FinTech Pico Going Public By Merging With SPAC

The technology services firm Pico is set to go public following a $1.75 billion merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Pico and FTAC Athena Acquisition Group announced the merger on Wednesday (Aug. 4), saying the deal could provide $450 million in proceeds.

The deal — which is backed by a $200 million private investment in public equity — is expected to close late this year, with Pico trading on the Nasdaq.

Founded in 2019, Pico offers technology services that include its PicoNet, a network platform “instrumented natively with Corvil analytics and telemetry” that provides instant access to financial markets.

The company’s client list includes 24 of the world’s top 25 banks — including Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs — along with 36 exchanges, quantitative hedge funds and asset managers.

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“Pico is at the frontier of modernizing the financial ecosystem by providing global connectivity and market insight solutions for its customers, and we look forward to working together to build long-term value for our stockholders,” said Betsy Cohen, board chair at FTAC Athena.

The two companies say the deal won’t change Pico’s leadership, with Jarrod Yuster — the firm’s founder, chairman and co-chief executive — and co-CEO Frank Troise remaining at the helm.

SPACs are publicly traded companies with no actual business operations. Often called “blank-check companies,” they use money from their own initial public offerings to buy another company and take it public.

Last month, PYMNTS reported on the SPAC that took Singapore’s PropertyGuru public, a deal that valued the online real estate firm at $1.8 billion.

See more: PropertyGuru To Go Public Via Blank Check Merger

That same day, the insurance technology company Kin said it was merging with the SPAC Omnichannel Acquisition Corp. to go public on the New York Stock Exchange, a deal that valued the combined company at $1.03 billion.

Learn more: InsurTech Kin Going Public At $1B Value Via SPAC Merger