Lightyear, a car manufacturer from Helmond, The Netherlands, has secured an investment of €40 million. This financing round was led by an investment vehicle from a Swiss family. With this money in its pocket, Lightyear can continue to grow and deliver its first solar car model this year – the Lightyear One. The company is also exploring the possibility of going public.
Despite, or arguably thanks to the corona crisis, Lightyear sees a lot of opportunities for going public. “There is an overwhelming demand from investors for good sustainable companies to invest in. You can also see that this has accelerated since corona,” said Tessie Hartjes, VP Marketing at Lightyear.
“What you are seeing is that the market conditions are favorable. There are low-interest rates and there is plenty of capital looking for sustainable companies like Lightyear. That gives us the chance to raise funding that will help us get ahead in the next two to three years.”
The company is not moving toward a regular IPO. Instead, it is actively exploring the feasibility of a so-called SPAC deal. “Nowadays, you see a lot of companies that are working on electric vehicles just like Lightyear are going public through this kind of deal. Especially in the United States.”
A SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company, is a publicly-traded company founded by an investor and which has a pile of money in it. This company eventually merges with a start-up that is looking for an investor. This enables a start-up to go public very quickly, without having to do an IPO itself. ” These kinds of processes are sometimes completed within six months. Therefore, if we are going to do it that way, our goal is to have it completed by the end of this year,” Hartjes said.
You can read more about Lightyear here.
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