Israeli fintech company Pagaya Technologies has announced that it has increased its private investment public equity (PIPE) financing in its upcoming SPAC merger with EJF Acquisition Corp. (EJFA) at a company valuation of $8.5 billion.
Pagaya has raised the PIPE from $200 million to $350 million in addition to the up to $288 million in gross proceeds that it will receive from EJFA’s cash in trust, when the SPAC merger is completed. A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) is a blank check company without any activities, which raises for the purpose of merging with an existing company
According to Pagaya the PIPE investors include investors include Tiger Global, Whale Rock, GIC - Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) and G Squared.
Pagaya was founded in 2016 by CEO Gal Krubiner, Yahav Yulzari, and Avital Pardo. Pagaya provides P2P credit and loans and specializes in managing alternative investments through technology. Pagya raised $102 million in its most recent financing round in 2020 and since then has increased its company valuation 17-fold.
While some tech companies are having difficulties in completing their SPAC mergers and listing on Wall Street, Pagaya's latest update about the increased PIPE and the reiteration of the company valuation, suggests that it has avoided these difficulties.
EJFA chairman Manny Friedman said, "Pagaya is led by a best-in-class management team and is at the forefront of FinTech innovation. The support of this distinguished investor group is a vote of confidence in the company’s strategy to penetrate what is a substantial addressable market, including banking, consumer lending, credit cards and point-of-sale financing."
Pagaya has repeated that it will complete the SPAC merger at the start of 2022 without providing an exact date. EJFA has yet to call a shareholders agreement to vote for the approval of the merger with Pagaya.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 12, 2022.
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