Ribbit Capital, a major investor in fintech startups some of which include cryptocurrencies and blockchain initiatives, is trying to raise $ 350 million for a "blank check" company with the aim of an acquisition plan.
An special-purpose acquisition company
Special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Ribbit LEAP Ltd., filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week. As a SPAC, Ribbit Leap has no operational business - the company was created to find and purchase one.
“We have not selected any business combination partners and have not yet engaged in substantive discussions with any of the candidates,” notes the prospectus.
Unlike traditional publicly traded companies, where major acquisitions are subject to shareholder approval, a SPAC allows for ample purchasing freedom (hence the term "blank check").
"Our shareholders may not be offered the opportunity to vote on the initial business combination proposal, which means we may complete our choice regarding an initial business combination even if a majority of our shareholders do not support such a combination." Ribbit Leap risk factors experts pointed out in the prospectus. JPMorgan Chase is the only bookrunner for initial public offering (IPO) for buy shares.
Ribbit Leap: program and objectives
The subscriber has the ability to issue up to 15% more shares than expected, which would bring total proceeds to $ 402,5 million. The prospectus mentions cryptocurrency only twice in passing, in passages describing Ribbit Capital's range of investments, which also includes companies in the major financial services and technology sectors.
Ribbit Capital is a founding member of the Libra Association, the consortium Facebook set up last year to develop a global digital currency (which later reduced its ambitions to issuing mainly fiat-related stablecoins).
In the blockchain space, the investment firm spearheaded a fundraising round for the startup behind the crypto wallet Bobby Lee's Ballet in 2019. It also invested in Coinbase, Revolut, Robinhood, Xapo, Chainalysis, Figure Technologies and CRB Group (parent company of Cross River Bank, a crypto-friendly institution).
Former US Treasury Undersecretary Sigal Mandelkar, who spearheaded cryptocurrency industry crimes sanctions bills and warned crypto companies to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) laws ), joined Ribbit Capital as an advisor this year.
Other companies in the Ribbit Capital portfolio include Affirm, Brex, Coalition, CreditKarma, MercadoLibre, Next Insurance, Nubank, Root, Sea Limited, Upgrade and Zillow. While it is unclear how much Ribbit Leap will focus on cryptocurrency or blockchain acquisitions, the new plans come at a time of renewed exuberance in the industry.
Aside from the rally in cryptocurrency prices, fledgling INX Ltd. has launched an on-chain regulated IPO, and giants Coinbase and Ripple are reportedly looking to public listing lists.
