The deal with InterPrivate III will give $400m in net cash proceeds to Aspiration, which includes a $200m PIPE
Aspiration agrees to merge with InterPrivate III Financial Partners. (Credit: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)
Aspiration Partners, a sustainability as a service solutions provider for consumers and companies, has agreed to merge with InterPrivate III Financial Partners, in a deal that values the former at $2.3bn.
InterPrivate III is a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
The deal will enable Aspiration Partners to become a publicly-listed firm, which is anticipated to trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The financial services institution, which is focused on environmental, social, and governance (ESG), will be renamed Aspiration, post-merger.
The sustainability services platform provides an ecosystem of sustainable banking services, credit cards, and investment products to its customers.
The platform is said to help customers in ensuring that their deposits are away from fossil fuels, automatically plant trees with every purchase made on their cards, while tracking business and personal planet and people impact scores.
Through its technology and tools, the company also offers bundled solutions to help businesses address the demand for sustainability from their customers and employees. Businesses can reduce their carbon footprints and create co-branded products and services for mitigation of climate change, said Aspiration.
Aspiration CEO and co-founder Andrei Cherny said: “Aspiration is in the business of fighting the climate crisis. We help people and businesses build sustainable impact into what they do every day by making it easy, automated, and powerful, whether it is in the ways people spend and save their money or the ways businesses engage their customers.
“The switch to sustainability will likely be the largest, fastest shift in behaviour in human history, and Aspiration has a central role to play in powering that transformation for individuals and businesses alike.”
Cherny will continue to be the CEO of the company, after the closing of the merger.
In the combined company, InterPrivate III will issue at least 175 million of its shares to Aspiration’s shareholders in addition to 100 million shares, which will be contingent on the performance in the share price over a period of five years.
The deal will give $400m in net cash proceeds to Aspiration. This includes $258.75m of cash held by InterPrivate III in trust and a fully committed public investment in private equity (PIPE) of $200m.
The PIPE investors include Financière Agache, Doha Venture Capital, Capricorn Investment Group, Brand Capital International, Serengeti Asset Management, InterPrivate Capital, Western & Southern Life Insurance, and AGO Partners among others.
InterPrivate III chairman and CEO Ahmed Fattouh said: “Through its merger with InterPrivate, Aspiration will become the first ESG-driven fintech, a unique platform enabling individuals and enterprises to integrate and automate impact into their everyday financial and commercial transactions.
“The millions of passionate Aspiration members are an asset unto themselves, and have helped create a brand synonymous with sustainability that we expect to see extend in many exciting directions.”
The deal is expected to close in Q4 2021, subject to InterPrivate III’s shareholders’ approval, certain regulatory approvals, and other customary closing conditions.