The Amazon-backed driverless start-up Aurora is going to be publicly listed, valued at $13 billion, which is roughly £9.4 billion.
An article on the Nasdaq website confirms it had agreed to merge with a Silicon Valley “blank cheque firm” backed by financiers Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus.
It says the deal with Reinvent Technology Partners Y RTPY.O will include a private placement of $1 billion from investors such as Baillie Gifford, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Uber Technologies Inc and Volvo.
Founded in 2017, Aurora is led by the man who started the Google car project, Chris Urmson (pictured).
The report explains that Reinvent is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) led by Zynga Inc co-founder Pincus and LinkedIn co-founder Hoffman, which raised $850 million through an initial public offering in March.
SPACs are publicly listed shell companies that raise funds with the intention of merging with a private entity within two years of floating their shares, thereby taking the private company public.
Aurora is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq after the merger under the new ticker symbol “AUR”.
(Picture – Aurora)
