From electric vehicle charging to autonomous trucks, flying taxis to self-driving sensors, the tech startups at the bleeding edge of transportation were prized targets for blank-check mergers in recent years.
But after a wipeout of tech stocks, this group of companies is worth about $100 billion less than their blank-check deals implied, according to PitchBook data. Nearly every mobility tech SPAC is trading at a loss to its IPO price.
SPACs go public at $10 per share, a price point that serves as a simple benchmark for how those stocks have been received. So how have the more than 60 mobility tech companies performed following blank-check mergers?
- 68% of the cohort, or 43 companies, are trading at less than $5 per share.
- Just four of the companies are currently trading above $10 per share: EV charging company ChargePoint, battery maker Enovix, mobility software provider Verra Mobility and bus manufacturer Blue Bird.
- Fifteen mobility tech companies have seen their shares fall more than 90% from their 52-week high, including scooter maker Bird, autonomous freight specialist Embark and British EV maker Arrival.
In a stark example of this reversal of fortunes, autonomous vehicle startup Aurora entered a SPAC deal worth $13 billion with Reinvent Technology Partners Y less than a year ago. The combined company now trades at less than $2.50 per share with a market capitalization of $2.64 billion.
VC funding for mobility tech has also receded, with startups raising $13.9 billion across 318 deals in Q1 2022, about 43% of the total raised in Q1 2021.
Still, the macro outlook for the space remains bright. Electric vehicle adoption is projected to grow swiftly over the next decade, and more consumers are interested in these cars against a backdrop of soaring gas prices. Meanwhile, fully self-driving trucks are expected to enter commercial use next year.
Related read: Q1 2022 Mobility Tech Report
Featured image by Mario Tama/Getty Images
Learn more about our editorial standards.
