noah Basketball, a startup providing athlete training technology to NBA and NCAA teams. Prior to Pillar Vision from 2000 to 2003, Mr. Williams served as CFO and COO for Omega Music, an independent music label that partnered with Universal Music Group and MGM Studios. Before Omega Music, from 1995 to 2000, Mr. Williams had various FP&A and Business Development roles at Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HPQ). Prior, Mr. Williams was a Senior Finance Analyst with Apple Computer (NASDAQ: AAPL) from 1993 to 1995, where he served as the lead analyst for the Higher Education Division. Directly after business school in 1991, Mr. Williams served as controller for Bust-It Records, a joint venture with Capital Records. Mr. Williams holds an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Political Science with emphasis in Business Administration from University of California, Los Angeles.

  

James Sparkman has agreed to serve as a Special Advisor. He has over 30 years of operating, M&A and financing experience in the education and human capital technology and services sectors. Mr. Sparkman is a founder of Excolere Equity Partners, LLC, along with Anthony “Tony” Miller and Peter Davis. Currently, Mr. Sparkman is the founding Partner of Alpha Education LLC, an advisory firm serving colleges and universities (since 2011), and P3•EDU LLC, a media and event company focused on public-private partnerships in higher education (since 2017). From 2006 to 2010, Mr. Sparkman was Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Heald Education. From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Sparkman was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Consor Capital LLC. Mr. Sparkman was the founding Vice President of New Mountain Capital from 1999 to 2003 when the firm raised its first investment fund ($770 million) and led a controlling PIPE investment in Strayer Education, now Strategic Education (NASDAQ: STRA). From 1999 to 2002, Mr. Sparkman also co-founded and served on the Board of Directors of HigherMarkets, Inc., a venture-backed university SaaS company that was sold to SciQuest, Inc., now JAGGAER. Before joining New Mountain Capital, Mr. Sparkman led mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, and other investment banking activities at First Education Group, an affiliate of EduVentures, from 1997 to 1999. From 1995 to 1997, Mr. Sparkman was an early executive and Vice President of private student loan pioneer The First Marblehead Corporation, now Cognition Financial. Mr. Sparkman began his career as a public school teacher and charter corps member with Teach For America. Mr. Sparkman holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in American Civilization from Middlebury College.

 

With respect to the above, past performance of our management team, special advisors, Excolere Acquisition Corp. and its affiliates is not a guarantee of either (i) success with respect to a business combination that may be consummated or (ii) the ability to successfully identify and execute a transaction. You should not rely on the historical record of management, special advisors, or Excolere Acquisition Sponsor LLC and its affiliates as indicative of future performance. See “Risk Factors—Past performance by our management team is not indicative of future performance of an investment in us.”

 

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Our Market Opportunity

 

Our focus will be on the broad North American education and human capital technology and services sectors. The overall market associated with the development and management of human capital from cradle through career is large, with annual spend exceeding $1 trillion, and with various market segments with growth rates that exceed 10%. Attractive segments within our scope of focus include job re-/up-skilling and credentialing; candidate sourcing, assessment, and onboarding (for both permanent and contingent staff); K-12 digital learning infrastructure and content platforms; and tech-enabled services that support early childhood development and engagement. Given the transformational forces at work in the industry, further accelerated by the pandemic, we believe the current outlook for the education and human capital technology and services sectors present investment opportunities that can provide attractive risk-adjusted returns for our stockholders. The key transformational forces and factors shaping the market opportunity include:

 

·Increasing employer demand for new and ever-evolving skills and the growing importance of talent management

 

-Widespread transformation of jobs by new technologies. More than one billion jobs, almost one-third of all jobs worldwide, are likely to be transformed by technology in the next decade.

 

-Skills gap risking economic growth. Approximately $975 billion in cumulative GDP growth is at risk by 2028 if the U.S. is unable to adapt the supply of skills to meet the needs of the new technological era.

 

-Talent management a C-suite issue. Attracting and retaining top talent ranked as the number-one internal challenge pre-pandemic, for CEOs and other C-Suite executives globally.

 

-Increasing use of technology and data analytics by human resource departments. Examples include use in the recruitment and onboarding process to remove bias, improve efficiency, improve candidate experience, and increasing number of organizations appointing people analytics roles or teams.

 

·Increasing linkages between and across the education, training, and employer talent management ecosystem to enable improved student learning outcomes, improved employee performance and retention, and increased system-wide efficiency. Examples of these linkages include:

 

-The deconstruction and cross-mapping of job and career skills, and competencies to specific education and training content (e.g., learning objects, credentials, “nano” degrees and traditional degrees)

 

-Broadening the consideration of factors that might correlate with employee performance and retention (e.g., cognitive skills, technical skills, “soft” skills, personality traits, team composition, and quality / frequency of performance feedback)

 

-Broadening the consideration of factors that might correlate with K-12 and Post-Secondary learning and retention (e.g., social emotional learning profiles, academic learning styles, student engagement metrics, and teacher engagement metrics)

 

·Increasing deployment of technology, including digital content creation and delivery, artificial intelligence / machine learning and big data analytics, supported by cloud-based business models

 

-Realization of tangible efficiency and efficacy benefits creating positive feedback

 

-Increasing exposure to cloud-based services in consumer context helping to reduce resistance to adoption in education and employment-related context

 

The pandemic and the corresponding need for educators, students, parents, employees and employers to adapt, is positively impacting the demand for more digital capabilities and accelerating the pace of industry transformation. The need for effective distance learning tools and capabilities from Pre-K to Post-Secondary is a clear example. Similarly, as the population of remote workers grows, the need for effective human capital management tools and capabilities will also grow. We believe the after-effect of the pandemic and the corresponding economic recovery will translate to attractive investment opportunities as organizations discover their ability to adapt successfully is both enabled and constrained by their ability to scale effective education and human capital technologies and services.

 

As the market for education and human capital technology and services transforms, it will be subject to ongoing and likely heightened regulatory scrutiny and potential legislative action, at both federal and state levels. We believe our understanding of and ability to derive actionable insights from a complex regulatory and legislative landscape provides us with a competitive advantage in identifying and growing attractive businesses. Examples of some relevant considerations - as regulators confront both the opportunities and potential risks associated with the increasing digitization of the education and labor markets - are highlighted below:

 

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