Rainwater Tech to list in New York via SPAC merger

Rush Street Interactive

22/12/2022 10:03

By David French
       NEW YORK, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Rain Enhancement
Technologies Inc, a developer of systems that boost rainfall in
arid regions, has agreed to combine with special purpose
acquisition company (SPAC) dMY Technology Group VI  DMYS.N , the
companies told Reuters.
    Led by Mike Nefkens, the former president of Hewlett Packard
Enterprise Services, Rain Enhancement Technologies - to be known
as Rainwater Tech - plans to commercialize a method known as
ground-based ionization that makes clouds drop more rain.
    The merger values Rainwater Tech at $200 million, with dMY
VI using the $241 million it raised through its initial public
offering in October 2021 to capitalize the company. 
    More than 2.3 billion people live in water-stressed areas,
meaning they don't have enough to meet standard needs, according
to the United Nations. This number will rise as a warming world
creates drought conditions in more places, and climate change
affects the water cycle, influencing weather patterns and
depositing in many areas less rainfall than historical norms.
    The company's mast, that creates the ionization, can be set
up in around four months and produces the effects in a radius of
more than 50 miles from the antenna, Nefkens told Reuters in an
interview, with Rainwater Tech charging a recurring subscription
for the infrastructure and associated data.
    It plans to start selling the technology in 2023, targeting
corporations, insurance companies, farmers and governmental
agencies as potential customers.
    "This is not a technology which creates rain out of blue
sky, but it is about maximizing the amount of rain when the
conditions are right," Nefkens said.
    This will be the fifth blank-check vehicle backed by dMY
Technology Group which has found a partner in the last
two-and-a-half years, including quantum computing company IONQ
Inc  IONQ.N  and data analytics firm Planet Labs  PL.N .
    "We are seeing a rotation in investor sentiment from things
which are nice to have towards things which we can't live
without," said Niccolo de Masi, CEO of dMY VI.
    "There are alternatives to energy. There is no back-up to
water."
 (Reporting by David French in New York
Editing by Mark Potter)
 ((davidj.french@thomsonreuters.com;))