Friday Letter: The SPAC frenzy continues to mount

It should come as no surprise that what I want to talk about and solicit your opinions on this week are SPACs.

SPACs have been one of the hottest talking points in venture in the past year. And as such, I want direct you to a couple of popular stories we ran in Venture Capital Journal this week, including how Hamilton Lane is mulling over a family of SPACs via a new business by our Hong Kong correspondent Alex Lynn, and a story by one of our regulatory reporters on SEC staff recommendations for disclosing potential conflicts.

I expect we will have more SPAC-related stories coming soon.

Meanwhile, SPACs are merging with another hot venture subject matter: South-East Asia. This past week, I spoke with a GP who invests in the region, and he said the stars are aligning perfectly and there is a lot of momentum building up in Asia.

That is because venture-backed ride-hailing and food delivery giants Grab and Gojek have been rumored to be mulling over their own SPACs. Recent media reports suggest the two companies are getting close to announcing their holding company structures. Gojek is likely to be first, announcing its new public entity formed by Tokopedia. The valuation is expected to be about $18 billion.

Another VC I spoke with said Grab and Gojek are solid growth businesses and ideal targets for SPACs. He said that SPACs will stick around as top tier investors continue to cherry-pick the best companies.

Let me know what you think of SPACs and if you believe they will stick around and why. You can drop me a line at agoldfisher@buyoutsinsider.com, and I’m happy to chat.