5 years ago

https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2020/08/26/3d-printing-unicorn-desktop-metal-to-go-public-in-latest-spac-deal/#326a7e4f67ac
Editors' Pick|2,181 views|Aug 26, 2020,07:00am EDT
3D Printing Unicorn Desktop Metal To Go Public In Latest Deal With A Blank Check Company
Amy Feldman
Amy FeldmanForbes Staff
Manufacturing

Desktop Metal, Ric Fulop, NYSE, SPAC, public company, 3D printing, additive manufacturing

Desktop Metal's Ric Fulop Michael Prince for forbes

3D printing unicorn Desktop Metal is the latest company to go public in a deal with a blank check company.

It will list on the New York Stock Exchange in a merger with Trine Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company led by former cable exec Leo Hindery Jr. and HPS Investment Partners. Expected valuation: Up to $2.5 billion.

The public listing and a total of $575 million in new funds from the transaction will give Desktop Metal the firepower to expand aggressively, cofounder and CEO Ric Fulop said in an interview with Forbes. ”We have a plan to grow to over $1 billion in revenue over five years,” he says.

With revenue of some $26 million last year and expectations for similar this year, that represents an extremely aggressive growth rate that far outpaces the 3D printing industry’s overall 25% compounded annual growth. The new cash will give Fulop the ability to both develop new products internally and to acquire smaller players as the industry begins to consolidate. “We will be the best capitalized company in the space,” he says. “And this will allow us to . . . build a formidable position in our market.”
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Burlington, Mass.-based Desktop Metal, a leader in metal 3D printing, has raised more than $430 million from investors that include Koch Disruptive Technologies, GV, Ford, NEA and Kleiner Perkins, at a valuation of some $1.5 billion at its latest funding round in January 2019. Under terms of the deal, Desktop Metal’s existing shareholders are expected to hold approximately 74% of the company’s shares, which will trade under the ticker ‘DM.’ The transaction includes $575 million in funds from Trine and from investors that include Miller Value Partners, legendary investor Bill Miller’s firm; Chamath Palihapitiya, founder of Social Capital; and JB Straubel, the first chief technical officer of Tesla. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

The move represents the latest in a flurry of deals by SPACs, those once-obscure blank check companies that have made a resurgence this year. At least 79 companies have gone public so far this year by SPAC, compared with 59 for all of 2019, according to SPACInsider. Desktop Metal had been gearing up for a traditional initial public offering, but changed course in choosing to do a SPAC deal to access the public markets. Compared to an IPO, a SPAC listing is faster and easier for the selling company—especially in the era of Zoom road shows. “We switched tracks,” Fulop says. “About one-third of all IPOs have been through this process. I think the pandemic has driven that.”

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