Gig-work startup is bad fit with today's SPACs

ShiftPixy

25/08/2021 18:34

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions
expressed are his own.)
    By Richard Beales
    NEW YORK, Aug 25 (Reuters Breakingviews) - ShiftPixy, a
temporary-employment app whose shares, floated in 2017, have
lost 99% of their value since, has cut the funding target for
four blank-check vehicles it is sponsoring. It looks like a
last-ditch effort to score in an indiscriminate SPAC market that
no longer exists.
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    CONTEXT NEWS 
    - Four blank-check acquisition vehicles backed by staffing
services company ShiftPixy cut the size of their initial public
offerings in revised filings dated Aug. 24. Of the four
special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, Firemark Global
Capital had targeted the biggest raise, of $500 million, when it
first submitted its paperwork in April. The vehicle said it is
now looking to raise $150 million.
    - The other firms – TechStackery, Vital Human Capital and
Industrial Human Capital – are also now aiming to raise $150
million each, compared with a target of $250 million each
earlier, according to their filings.
    - All four blank-check firms are backed by ShiftPixy
Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of ShiftPixy, and Scott
Absher, chair and chief executive of ShiftPixy, is chair and CEO
of all of them.  

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Four SPACs backed by ShiftPixy slash U.S. IPO sizes   
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 (Editing by Lauren Silva Laughlin and Marjorie Backman)
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