3D mapping data company NextNav is the latest company to become a publically traded entity via SPAC. It announced today that it will merge with publicly-traded Spatacus Acquisition Corporation — as SPAC’s typically go — thus inheriting public status (for more on SPAC’s, see our recent introductory roundtable).
The combined company will be named NextNav Inc., and its common stock and warrants will be listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “NN” and “NNW”, respectively. Former Sirius XM Radio chairman Gary Parsons will serve as Chairman of the Board while operations will continue to be led by CEO Ganesh Pattabiraman.
The transaction itself includes $205 million fully committed common stock PIPE at $10.00 per share from key investors. This transaction value implies a pro forma enterprise value of $900 million and a pro forma market cap of $1.2 billion. NexNav equity holders’ shares will roll directly into the new combined company.
Localogy Insider caught up with CEO Pattabiraman today to ask him about the transaction. He told us, “Consumer experiences and services need to adapt to meet growing consumer expectations – from public safety to gaming to delivery apps. We’ve laid a technological foundation with our Pinnacle vertical location service, which is available in more than 4400 cities in the US, and provides precise floor-level altitude to existing location services. With this foundation already in place, we’re enabling new consumer experiences to unfold, and with this transaction, we will continue to build on this foundation to expand our TerraPoiNT service, enabling resilient, solutions for autonomous vehicles, eVTOLs, IOT and critical infrastructure globally.”
Location Dimension
More towards NextNav’s technology and positioning, it has pioneered what’s sometimes known as 3D location data. Most location data as we know it has two dimensions: lat/long. NextNav applies a Z-axis to get more precise readings in situations where elevation matters (think: multi-floor shopping malls, high-rise buildings, etc.).
This can add dimension (literally) and meaning to location signals in areas like emergency response and marketing. For example, ad targeting and attribution can be more accurate and thus insightful if you know someone just walked into the Banana Republic on the second floor, rather than the Hot Topic right below it.
Beyond a marketing context, Z-level accuracy becomes more urgent and valuable in emergency response scenarios. When someone calls 911 from the 12th floor of a 40 story building, getting a precise fix on three-dimensional location can shave off response minutes and seconds, meaning life or death.
NextNav’s recent accomplishments include partnering with Gimbal to Z-axis-enable its location intelligence engine. This can give everyone from emergency responders to delivery companies more intelligence signals to do their thing. For more dynamics on that deal, see our recent conference interview with Gimbal below.
