Sakuu aims to go public via merger with Plum
Sakuu, a California-based developer of 3D-printed solid-state batteries, will become a publicly traded company. To do so, it will merge with the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Plum Acquisition Corp. I.
The combined company will be called Sakuu Holdings and is expected to be listed on a US national exchange under the ticker symbol “SAKU.” The transaction should be finalised in the third quarter of 2023. and implies an enterprise value of approximately $705 million.
Sakuu said it received purchase orders totalling over $300 million from 2023 to 2025. The company’s manufacturing platform developed Kavian was designed to produce solid-state batteries on a commercial scale. But there is no factory for it yet. In January, Sakuu hired Porsche subsidiary Porsche Consulting to plan its targeted gigafactories worldwide.
“The arrival of transformative additive manufacturing will have profound implications across global legacy manufacturing. Our high-volume Kavian solution for printing batteries can potentially leapfrog decades of manufacturing stagnation,” says Sakuu CEO Robert Bagheri. “We believe Kavian is the only known solution for producing heavily in-demand products, such as solid-state batteries, that can be custom-printed rapidly and cost-effectively—taking next-generation battery manufacturing to realms never imagined.”
Plum CEO Ursula Burns adds: “Sakuu represents an opportunity for such a fundamental step change in manufacturing through its high-volume, multi-material, additive manufacturing Kavian platform – something that has impressed even a printing industry veteran like me. Solid-state batteries, and the massive addressable market associated with it, could just be Act 1 for the Company. We believe its technology has already allowed it to leapfrog many more highly capitalised battery suppliers.”
In the US, an IPO via SPAC merger has become a popular way in recent years for a fast-growing company to get listed on the Nasdaq, for example. The regular route can take up to two years. Therefore, a business segment has emerged for companies that go through the lengthy process after being founded with investor money. The sole purpose of these companies is to be listed and to merge with companies that are not, helping the latter to circumvent the process. That is why the former are referred to as “special purpose acquisition companies” – or SPAC.
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