Aurora Innovation, the autonomous automobile startup that acquired Uber’s self-driving unit in December, goes public by way of a merger with particular objective acquisition firm Reinvent Technology Partners Y.
The deal introduced Thursday confirms TechCrunch’s reporting in June that the startup was in last talks with the SPAC launched by LinkedIn co-founder and investor Reid Hoffman, Zynga founder Mark Pincus and managing companion Michael Thompson.
The mixed firm, which is will be listed on Nasdaq with the ticker image AUR, will haven implied valuation of $13 billion.
Through the deal, Aurora is capturing $1 billion from personal traders together with Baillie Gifford, funds and accounts managed by Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), funds and accounts suggested by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., PRIMECAP Management Company, Reinvent Capital, XN, Fidelity Management and Research LLC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Index Ventures, and Sequoia Capital, in addition to strategic investments from Uber, PACCAR, and Volvo Group.
The mixed firm mentioned it’s anticipated to have about $2.5 billion in money at closing, together with as much as $977.5 million of money held in Reinvent’s belief account from its preliminary public providing which closed on March 18, 2021, based on regulatory filings.
Aurora has gone from buzzy startup to publicly traded company-via-SPAC in a span of 4 years. The firm was based in 2017 by Sterling Anderson, Drew Bagnell and Chris Urmson, all whom have a historical past of engaged on automated automobile expertise.
In December, the corporate reached an settlement with Uber to purchase the ride-hailing agency’s self-driving unit in a posh deal that valued the mixed firm at $10 billion. Under the phrases of that acquisition, Aurora didn’t pay money for Uber ATG, an organization that was valued at $7.25 billion following a $1 billion funding in 2019 from Toyota, DENSO and SoftBank’s Vision Fund. Instead, Uber handed over its fairness in ATG and invested $400 million into Aurora. Uber acquired a 26% stake within the mixed firm, based on a submitting with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Since the acquisition, Aurora has spent the previous a number of months integrating Uber ATG staff and now has a workforce of about 1,600 folks. Aurora extra lately mentioned it reached an settlement with Volvo to collectively develop autonomous semi-trucks for North America. That partnership, which is anticipated to final a number of years and is thru Volvo’s Autonomous Solutions unit, will concentrate on creating and deploying vans constructed to function autonomously on highways between hubs for Volvo clients.
Venture capital at scale
Hoffman, Pincus and Thompson have promoted an idea that they name “venture capital at scale.” To date, SPACs have been the conduit to achieve that scale. The trio have shaped three SPACs, or blank-check firms.
Two of these SPACs have introduced mergers with personal firms. Reinvent Technology Partners introduced a deal in February to merge with the electrical vertical take off and touchdown firm Joby Aviation, which will probably be listed on the New York Stock Exchange later this 12 months. Reinvent Technology Partners Z merged with residence insurance coverage startup Hippo.
Their third SPAC — the one now merging with Aurora — known as Reinvent Technology Partners Y, priced its preliminary public providing of 85 million models at $10 per unit to lift $850 million. The SPAC issued a further 12.7 million shares to cowl over allotments with whole gross proceeds of $977 million, based on regulatory filings. The models are listed on the Nasdaq trade and commerce beneath the ticker image “RTPYU.”
In some ways, the Aurora-Reinvent SPAC is a union that is sensible.
Aurora already has a relationship with Hoffman. In February 2018, Aurora raised $90 million from Greylock Partners and Index Ventures. Hoffman, who’s a companion at Greylock, and Index Ventures’ Mike Volpi grew to become board members of Aurora as a part of the…
