Data Firm FiscalNote to Go Public via $1.3B SPAC

The data and analytics firm FiscalNote is planning to go public in a deal that could value the business at $1.3 billion and make its co-founder the youngest Asian-American CEO at a publicly-traded company.

FiscalNote said on Monday (Nov. 8) that it would go public via a merger with the special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Duddell Street Acquisition Corp.

Based in Washington, D.C., FiscalNote analyzes global legislative, regulatory and geopolitical data for clients that include small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) as well as major corporations (Microsoft, Nestle, Netflix, 3M) and government agencies (The Department of Defense, The Supreme Court, Centers for Disease Control).

“When we founded FiscalNote in 2013, we set out to build a category-creating technology company that would change the way organizations understand and act on the legal, policy and regulatory issues that mattered most to them,” said Tim Hwang, the firm’s 29-year-old co-founder and CEO. “Legal and geopolitical issues have become even more inextricably linked to markets, and it is crucial that organizations have access to key information about the actions of regulators and policymakers to proactively navigate and manage the volume and velocity of regulatory change that will impact them.”

The deal includes a $100 million private investment in public entity (PIPE) led by Maso Capital, which will also “backstop any redemptions of the Duddell Street trust account for the entire $175 million, which combined with the PIPE will provide $275 million of gross proceeds to the combined company,” the release said.

Hwang noted that the transaction will help FiscalNote build new data feeds and software to help it tackle emerging regulatory issues in areas such as cryptocurrencies, the gig economy, cannabis, autonomous and electric vehicles, and online sports betting.

Read more: SPACs — and B2B Listings – Gather Momentum Across 2021’s Finish Line

The company says it is part of a $37 billion legal and regulatory information solutions market, driven by “the proliferation of regulatory complexity, demand for workflow efficiency and automation, need for aggregation and standardization, and the democratization of analytical capabilities in law.”

FiscalNote’s announcement comes amid an end-of-year spike in SPAC issuances on public exchanges, which have hit a level not seen since March of this year. As PYMNTS noted last week, 57 SPACs began trading in October — far less than the 109 seen in March, but double the amount of companies that went public via SPACs in September.