EDGAR 10-K Filing

Company CIK: 1845013
Filing Year: 2022
Filename: 1845013_10-K_2022_0001193125-22-086857.json

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ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Item 1. Business.
Company Overview
We are a blank check company incorporated in Delaware on February 2, 2021 and formed for the purpose of effectuating a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or other similar business combination with one or more businesses. We are an early stage and emerging growth company and, as such, are subject to all of the risks associated with early stage and emerging growth companies.
On February 10, 2021, our sponsor paid $25,000 in consideration for 6,250,000 shares of Class B common stock (the “Founder Shares”). The Founder Shares included an aggregate of up to 937,500 shares subject to forfeiture by our sponsor to the extent that the underwriter’s over-allotment was not exercised in full or in part, so that our sponsor would collectively own, on an as-converted
basis, 20% of the Company’s issued and outstanding shares after the initial public offering. On September 11, 2021, the remaining over-allotment option expired. As a result, 937,500 shares of Class B common stock were forfeited.
The registration statement for our initial public offering was declared effective on August 2, 2021. On August 5, 2021, we consummated the initial public offering of 25,000,000 Units, at $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds of $250,000,000. Each Unit consisted of one share of Class A common stock and one-half
of one redeemable warrant (“Public Warrant”). Each Public Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one share of Class A common stock at an exercise price of $11.50 per whole share.
Simultaneously with the closing of the initial public offering on August 5, 2021, we consummated the sale of 7,700,000 warrants at a price of $1.00 per warrant in a private placement (the “Private Placement Warrants”) to our sponsor, Healthwell Acquisition Corp. I Sponsor LLC, generating gross proceeds of $7,700,000. Each Private Placement Warrant is exercisable to purchase one share of Class A common stock at a price of $11.50 per share. The proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants were added to the net proceeds from the initial public offering held in a trust account. If we do not complete a business combination by August 5, 2023 (within 24 months from the consummation of the initial public offering), the proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants will be used to fund the redemption of the Public Shares (subject to the requirements of applicable law).
The outstanding shares of Class B common stock will automatically convert into shares of Class A common stock upon the consummation of a business combination on a one-for-one
basis, subject to adjustment. In the case that additional shares of Class A common stock or equity-linked securities are issued or deemed issued in connection with a business combination, the number of shares of Class A common stock issuable upon conversion of all Founder Shares will equal, in the aggregate, on an as-converted
basis, 20% of the sum of all Common Stock issued and outstanding upon the completion of the Offering plus all Class A Common Stock and equity-linked securities issued or deemed issued in connection with the initial Business Combination, excluding the forward purchase agreements and any shares or equity-linked securities issued, or to be issued, to any seller in the initial Business Combination. The term “equity-linked securities” refers to any debt or equity securities that are convertible, exercisable or exchangeable for Class A Common Stock issued in a financing transaction in connection with the initial Business Combination, including but not limited to a private placement of equity or debt.; provided that such conversion of Founder Shares will never occur on a less than one-for-one
basis.
Our units, shares of Class A common stock and warrants are each traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbols “HWELU,” “HWEL” and “HWELW,” respectively. Our units commenced public trading on August 3, 2021, and our shares of Class A common stock and warrants commenced separate public trading on September 22, 2021.
Business Strategy & Competitive Strengths
Our business strategy is to identify and complete our initial business combination with a company that leverages and complements the experience of our team. Through our management, Board and advisors’ broad and deep networks, unique industry experiences, and deal sourcing capabilities, we have access to a vast set of opportunities.
Target Industry
Although we may pursue targets in any business industry or sector, we intend to focus our investment efforts on technology-enabled companies across the entire healthcare industry. Investment opportunities will be sourced through our longstanding investment banking, venture capital and private equity relationships, as well as an extensive network of serial entrepreneurs and operators in healthcare and technology built over decades. The Company benefits from decades of transaction experience with companies at all stages of their life cycles. The Company will use a disciplined and highly selective investment process that leverages the depth and diversity of management, the Board and a team of advisors to enhance the growth potential and value of a target business, while focusing on providing the potential of an attractive return to our stockholders.
The U.S. healthcare industry nears $3.8 trillion in value, representing an expansive market with powerful secular tailwinds and a broad universe of business combination targets. By 2028, expenditures are expected to reach $6.2 trillion, highlighting an average growth rate of approximately 5.4% per year, driven in large part by a rapidly aging population and increased prevalence of chronic disease. Given the accelerating spending growth, fragmented market, and staggering imbalances in access, quality, and cost in healthcare across America, technological innovation and tech-enablement are at the forefront of accelerating access to care and in terms of value creation in the sector.
Though we intend to focus our investment effort broadly across tech-enabled healthcare, we will leverage our team’s expertise to target businesses in technology-driven products, platforms and services in and for healthcare, tech-enabled healthcare services, and tech-enabled wellness platforms, products and services. These subsectors benefit from favorable market dynamics, are underrepresented in the public markets and align well with the backgrounds and experience of our management team and Board. The diversity of the target universe and the number of largely uncorrelated subsectors maximize the likelihood that the management team, Board and advisors will be able to identify and execute an attractive transaction. We intend to concentrate on targets with an enterprise value range between $750 million and $1 billion.
Industry Opportunity
While we may acquire a business in any industry, the $3.8 trillion healthcare market has numerous scaled companies that would benefit from a public listing, providing us with a broad set of attractive targets. With several dynamics, including an aging population and increased pervasiveness of chronic disease driving accelerated spending growth, technology-driven innovation is pivotal to improving the state of the country’s healthcare system. While our investment effort will be broadly focused on tech-enabled healthcare, we have identified several attractive subsectors where we have particular expertise:
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Healthcare Technology.
As North America leads the global healthcare technology market, there are numerous platforms that are viable targets. With emerging technologies such as next-generation diagnostics and AI-powered platforms,
products and devices, technology provides a significant opportunity to improve care outcomes while driving down the cost of care. Moreover, the proliferation of healthcare data, which is increasingly available in real-time, has the potential to enable providers to move quicker and act more precisely, in turn driving improved outcomes and efficiency at decreased costs. We believe that leading technology companies will continue to transform the healthcare system.
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Tech-Enabled Healthcare Services.
Technology-oriented business models are transforming healthcare and creating significant value for all market participants, including payors, providers, employers, and consumers. While the increasing complexity of the healthcare system poses challenges to traditional market participants, companies that adopt a tech-enabled model are typically better positioned to succeed and capture market share. Just as technology platforms have solved major challenges and improved productivity in other industries, similar opportunities exist within healthcare, with ~25% of total U.S. healthcare spending deemed as wasteful. As an example, telehealth has decreased unmet health needs while also reducing system-wide cost and allowing providers to deliver care with increased access and/or increased productivity.
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Tech-Enabled Wellness.
The U.S. is the world’s largest health and wellness market. Even through COVID-19 disrupted
some traditional wellness business models, rising consumer focus on physical and mental wellness has in many cases, such as with emotional wellness, accelerated over the past two years. Tech-enabled innovation has been broad, from virtual fitness offerings to scientifically-driven nutritional products and intuitive integration of mental health to traditional healthcare services. Rising provider and government prioritization of social determinants of health, as well as increasing payor focus on preventative care to decrease acute care costs, is expected to drive robust growth in the wellness market going forward.
Acquisition Criteria
Consistent with our strategy, we have identified general criteria and guidelines which we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses. We will leverage these criteria and guidelines in evaluating acquisition opportunities, but we may decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet these criteria and guidelines.
We will look for a company with the following investment criteria:
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Has a differentiated product or service offering with a sustainable competitive advantage;
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Has a clear value proposition within healthcare to either increase access to care, care quality, care efficiency and/or decrease costs;
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Has a track record of above industry average revenue growth with strong customer satisfaction;
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Has a strong management team with a track record of value creation that can leverage our management team, Board and advisors and can collaborate with us to unlock the company’s full potential value;
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Enjoys a robust financial profile with sustainable gross margins and has the potential to generate consistent, steady and recurring free cash flow;
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Has an ability to generate attractive returns on capital;
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Sits within a growing industry subsector with strong secular tailwinds and competitive viability and is resilient to economic cycles;
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Has an actionable organic and M&A growth runway and that can utilize M&A to grow and bolster the financial profile of the acquired business;
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Has a scalable platform and infrastructure to reap the benefits of public listing, including access to capital for growth opportunities and the ability to attract additional key employees; and
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Can leverage the network, proprietary growth and value creation opportunities and expertise of our team to accelerate the company’s growth.
These criteria are not intended to be exhaustive. Any evaluation relating to the merits of a particular initial business combination may be based, to the extent relevant, on these general guidelines as well as other considerations, factors and criteria that our management may deem relevant. In the event that we decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet the above criteria and guidelines, we will disclose that the target business does not meet the above criteria in our stockholder communications related to our initial business combination, which, as discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K,
would be in the form of tender offer documents or proxy solicitation materials that we would file with the SEC.
Our Acquisition Process
Our directors and officers presently have, and any of them in the future may have, additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity. Accordingly, if any of our directors or officers becomes aware of a business combination opportunity that is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she may need to honor these fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity, or in the case of a non-compete restriction,
may not present such opportunity to us at all, subject to his or her fiduciary duties under the laws of the State of Delaware. We do not believe, however, that the fiduciary duties or contractual obligations of our directors or officers will materially affect our ability to identify and pursue business combination opportunities or complete our initial business combination. Our directors and officers are also not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs, and, accordingly, will have conflicts of interest in allocating management time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence.
Past experience or performance of our management team, Directors, advisors or their respective affiliates is not a guarantee of either (1) our ability to successfully identify and execute a transaction or (2) success with respect to any business combination that we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record of our management team, Directors, advisors or their respective affiliates as indicative of future performance.
Initial Business Combination
The Nasdaq listing rules require that our initial business combination must be with one or more operating businesses or assets with a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the assets held in the trust account (excluding the deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on the income earned on the trust account). We refer to this as the 80% fair market value test. If our board of directors is not able to independently determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses, we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria. We do not currently intend to purchase multiple businesses in unrelated industries in conjunction with our initial business combination, although there is no assurance that will be the case.
We anticipate structuring our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public stockholders own shares will own or acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding equity interests or assets of the target business or businesses. We may, however, structure our initial business combination such that the post-transaction company owns or acquires less than 100% of such interests or assets of the target business in order to meet certain objectives of the target management team or stockholders or for other reasons, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the issued and outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target business sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “Investment Company Act”). Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our stockholders prior to our initial business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-transaction company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in our initial business combination transaction. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new shares in exchange for all of the issued and outstanding capital stock, shares or other equity securities of a target business or issue a substantial number of new shares to third-parties in connection with financing our initial business combination. In this case, we would acquire a 100% controlling interest in the target. However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new shares, our stockholders immediately prior to our initial business combination could own less than a majority of our issued and outstanding shares subsequent to our initial business combination. If less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business or businesses are owned or acquired by the post-transaction company, the portion of such business or businesses that is owned or acquired is what will be valued for purposes of the 80% fair market value test. If our initial business combination involves more than one target business, the 80% fair market value test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if we are not then listed on Nasdaq for whatever reason, we would no longer be required to meet the foregoing 80% fair market value test.
Sourcing of Potential Business Combination Targets
We believe our management team’s significant operating and transaction experience and relationships with companies will provide us with a substantial number of potential business combination targets. Over the course of their careers, the members of our management team have developed a broad network of contacts and corporate relationships around the world. This network has grown through the activities of our management team sourcing, acquiring, financing and selling businesses, our management team’s relationships with sellers, financing sources and target management teams and the experience of our management team in executing transactions under varying economic and financial market conditions.
In addition, members of our management team have developed contacts from serving on the boards of directors of several companies. We believe this network provides our management team with a robust and consistent flow of acquisition opportunities which were proprietary or where a limited group of investors were invited to participate in the sale process. We believe that the network of contacts and relationships of our management team will provide us with important sources of acquisition opportunities. In addition, we anticipate that target business candidates will be brought to our attention from various unaffiliated sources, including investment market participants, private equity funds and large business enterprises seeking to divest non-core
assets or divisions.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor, directors or officers, or making the acquisition through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with our sponsor, directors or officers. In the event we seek to complete an initial business combination with a target that is affiliated with our sponsor, directors or officers, we, or a committee of independent and disinterested directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or from an independent accounting firm that such an initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view. We are not required to obtain such an opinion in any other context.
Stockholders May Not Have the Ability to Approve an Initial Business Combination
We may conduct redemptions without a stockholder vote pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC subject to the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. However, we will seek stockholder approval if it is required by law or applicable stock exchange rule, or we may decide to seek stockholder approval for business or other legal reasons.
Redemption Rights for Public Shareholders Upon Completion of Our Initial Business Combination
We will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public shares upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per-share
price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of the initial business combination, including interest (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, subject to limitations. At the completion of our initial business combination, we will be required to purchase any common stock properly delivered for redemption and not withdrawn. The amount in the trust account is initially anticipated to be $10.00 per public share. The per-share
amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters. The redemption rights will include the requirement that a beneficial holder must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. There will be no redemption rights upon the completion of our initial business combination with respect to our warrants. Our initial shareholders, directors and officers have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and public shares held by them in connection with the completion of our initial business combination.
Manner of Conducting Redemptions
We will provide our public shareholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public shares upon the completion of our initial business combination either (1) in connection with a stockholder meeting called to approve the business combination or (2) by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether we will seek shareholder approval of a proposed business combination or conduct a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on a variety of factors such as the timing of the transaction and whether the terms of the transaction would require us to seek shareholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement. Asset acquisitions and share purchases would not typically require shareholder approval while direct mergers with our company where we do not survive and any transactions where we issue more than 20% of our issued and outstanding common stock or seek to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation would typically require shareholder approval. We intend to conduct redemptions without a shareholder vote pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC unless shareholder approval is required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement or we choose to seek shareholder approval for business or other reasons.
Limitation on Redemption Upon Completion of our Initial Business Combination If We Seek Shareholder Approval
If we seek shareholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that a public shareholder, together with any affiliate of such shareholder or any other person with whom such shareholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from redeeming its shares with respect to Excess Shares, without our prior consent. We believe this restriction will discourage shareholders from accumulating large blocks of shares, and subsequent attempts by such holders to use their ability to exercise their redemption rights against a proposed business combination as a means to force us or our sponsor or its affiliates to purchase their shares at a significant premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. Absent this provision, a public shareholder holding more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in this offering could threaten to exercise its redemption rights if such holder’s shares are not purchased by us or our sponsor or its affiliates at a premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. By limiting our shareholders’ ability to redeem no more than 15% of the shares sold in this offering, we believe we will limit the ability of a small group of shareholders to unreasonably attempt to block our ability to complete our initial business combination, particularly in connection with a business combination with a target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. However, we would not be restricting our shareholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination.
Redemption of Public Shares and Liquidation If No Initial Business Combination
Our sponsor, directors and officers have agreed that we will have only 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering by August 5, 2023 to complete our initial business combination. If we have not completed our initial business combination, we will: (1) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (2) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per-share
price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public shareholders’ rights as shareholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any); and (3) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining shareholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions with respect to our warrants, which will expire worthless if we fail to complete our initial business combination by August 5, 2023.
Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains certain requirements and restrictions relating to the initial public offering that will apply to us until the completion of our initial business combination. These provisions cannot be amended without the approval of the holders of 65% of our common stock. Our initial stockholders, who collectively beneficially own 20% of our common stock upon the inception of this company (assuming they do not purchase any units in the initial public offering), may participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and will have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. Specifically, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides, among other things, that:
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If we are unable to complete our initial business combination by August 5, 2023 we will (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but no more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per-share
price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and in all cases subject to the requirements of other applicable law;
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Prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional securities that would entitle the holders thereof to (i) receive funds from the trust account or (ii) vote as a class with our public shares (a) on our initial business combination or (b) to approve an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to (x) extend the time we have to consummate a business combination beyond 24 months from the inception of this company or (y) amend the foregoing provisions;
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Although we do not intend to enter into a business combination with a target business that is affiliated with our sponsor, our directors or our executive officers, we are not prohibited from doing so. In the event we enter into such a transaction, we, or a committee of independent directors, may obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or a valuation or appraisal firm that such a business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view;
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If a stockholder vote on our initial business combination is not required by law and we do not decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other legal reasons, we will offer to redeem our public shares pursuant to Rule 13e-4
and Regulation 14E of the Exchange Act, and will file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our initial business combination which contain substantially the same financial and other information about our initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act. Whether or not we maintain our registration under the Exchange Act or our listing on the Nasdaq, we will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares by one of the two methods listed above;
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So long as we obtain and maintain a listing for our securities on the Nasdaq, the Nasdaq rules require that we must consummate an initial business combination with one or more operating businesses or assets with a fair market value of at least 80% of the assets held in the trust account (excluding the amount of deferred underwriting discounts held in trust and taxes payable on the interest earned on the trust account) at the time of the agreement to enter into the initial business combination;
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If our stockholders approve an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination by August 5, 2023 or with respect to any other material provisions relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial
business combination activity, we will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their Class
A common stock upon such approval at a per-share
price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described herein; and
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We will not effectuate our initial business combination with another blank check company or a similar company with nominal operations.
In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that under no circumstances will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001.
Competition
We expect to encounter intense competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including private investors (which may be individuals or investment partnerships), other blank check companies and other entities, domestic and international, competing for the types of businesses we intend to acquire. Many of these individuals and entities are well established and have extensive experience in identifying and effecting, directly or indirectly, acquisitions of companies operating in or providing services to various industries. Many of these competitors possess greater technical, human and other resources or more local industry knowledge than we do and our financial resources will be relatively limited when contrasted with those of many of these competitors. While we believe there are numerous target businesses we could potentially acquire with the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain target businesses that are sizable will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent competitive limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of certain target businesses. Furthermore, in the event we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we are obligated to pay cash for our shares of Class A common stock, it will potentially reduce the resources available to us for our initial business combination. Any of these obligations may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating a business combination.
Indemnity
Our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party (other than our independent registered public accounting firm) for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below (1) $10.00 per public share or (2) such lesser amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest which may be withdrawn to pay taxes, except as to any claims by a third party who executed a waiver of any and all rights to seek access to the trust account and except as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of our Initial Public Offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims. We have not independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy their indemnity obligations and believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company and, therefore, our sponsor may not be able to satisfy those obligations. We have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such obligations.
Facilities
We currently maintain our executive office address at 1001 Green Bay Rd. #227, Winnetka, IL 60093. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.
Employees
We currently have two officers and do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Members of our management team are not obligated to devote any specific number of hours to our matters but they intend to devote as much of their time as they deem necessary to our affairs until we have completed our initial business combination. The amount of time that any such person will devote in any time period will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial business combination and the current stage of the business combination process.
Corporate Information
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, as modified by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act. As such, we are eligible to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding
advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the prices of our securities may be more volatile.
In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an “emerging growth company” can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an “emerging growth company” can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We intend to take advantage of the benefits of this extended transition period.
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of: (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of our initial public offering, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates
exceeds $700 million as of the end of that year’s second fiscal quarter; and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.00 billion in non-convertible
debt during the prior three-year period. References herein to “emerging growth company” shall have the meaning associated with it in the JOBS Act.
Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K.
Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates
equaled or exceeded $250 million as of the end of that fiscal year’s second fiscal quarter, or (2) our annual revenues equaled or exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates
equaled or exceeded $700 million as of the end of that fiscal year’s second fiscal quarter.
Our executive offices are located at 1001 Green Bay Rd. #227, Winnetka, IL 60093 and our telephone number is (847) 230-9162.
Our corporate website address is healthwellspac.com
. Our website and the information contained on, or that can be accessed through, the website is not deemed to be incorporated by reference in, and is not considered part of, this Annual Report. You should not rely on any such information in making your decision whether to invest in our securities.

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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
You should consider carefully all of the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this Annual Report, before making a decision to invest in our securities. If any of the following events occur, our business, financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
Risks Relating to our Search for, and Consummation of or Inability to Consummate, a Business Combination
Our public stockholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed business combination, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our public stockholders do not support such a combination.
We may not hold a stockholder vote to approve our initial business combination unless the business combination would require stockholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange rules or if we decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other reasons. For instance, Nasdaq listing rules currently allow us to engage in a tender offer in lieu of an annual meeting, but would still require us to obtain stockholder approval if we were seeking to issue more than 20% of our issued and outstanding shares to a target business as consideration in any business combination. Therefore, if we were structuring a business combination that required us to issue more than 20% of our issued and outstanding shares, we would seek stockholder approval of such business combination. However, except as required by applicable law or stock exchange rules, the decision as to whether we will seek stockholder approval of a proposed business combination or will allow stockholders to sell their shares to us in a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on a variety of factors such as the timing of the transaction and whether the terms of the transaction would otherwise require us to seek stockholder approval. Accordingly, we may consummate our initial business combination even if holders of a majority of the issued and outstanding common stock do not approve of the business combination we consummate.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, our initial stockholders, directors and officers have agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public stockholders’ vote.
Unlike many other blank check companies in which the initial stockholders agree to vote their founder shares in accordance with the majority of the votes cast by the public stockholders in connection with an initial business combination, our initial stockholders, directors and officers have agreed (and their permitted transferees will agree), pursuant to the terms of a letter agreement entered into with us, to vote their founder shares and any public shares held by them in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in addition to our initial stockholders’ founder shares, we would need 9,375,001, or 37.5% (assuming all issued and outstanding shares are voted), or 1,562,501, or 6.25% (assuming only the minimum number of shares representing a quorum are voted), of the 25,000,000 public shares sold in our initial public offering to be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to have such initial business combination approved. Our directors and officers have also entered into the letter agreement, imposing similar obligations on them with respect to public shares acquired by them, if any. The number of public shares set forth above that would need to be voted in favor of an initial business combination would be reduced to the extent of any public shares held by our initial stockholders, directors and officers. We expect that our initial stockholders and their permitted transferees will own at least 20% of our issued and outstanding common stock at the time of any such stockholder vote. Accordingly, if we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, it is more likely that the necessary stockholder approval will be received than would be the case if such persons agreed to vote their founder shares in accordance with the majority of the votes cast by our public stockholders.
Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination will be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash, unless we seek stockholder approval of such business combination.
You will not be provided with an opportunity to evaluate the specific merits or risks of any target businesses. Additionally, since our board of directors may complete a business combination without seeking stockholder approval, public stockholders may not have the right or opportunity to vote on the business combination, unless we seek such stockholder approval. Accordingly, if we do not seek stockholder approval, your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to exercising your redemption rights within the period of time (which will be at least 20 business days) set forth in our tender offer documents mailed to our public stockholders in which we describe our initial business combination.
The ability of our public stockholders to redeem their shares for cash may make our financial condition unattractive to potential business combination targets, which may make it difficult for us to enter into a business combination with a target.
We may seek to enter into a business combination transaction agreement with a prospective target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. If too many public stockholders exercise their redemption rights, we would not be able to meet such closing condition and, as a result, would not be able to proceed with the business combination. The amount of the deferred underwriting commissions payable to the underwriters will not be adjusted for any shares that are redeemed in connection with a business combination and such amount of deferred underwriting discount is not available for us to use as consideration in an initial business combination. If we are able to consummate an initial business combination, the per-share
value of shares held by non-redeeming
stockholders will reflect our obligation to pay and the payment of the deferred underwriting commissions. Furthermore, in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 following such redemptions, or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement that may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination. Consequently, if accepting all properly submitted redemption requests would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 or such greater amount necessary to satisfy a closing condition as described above, we would not proceed with such redemption and the related business combination and may instead search for an alternate business combination. Prospective targets will be aware of these risks and, thus, may be reluctant to enter into a business combination transaction with us.
The ability of our public stockholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares may not allow us to complete the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure.
At the time we enter into an agreement for our initial business combination, we will not know how many stockholders may exercise their redemption rights and, therefore, we will need to structure the transaction based on our expectations as to the number of shares that will be submitted for redemption. If our initial business combination agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the trust account to pay the purchase price, or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, we will need to reserve a portion of the cash in the trust account to meet such requirements, or arrange for third-party financing. In addition, if a larger number of shares is submitted for redemption than we initially expected, we may need to restructure the transaction to reserve a greater portion of the cash in the trust account or arrange for third- party financing. Raising additional third-party financing may involve dilutive equity issuances or the incurrence of indebtedness at higher than desirable levels. The above considerations may limit our ability to complete the most desirable business combination available to us or optimize our capital structure.
The ability of our public stockholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares could increase the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful and that you would have to wait for liquidation in order to redeem your shares.
If our initial business combination agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the trust account to pay the purchase price, or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful increases. If our initial business combination is unsuccessful, you would not receive your pro rata portion of the trust account until we liquidate the trust account. If you are in need of immediate liquidity, you could attempt to sell your shares in the open market; however, at such time our shares may trade at a discount to the pro rata amount per share in the trust account. In either situation, you may suffer a material loss on your investment or lose the benefit of funds expected in connection with our redemption until we liquidate or you are able to sell your shares in the open market.
The requirement that we complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame may give potential target businesses leverage over us in negotiating a business combination and may limit the time we have in which to conduct due diligence on potential business combination targets, in particular as we approach our dissolution deadline, which could undermine our ability to complete our initial business combination on terms that would produce value for our stockholders.
Any potential target business with which we enter into negotiations concerning a business combination will be aware that we must complete our initial business combination by August 5, 2023. Consequently, such target business may obtain leverage over us in negotiating a business combination, knowing that if we do not complete our initial business combination with that particular target business, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination with any target business. This risk will increase as we get closer to the end of the 24-month
period. In addition, we may have limited time to conduct due diligence and may enter into our initial business combination on terms that we would have rejected upon a more comprehensive investigation.
We may not be able to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame, in which case we would cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up and we would redeem our public shares and liquidate, in which case our public stockholders may receive only $10.00 per share, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless.
Our sponsor, directors and officers have agreed that we must complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering. We may not be able to find a suitable target business and complete our initial business combination within such time period. Our ability to complete our initial business combination may be negatively impacted by general market conditions, volatility in the capital and debt markets and the other risks described herein, including the impact of events such as the war between Russia and the Ukraine and the continued impact of outbreaks of COVID-19
in both in the U.S. and globally. These factors could limit our ability to complete our initial business combination, including as a result of increased market volatility, decreased market liquidity and third-party financing being unavailable on terms acceptable to us or at all. Additionally, the outbreak of the COVID-19
Coronavirus may negatively impact businesses we may seek to acquire.
If we have not completed our initial business combination within such time period, we will: (1) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (2) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per-share
price, payable in cash, equal to the
aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any); and (3) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. In such case, our public stockholders may receive only $10.00 per share, or less than $10.00 per share, on the redemption of their shares, and our warrants will expire worthless. See “-If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per-share
redemption amount received by stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share” and other risk factors herein.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates may elect to purchase shares or warrants from public stockholders, which may influence a vote on a proposed business combination and reduce the public “float” of our securities.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates may purchase public shares or warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination. Any such price per share may be different than the amount per share a public stockholder would receive if it elected to redeem its shares in connection with our initial business combination. Additionally, at any time at or prior to our initial business combination, subject to applicable securities laws (including with respect to material nonpublic information), our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates may enter into transactions with investors and others to provide them with incentives to acquire public shares, vote their public shares in favor of our initial business combination or not redeem their public shares. However, our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates are under no obligation or duty to do so and they have no current commitments, plans or intentions to engage in such transactions and have not formulated any terms or conditions for any such transactions. The purpose of such purchases could be to vote such shares in favor of our initial business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining stockholder approval of our initial business combination or to satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our initial business combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. The purpose of any such purchases of public warrants could be to reduce the number of public warrants outstanding or to vote such warrants on any matters submitted to the warrant holders for approval in connection with our initial business combination. This may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible.
In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our securities and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, possibly making it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
In evaluating a prospective target business for our initial business combination, our management may rely on the availability of the funds from the sale to Peterson Partners of the forward purchase units to be used as part of the consideration to the sellers in the initial business combination. If the sale of the contingent forward purchase securities fails to close, we may lack sufficient funds to consummate our initial business combination.
Peterson Partners, a member of our sponsor, has entered into a forward purchase agreement with us, to purchase, in a private placement for aggregate gross proceeds of $40.0 million to occur concurrently with the consummation of our initial business combination. Peterson Partner’s commitment under the forward purchase agreement is subject to, among other conditions, the approval of its investment committee to purchase the units no later than five business days after we notify them of our intention to enter into a definitive agreement for a proposed business combination. Accordingly, if its investment committee does not consent to the purchase, it will not be obligated to purchase the forward purchase units. The funds from the sale of the forward purchase units are expected to be used as part of the consideration paid to the sellers in our initial business combination and may be used to pay expenses in connection with our initial business combination or for the working capital needs of the post-transaction company. The forward purchase agreement does not depend on whether any public stockholders elect to redeem their shares in connection with our initial business combination and may provide us with a minimum funding level for the initial business combination. However, if the sale of the forward purchase units does not close by reason of (i) the failure of a condition or contingency or (ii) Peterson Partner’s failure to fund the purchase price for the forward purchase units, either because they lack sufficient funds or because they determine that it is not in their best interest to fund the purchase price for any reason whatsoever, we may lack sufficient funds to consummate our initial business combination, or we may need to seek alternative financing. In the event of any such failure to fund, we may not be able to obtain additional funds to account for such shortfall on terms favorable to us or at all. Any such shortfall would also reduce the amount of funds that we have available for the working capital of the post-business combination company. Peterson Partners is not obligated to reserve funds to satisfy its obligations under the contingent forward purchase agreement.
As the number of special purpose acquisition companies evaluating targets increases, attractive targets may become scarcer and there may be more competition for attractive targets. This could increase the cost of our initial business combination and could even result in our inability to find a target or to consummate an initial business combination.
In recent years, the number of special purpose acquisition companies that have been formed has increased substantially. Many potential targets for special purpose acquisition companies have already entered into an initial business combination, and there are still many special purpose acquisition companies preparing for an initial public offering, as well as many such companies currently in registration. As a result, at times, fewer attractive targets may be available to consummate an initial business combination. In addition, because there are more special purpose acquisition companies seeking to enter into an initial business combination with available targets, the competition for available targets with attractive fundamentals or business models may increase, which could cause targets companies to demand improved financial terms. Attractive deals could also become scarcer for other reasons, such as economic or industry sector downturns, geopolitical tensions, or increases in the cost of additional capital needed to close business combinations or operate targets post-business combination.
This could increase the cost of, delay or otherwise complicate or frustrate our ability to find and consummate an initial business combination, and may result in our inability to consummate an initial business combination on terms favorable to our investors, or at all.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses, we may enter into our initial business combination with a target that does not meet such criteria and guidelines, and as a result, the target business with which we enter into our initial business combination may not have attributes entirely consistent with our general criteria and guidelines.
Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines for evaluating prospective target businesses, it is possible that a target business with which we enter into our initial business combination will not have all of these positive attributes. If we complete our initial business combination with a target that does not meet some or all of these criteria and guidelines, such combination may not be as successful as a combination
with a business that does meet all of our general criteria and guidelines. In addition, if we announce a prospective business combination with a target that does not meet our general criteria and guidelines, a greater number of stockholders may exercise their redemption rights, which may make it difficult for us to meet any closing condition with a target business that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. In addition, if stockholder approval of the transaction is required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements, or we decide to obtain stockholder approval for business or other reasons, it may be more difficult for us to attain stockholder approval of our initial business combination if the target business does not meet our general criteria and guidelines. If we have not completed our initial business combination within the required time period, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
We may seek acquisition opportunities with an early stage company, a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of revenue or earnings.
To the extent we complete our initial business combination with an early stage company, a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of sales or earnings, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the operations of the business with which we combine. These risks include investing in a business without a proven business model and with limited historical financial data, volatile revenues or earnings, intense competition and difficulties in obtaining and retaining key personnel. Although our directors and officers will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we may not be able to properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors and we may not have adequate time to complete due diligence. Furthermore, some of these risks may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely impact a target business.
We are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from an independent accounting firm regarding fairness. Consequently, you may have no assurance from an independent source that the price we are paying for the business is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
Unless we complete our initial business combination with an affiliated entity, we are not required to obtain an opinion that the price we are paying is fair to our company from a financial point of view. If no opinion is obtained, our stockholders will be relying on the judgment of our board of directors, who will determine fair market value based on standards generally accepted by the financial community. Such standards used will be disclosed in our tender offer documents or proxy solicitation materials, as applicable, related to our initial business combination
We do not have a specified maximum redemption threshold. The absence of such a redemption threshold may make it possible for us to complete a business combination with which a substantial majority of our stockholders do not agree.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation does not provide a specified maximum redemption threshold, except that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 following such redemptions, or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement that may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination. As a result, we may be able to complete our initial business combination even though a substantial majority of our public stockholders do not agree with the transaction and have redeemed their shares or, if we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, have entered into privately negotiated agreements to sell their shares to our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their
affiliates. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all public shares that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the business combination or redeem any shares, and all common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof, and we instead may search for an alternate business combination.
In order to effectuate an initial business combination, blank check companies have, in the past, amended various provisions of their charters and modified governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or governing instruments in a manner that will make it easier for us to complete our initial business combination that some of our stockholders may not support.
In order to effectuate a business combination, special purpose acquisition companies have, in the recent past, amended various provisions of their charters and governing instruments, including their warrant agreements. For example, special purpose acquisition companies have amended the definition of business combination, increased redemption thresholds and extended the time to consummate an initial business combination and, with respect to their warrants, amended their warrant agreements to require the warrants to be exchanged for cash and/or other securities. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that any of its provisions related to pre-business
combination activity (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants into the trust account and not release such amounts except in specified circumstances) may be amended if approved by holders of at least 65% of our outstanding common stock who attend and vote in a stockholder meeting, and corresponding provisions of the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account may be amended if approved by holders of at least 65% of our outstanding common stock. Amending our warrant agreement will require a vote of holders of at least 50% of the public warrants and, solely with respect to any amendment to the terms of the private placement warrants or the forward purchase warrants or any provision of the warrant agreement with respect to the private placement warrants or forward purchase warrants, 50% of the number of the then outstanding private placement warrants and forward purchase warrants. In all other instances, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that it may be amended by holders of a majority of our common stock, subject to applicable provisions of the DGCL or applicable stock exchange rules. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will require us to provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash if we propose an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete an initial business combination within 24 months of the closing of our initial public offering or with respect to any other material provisions relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial
business combination activity. To the extent any of such amendments would be deemed to fundamentally change the nature of the securities offered through this registration statement, we would register, or seek an exemption from registration for, the affected securities. We cannot assure you that we will not seek to amend our charter or governing instruments or extend the time to consummate an initial business combination in order to effectuate our initial business combination.
We may be able to complete only one business combination with the proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, which will cause us to be solely dependent on a single business which may have a limited number of products or services. This lack of diversification may negatively impact our operations and profitability.
The net proceeds from the initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants was $250,000,000 that we may use to complete our initial business combination (which includes $8,750,000 of deferred underwriting commissions being held in the trust account, and excludes anchor investor offering costs of $7,207,313, cash underwriting discount of $5,000,000 and other offering expenses of $762,826 in connection with the initial public offering.)
We may effectuate our initial business combination with a single target business or multiple target businesses simultaneously or within a short period of time. However, we may not be able to effectuate our initial business combination with more than one target business because of various factors, including the existence of complex accounting issues and the requirement that we prepare and file pro forma financial statements with the SEC that present operating results and the financial condition of several target businesses as if they had been operated on a combined basis. By completing our initial business combination with only a single entity our lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory risks. Further, we would not be able to diversify our operations or benefit from the possible spreading of risks or offsetting of losses, unlike other entities which may have the resources to complete several business combinations in different industries or different areas of a single industry. Accordingly, the prospects for our success may be:
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solely dependent upon the performance of a single business, property or asset; or
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dependent upon the development or market acceptance of a single or limited number of products, processes or services.
This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory risks, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to our initial business combination.
We may attempt to simultaneously complete business combinations with multiple prospective targets, which may hinder our ability to complete our initial business combination and give rise to increased costs and risks that could negatively impact our operations and profitability.
If we determine to simultaneously acquire several businesses that are owned by different sellers, we will need for each of such sellers to agree that our purchase of its business is contingent on the simultaneous closings of the other business combinations, which may make it more difficult for us, and delay our ability, to complete our initial business combination. With multiple business combinations, we could also face additional risks, including additional burdens and costs with respect to possible multiple negotiations and due diligence investigations (if there are multiple sellers) and the additional risks associated with the subsequent assimilation of the operations and services or products of the acquired companies in a single operating business. If we are unable to adequately address these risks, it could negatively impact our profitability and results of operations.
We may attempt to complete our initial business combination with a private company about which little information is available, which may result in a business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
In pursuing our acquisition strategy, we may seek to effectuate our initial business combination with a privately held company. Very little public information generally exists about private companies, and we could be required to make our decision on whether to pursue a potential initial business combination on the basis of limited information, which may result in a business combination with a company that is not as profitable as we suspected, if at all.
Certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that relate to our pre-business
combination activity (and corresponding provisions of the agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account) may be amended with the approval of holders of at least 65% of our
common stock who are entitled vote at an annual meeting, which is a lower amendment threshold than that of some other blank check companies. It may be easier for us, therefore, to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and the trust agreement to facilitate the completion of an initial business combination that some of our stockholders may not support.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that any of its provisions related to pre-business
combination activity (including the requirement to deposit proceeds of our initial public offering and the private placement of warrants into the trust account and not release such amounts except in specified circumstances, and to provide redemption rights to public stockholders as described herein) may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our common stock entitled to vote thereon and corresponding provisions of the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our common stock entitled to vote thereon. In all other instances, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation may be amended by holders of a majority of our outstanding common stock entitled to vote thereon, subject to applicable provisions of the DGCL or applicable stock exchange rules. Our initial stockholders, who will collectively beneficially own 20% of our common stock upon the closing of our initial public offering (assuming they do not purchase any units in our initial public offering), may participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and/or trust agreement and will have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. As a result, we may be able to amend the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation which govern our pre-business
combination behavior more easily than some other special purpose acquisition companies, and this may increase our ability to complete a business combination with which you do not agree. Our stockholders may pursue remedies against us for any breach of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation.
Our sponsor, officers, directors and director nominees have agreed, pursuant to written agreements with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or with respect to any other material provisions relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial
business combination activity, unless we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their Class A common stock upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share
price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, divided by the number of then outstanding public shares. Our stockholders are not parties to, or third-party beneficiaries of, these agreements and, as a result, will not have the ability to pursue remedies against our sponsor, executive officers, directors or director nominees for any breach of these agreements. As a result, in the event of a breach, our stockholders would need to pursue a stockholder derivative action, subject to applicable law.
We may be unable to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination or to fund the operations and growth of a target business, which could compel us to restructure or abandon a particular business combination.
Although we believe that the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants and forward purchase securities will be sufficient to allow us to complete our initial business combination, because we have not yet selected any target business we cannot ascertain the capital requirements for any particular transaction. If the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants and forward purchase securities prove to be insufficient, either because of the size of our initial business combination, the depletion of the available net proceeds in search of a target business, the obligation to redeem for cash a significant number of shares from stockholders who elect redemption in connection with our initial business combination or the terms of negotiated transactions to purchase shares in connection with our initial business combination, we may be required to seek additional
financing or to abandon the proposed business combination. We cannot assure you that such financing will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. To the extent that additional financing proves to be unavailable when needed to complete our initial business combination, we would be compelled to either restructure the transaction or abandon that particular business combination and seek an alternative target business candidate.
In addition, even if we do not need additional financing to complete our initial business combination, we may require such financing to fund the operations or growth of the target business. The failure to secure additional financing could have a material adverse effect on the continued development or growth of the target business. Other than in connection with the forward purchase agreement, none of our directors, officers or stockholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our initial business combination. If we have not completed our initial business combination within the required time period, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account, and our warrants will expire worthless.
Nasdaq may delist our securities from trading on its exchange, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions.
Our units, shares of Class A common stock and warrants are listed on Nasdaq. Although we currently meet the minimum initial listing standards set forth in the Nasdaq listing standards, we cannot assure you that our securities will continue to be listed on Nasdaq in the future or prior to our initial business combination. In order to continue listing our securities on Nasdaq prior to our initial business combination, we must maintain certain financial, distribution and stock price levels. In general, we must maintain a minimum amount in stockholders’ equity (generally $2,500,000) and a minimum of 300 public holders. Additionally, in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with Nasdaq’s initial listing requirements, which are more rigorous than Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities on Nasdaq. For instance, our share price would generally be required to be at least $4.00 per share, our stockholders’ equity would generally be required to be at least $5 million and we would be required to have a minimum of 300 round lot holders of our unrestricted securities (with at least 50% of such round-lot
holders holding unrestricted securities with a market value of at least $2,500). We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time.
If Nasdaq delists any of our securities from trading on its exchange and we are not able to list our securities on another national securities exchange, we expect such securities could be quoted on an over-the-counter
market. If this were to occur, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:
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a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;
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reduced liquidity for our securities;
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a determination that our shares of Class A common stock are a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our Class A common stock to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our securities;
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a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and
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a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.
The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, which is a federal statute, prevents or preempts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.” Because our units, shares of Class A common stock and warrants are listed on Nasdaq, our units, shares of
Class A common stock and warrants qualify as covered securities under such statute. Although the states are preempted from regulating the sale of covered securities, the federal statute does allow the states to investigate companies if there is a suspicion of fraud, and, if there is a finding of fraudulent activity, then the states can regulate or bar the sale of covered securities in a particular case. While we are not aware of a state having used these powers to prohibit or restrict the sale of securities issued by blank check companies, other than the State of Idaho, certain state securities regulators view blank check companies unfavorably and might use these powers, or threaten to use these powers, to hinder the sale of securities of blank check companies in their states. Further, if we were no longer listed on Nasdaq, our securities would not qualify as covered securities under such statute and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities.
You are not entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.
Since the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants are intended to be used to complete an initial business combination with a target business that has not been selected, we may be deemed to be a “blank check” company under the U.S. securities laws. However, because we will have net tangible assets in excess of $5,000,000 and have filed a Current Report on Form 8-K,
including an audited balance sheet of the company demonstrating this fact, we are exempt from rules promulgated by the SEC to protect investors in blank check companies, such as Rule 419. Accordingly, investors are not afforded the benefits or protections of those rules. Among other things, this means our units will be immediately tradable and we will have a longer period of time to complete our initial business combination than do companies subject to Rule 419. Moreover, if our initial public offering were subject to Rule 419, that rule would prohibit the release of any interest earned on funds held in the trust account to us unless and until the funds in the trust account were released to us in connection with our completion of an initial business combination.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, and if you or a “group” of stockholders are deemed to hold in excess of 15% of our shares of Class A common stock, you will lose the ability to redeem all such shares in excess of 15% of our shares of Class A common stock.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from redeeming its shares with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in our initial public offering, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares,” without our prior consent. However, we would not be restricting our stockholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination. Your inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce your influence over our ability to complete our initial business combination and you could suffer a material loss on your investment in us if you sell Excess Shares in open market transactions. Additionally, you will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the Excess Shares if we complete our initial business combination. And as a result, you will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 15% and, in order to dispose of such shares, would be required to sell your shares in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.
Because of our limited resources and the significant competition for business combination opportunities, it may be more difficult for us to complete our initial business combination. If we have not completed our initial business combination within the required time period, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on our redemption of their shares, and our warrants will expire worthless.
We expect to encounter intense competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including private investors (which may be individuals or investment partnerships), other blank check companies and other entities, domestic and international, competing for the types of businesses we intend to acquire. Many of these individuals and entities are well established and have extensive experience in identifying and effecting, directly or indirectly, acquisitions of companies operating in or providing services to various industries. Many of these competitors possess greater technical, human and other resources or more local industry knowledge than we do and our financial resources will be relatively limited when contrasted with those of many of these competitors. While we believe there are numerous target businesses we could potentially acquire with the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain target businesses that are sizable will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent competitive limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of certain target businesses. Furthermore, in the event we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we are obligated to pay cash for our shares of Class A common stock, it will potentially reduce the resources available to us for our initial business combination. Any of these obligations may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating a business combination. If we have not completed our initial business combination within the required time period, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
If the funds not being held in the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate for at least the 24 months following the closing of our initial public offering, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination.
As of December 31, 2021, we had cash of $749,256 held outside the trust account to find out working capital requirements. The funds available to us outside of the trust account may not be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the 24 months following the closing of the initial public offering, assuming that our initial business combination is not completed during that time. We expect to incur significant costs in pursuit of our acquisition plans. We believe that, following the closing of the initial public offering, the funds available to us outside of the trust account, will be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the 24 months following the closing of the initial public offering; however, we cannot assure you that our estimate is accurate. Of the funds available to us, we could use a portion of the funds available to us to pay fees to consultants to assist us with our search for a target business. We could also use a portion of the funds as a down payment or to fund a “no-shop”
provision (a provision in letters of intent designed to keep target businesses from “shopping” around for transactions with other companies or investors on terms more favorable to such target businesses) with respect to a particular proposed business combination, although we do not have any current intention to do so. If we entered into a letter of intent where we paid for the right to receive exclusivity from a target business and were subsequently required to forfeit such funds (whether as a result of our breach or otherwise), we might not have sufficient funds to continue searching for, or conduct due diligence with respect to, a target business. If we have not completed our initial business combination within the required time period, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
If the net proceeds of the initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants not being held in the trust account are insufficient, it could limit the amount available to fund our search for a target business or businesses and complete our initial business combination and we may depend on loans from our sponsor or management team to fund our search, to pay our taxes and to complete our initial business combination.
As of December 31, 2021, we had cash of $749,256 held outside the trust account to fund our working capital requirements. We believe that the funds available to us outside of the trust account may not be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least 15 months following the closing of our initial public offering, assuming that our initial Business Combination is not completed during that time. We expect to incur significant costs in pursuit of our acquisition plans.
If we are required to seek additional capital, we would need to borrow funds from our sponsor, management team or other third parties to operate or may be forced to liquidate. Neither our sponsor, members of our management team nor any of their affiliates is under any obligation to loan funds to, or otherwise invest in, us in such circumstances. Any such loans may be repaid only from funds held outside the trust account or from funds released to us upon completion of our initial business combination. If we have not completed our initial business combination within the required time period because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the trust account. In such case, our public stockholders may receive only $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless.
Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may adversely affect our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, and results of operations.
We are subject to laws and regulations enacted by national, regional and local governments. In particular, we will be required to comply with certain SEC and other legal requirements. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws and regulations may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws and regulations and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, and results of operations.
Risks Relating to our Securities
If a stockholder fails to receive notice of our offer to redeem our public shares in connection with our initial business combination, or fails to comply with the procedures for tendering its shares, such shares may not be redeemed.
We will comply with the tender offer rules or proxy rules, as applicable, when conducting redemptions in connection with our initial business combination. Despite our compliance with these rules, if a stockholder fails to receive our tender offer or proxy materials, as applicable, such stockholder may not become aware of the opportunity to redeem its shares. In addition, the tender offer documents or proxy materials, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will describe the various procedures that must be complied with in order to validly tender or redeem public shares. In the event that a stockholder fails to comply with these procedures, its shares may not be redeemed.
Nasdaq may delist our securities from trading on its exchange, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions.
Our units, shares of Class A common stock and warrants are listed on Nasdaq. Although we currently meet the minimum initial listing standards set forth in the Nasdaq listing standards, we cannot assure you that our securities will continue to be listed on Nasdaq in the future or prior to our initial business combination.
In order to continue listing our securities on Nasdaq prior to our initial business combination, we must maintain certain financial, distribution and stock price levels. In general, we must maintain a minimum amount in stockholders’ equity (generally $2,500,000) and a minimum of 300 public holders. Additionally, in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with Nasdaq’s initial listing requirements, which are more rigorous than Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities on Nasdaq. For instance, our share price would generally be required to be at least $4.00 per share, our stockholders’ equity would generally be required to be at least $5 million and we would be required to have a minimum of 300 round lot holders of our unrestricted securities (with at least 50% of such round-lot
holders holding unrestricted securities with a market value of at least $2,500). We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those initial listing requirements at that time.
If Nasdaq delists any of our securities from trading on its exchange and we are not able to list our securities on another national securities exchange, we expect such securities could be quoted on an over-the-counter
market. If this were to occur, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:
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a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;
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reduced liquidity for our securities;
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a determination that our shares of Class A common stock are a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our Class A common stock to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our securities;
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a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and
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a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.
The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, which is a federal statute, prevents or preempts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.” Because our units, shares of Class A common stock and warrants are listed on Nasdaq, our units, shares of Class A common stock and warrants qualify as covered securities under such statute. Although the states are preempted from regulating the sale of covered securities, the federal statute does allow the states to investigate companies if there is a suspicion of fraud, and, if there is a finding of fraudulent activity, then the states can regulate or bar the sale of covered securities in a particular case. While we are not aware of a state having used these powers to prohibit or restrict the sale of securities issued by blank check companies, other than the State of Idaho, certain state securities regulators view blank check companies unfavorably and might use these powers, or threaten to use these powers, to hinder the sale of securities of blank check companies in their states. Further, if we were no longer listed on Nasdaq, our securities would not qualify as covered securities under such statute and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities.
You are not entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.
Since the net proceeds of our initial public offering and the sale of the private placement warrants are intended to be used to complete an initial business combination with a target business that has not been selected, we may be deemed to be a “blank check” company under the U.S. securities laws. However, because we will have net tangible assets in excess of $5,000,000 and have filed a Current Report on Form 8-K,
including an audited balance sheet of the company demonstrating this fact, we are exempt from rules promulgated by the SEC to protect investors in blank check companies, such as Rule 419. Accordingly, investors are not afforded the benefits or protections of those rules. Among other things, this means our units will be immediately tradable and we will have a longer period of time to complete our initial business
combination than do companies subject to Rule 419. Moreover, if our initial public offering were subject to Rule 419, that rule would prohibit the release of any interest earned on funds held in the trust account to us unless and until the funds in the trust account were released to us in connection with our completion of an initial business combination.
You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the trust account, except under certain limited circumstances. To liquidate your investment, therefore, you may be forced to sell your public shares and/or warrants, potentially at a loss.
Our public stockholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only upon the earliest to occur of: (1) our completion of an initial business combination, and then only in connection with those shares of Class A common stock that such stockholder properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations described herein; (2) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial
business combination activity; and (3) the redemption of our public shares if we have not completed an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering, subject to applicable law. In no other circumstances will a stockholder have any right or interest of any kind to or in the trust account. Holders of warrants will not have any right to the proceeds held in the trust account with respect to the warrants. Accordingly, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares and/or warrants, potentially at a loss.
Subsequent to our completion of our initial business combination, we may be required to subsequently take write-downs or write-offs, restructuring and impairment or other charges that could have a significant negative effect on our financial condition, results of operations and the price of our securities, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.
Even if we conduct extensive due diligence on a target business with which we combine, we cannot assure you that this diligence will identify all material issues that may be present with a particular target business that it would be possible to uncover all material issues through a customary amount of due diligence, or that factors outside of the target business and outside of our control will not later arise. As a result of these factors, we may be forced to later write down or write off assets, restructure our operations, or incur impairment or other charges that could result in our reporting losses. Even if our due diligence successfully identifies certain risks, unexpected risks may arise and previously known risks may materialize in a manner not consistent with our preliminary risk analysis. Even though these charges may be non-cash
items and not have an immediate impact on our liquidity, the fact that we report charges of this nature could contribute to negative market perceptions about us or our securities. In addition, charges of this nature may cause us to violate net worth or other covenants to which we may be subject as a result of assuming pre-existing
debt held by a target business or by virtue of our obtaining post-combination debt financing. Accordingly, any stockholder or warrant holder who chooses to remain a stockholder or warrant holder, respectively, following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders and warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per-share
redemption amount received by stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share.
Our placing of funds in the trust account may not protect those funds from third-party claims against us. Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses and other entities with which we do business execute
agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public stockholders, such parties may not execute such agreements, or even if they execute such agreements they may not be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account, including, but not limited to, fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver only if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative.
Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third-party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where we are unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason. Upon redemption of our public shares, if we have not completed our initial business combination within the required time period, or upon the exercise of a redemption right in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to provide for payment of claims of creditors that were not waived that may be brought against us within the 10 years following redemption. Accordingly, the per-share
redemption amount received by public stockholders could be less than the $10.00 per public share initially held in the trust account, due to claims of such creditors.
Our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party (other than our independent registered public accounting firm) for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below (1) $10.00 per public share or (2) such lesser amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of interest which may be withdrawn to pay taxes, except as to any claims by a third party who executed a waiver of any and all rights to seek access to the trust account and except as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of our initial public offering against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims. We have not independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Our sponsor may not have sufficient funds available to satisfy those obligations. We have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such obligations, and therefore, no funds are currently set aside to cover any such obligations. As a result, if any such claims were successfully made against the trust account, the funds available for our initial business combination and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.00 per public share. In such event, we may not be able to complete our initial business combination, and you would receive such lesser amount per share in connection with any redemption of your public shares. None of our directors or officers will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
Our directors may decide not to enforce the indemnification obligations of our sponsor, resulting in a reduction in the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public stockholders.
In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below the lesser of (1) $10.00 per public share or (2) such lesser amount per share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of interest which may be withdrawn to pay taxes, and our sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment may choose not to do so in any particular instance. If our independent directors choose not to enforce these indemnification obligations, the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public stockholders may be reduced below $10.00 per share.
The securities in which we invest the funds held in the trust account could bear a negative rate of interest, which could reduce the value of the assets held in trust such that the per-share
redemption amount received by public stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share.
The proceeds held in the trust account will be invested only in U.S. government treasury obligations with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7
under the Investment Company Act, which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. While short-term U.S. government treasury obligations currently yield a positive rate of interest, they have briefly yielded negative interest rates in recent years. Central banks in Europe and Japan pursued interest rates below zero in recent years, and the Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve has not ruled out the possibility that it may in the future adopt similar policies in the United States. In the event that we are unable to complete our initial business combination or make certain amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our public stockholders are entitled to receive their pro-rata
share of the proceeds held in the trust account, plus any interest income, net of taxes paid or payable (less, in the case we are unable to complete our initial business combination, $100,000 of interest). Negative interest rates could reduce the value of the assets held in trust such that the per-share
redemption amount received by public stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a winding-up
or bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary winding-up
or bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy court may seek to recover such proceeds, and the members of our board of directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to our creditors, thereby exposing the members of our board of directors and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a winding-up
or bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary winding-up
or bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by stockholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or insolvency laws as a voidable performance. As a result, a liquidator could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our stockholders. In addition, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or having acted in bad faith by paying public stockholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a winding-up
or bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary winding-up
or bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the claims of creditors in such proceeding may have priority over the claims of our stockholders and the per-share
amount that would otherwise be received by our stockholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.
If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a winding-up
or bankruptcy or insolvency petition or an involuntary winding-up
or bankruptcy or insolvency petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable insolvency law, and may be included in our liquidation estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our stockholders. To the extent any liquidation claims deplete the trust account, the per-share
amount that would otherwise be received by our stockholders in connection with our liquidation would be reduced.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, we may be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and our activities may be restricted, which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, our activities may be restricted, including:
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restrictions on the nature of our investments; and
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restrictions on the issuance of securities;
each of which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.
In addition, we may have imposed upon us burdensome requirements, including:
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registration as an investment company with the SEC;
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adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and
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reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and other rules and regulations that we are currently not subject to.
We do not believe that our anticipated principal activities will subject us to the Investment Company Act. The proceeds held in the trust account may be invested by the trustee only in U.S. government treasury bills with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds investing solely in U.S. Treasuries and meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7
under the Investment Company Act. Because the investment of the proceeds will be restricted to these instruments, we believe we will meet the requirements for the exemption provided in Rule 3a-1
promulgated under the Investment Company Act. If we were deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act, compliance with these additional regulatory burdens would require additional expenses for which we have not allotted funds and may hinder our ability to complete a business combination. If we have not completed our initial business combination within the required time period, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
If we have not completed our initial business combination by August 5, 2023 our public stockholders may be forced to wait beyond such 24 months before redemption from our trust account.
If we have not completed our initial business combination by August 5, 2023m we will distribute the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses and which interest shall be net of taxes payable), pro rata to our public stockholders by way of redemption and cease all operations except for the purposes of winding up of our affairs, as further described herein. Any redemption of public stockholders from the trust account shall be effected automatically by function of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation prior to any voluntary winding up. If we are required to windup, liquidate the trust account and distribute such amount therein, pro rata, to our public stockholders, as part of any liquidation process, such winding up, liquidation and distribution must comply with the applicable provisions of the DGCL. In that case, investors may be forced to wait beyond the initial 24 months before the redemption proceeds of our trust account become available to them and they receive the return of their pro rata portion of the proceeds from our trust account.
We have no obligation to return funds to investors prior to the date of our redemption or liquidation unless, prior thereto, we consummate our initial business combination or amend certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and then only in cases where investors have properly sought to redeem their shares of Class A common stock. Only upon our redemption or any liquidation will public stockholders be entitled to distributions if we have not completed our initial business combination within the required time period and do not amend certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation prior thereto.
We may not hold an annual meeting until after the consummation of our initial business combination. Our public stockholders do not have the right to elect or remove directors prior to the consummation of our initial business combination.
We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders until after we consummate a business combination (unless required by Nasdaq), and thus may not be in compliance with Section 211(b) of the DGCL, which requires an annual meeting of stockholders be held for the purposes of electing directors in accordance with a company’s bylaws unless such election is made by written consent in lieu of such a meeting. Therefore, if our stockholders want us to hold an annual meeting prior to our consummation of a business combination, they may attempt to force us to hold one by submitting an application to the Delaware Court of Chancery in accordance with Section 211(c) of the DGCL. In addition, as holders of our Class A common stock, our public stockholders do not have the right to vote on the appointment of directors prior to consummation of our initial business combination. In addition, holders of a majority of our founder shares will have the exclusive right to remove any director.
We may not have an effective registration statement in place when an investor desires to exercise warrants, thus precluding such investor from being able to exercise its warrants except on a cashless basis and potentially causing such warrants to expire worthless.
Under the terms of the warrant agreement, we have agreed that, as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 20 business days after the closing of our initial business combination, we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to file with the SEC a registration statement covering the issuance of such shares, and we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to cause the same to become effective within 60 business days after the closing of our initial business combination and to maintain the effectiveness of such registration statement and a current prospectus relating to those shares of Class A common stock until the warrants expire or are redeemed. We cannot assure you that we will be able to do so if, for example, any facts or events arise which represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the registration statement or prospectus, the financial statements contained or incorporated by reference therein are not current, complete or correct or the SEC issues a stop order. If the shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act in accordance with the above requirements, we will be required to permit holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis, in which case, the number of shares of Class A common stock that you will receive upon cashless exercise will be based on a formula subject to a maximum amount of shares equal to 0.361 shares of Class A common stock per warrant (subject to adjustment). However, no warrant will be exercisable for cash or on a cashless basis, and we will not be obligated to issue any shares to holders seeking to exercise their warrants, unless the issuance of the shares upon such exercise is registered or qualified under the securities laws of the state of the exercising holder, or an exemption from registration is available.
Notwithstanding the above, if our shares of Class A common stock are at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they satisfy the definition of a “covered security” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, we may, at our option, require holders of public warrants who exercise their warrants to do so on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act and, in the event we so elect, we will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, but we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available.
In no event will we be required to net cash settle any warrant, or issue securities or other compensation in exchange for the warrants in the event that we are unable to register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under applicable state securities laws and no exemption is available. If the issuance of the shares upon exercise of the warrants is not so registered or qualified or exempt from registration or qualification, the holder of such warrant shall not be entitled to exercise such warrant and such warrant may have no value and expire worthless. In such event, holders who acquired their warrants as part of a purchase of units will have paid the full unit purchase price solely for the shares of Class A common stock included in the units. There may be a circumstance where an exemption from registration exists for holders of our private placement warrants to exercise their warrants while a corresponding exemption does not exist for holders of the public warrants included as part of units sold in our initial public offering. In such an instance, our sponsor and its permitted transferees (which may include our directors and executive officers) would be able to exercise their warrants and sell the common stock underlying their warrants while holders of our public warrants would not be able to exercise their warrants and sell the underlying common stock.
The grant of registration rights to our initial stockholders and their permitted transferees may make it more difficult to complete our initial business combination, and the future exercise of such rights may adversely affect the market price of our shares of Class A common stock.
Pursuant to a registration rights agreement entered into concurrently with our initial public offering,, our initial stockholders and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the resale of their shares of Class A common stock into which founder shares are convertible, the private placement warrants and the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants, forward purchase securities and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans, and the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon conversion of such warrants. The registration rights will be exercisable with respect to the founder shares, the private placement warrants and the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of such private placement warrants, the working capital warrants and the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of such working capital warrants and the forward purchase securities. We will bear the cost of registering these securities. The registration and availability of such a significant number of securities for trading in the public market may have an adverse effect on the market price of our shares of Class A common stock. In addition, the existence of the registration rights may make our initial business combination more costly or difficult to conclude. This is because the stockholders of the target business may increase the equity stake they seek in the combined entity or ask for more cash consideration to offset the negative impact on the market price of our shares of Class A common stock that is expected when the common stock owned by our initial stockholders or their permitted transferees, our private placement warrants or warrants issued in connection with working capital loans are registered for resale.
Because we are not limited to a particular industry or any specific target businesses with which to pursue our initial business combination, you will be unable to ascertain the merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations.
We may seek to complete a business combination with an operating company of any size (subject to our satisfaction of the 80% of net assets test) and in any industry, sector or geography. However, we are not, under our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, be permitted to effectuate our initial business combination solely with another blank check company or similar company with nominal operations. Because we have not yet selected or approached any specific target business with respect to a business combination, there is no basis to evaluate the possible merits or risks of any particular target business’s operations, results of operations, cash flows, liquidity, financial condition or prospects. To the extent we
complete our initial business combination, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the business operations with which we combine. For example, if we combine with a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of sales or earnings, we may be affected by the risks inherent in the business and operations of a financially unstable or development stage entity. Although our directors and officers will endeavor to evaluate the risks inherent in a particular target business, we cannot assure you that we will properly ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors or that we will have adequate time to complete due diligence. Furthermore, some of these risks may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely impact a target business. We also cannot assure you that an investment in our units will not ultimately prove to be less favorable to our investors than a direct investment, if such opportunity were available, in a business combination target. Accordingly, any stockholder or warrant holder who chooses to remain a stockholder or warrant holder, respectively, following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders and warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
We may issue additional shares of Class A common stock or preferred shares to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue shares of Class A common stock upon the conversion of the shares of Class B common stock at a ratio greater than one-to-one
at the time of our initial business combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. Any such issuances would dilute the interest of our stockholders and likely present other risks.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes the issuance of up to 380,000,000 shares of Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, 20,000,000 shares of Class B common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, and 1,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value $0.0001 per share. As of December 31, 2021, there are 355,000,000 and 13,750,000 authorized but unissued shares of Class A common stock and shares of Class B common stock, respectively, available for issuance, which amount takes into account shares reserved for issuance upon exercise of outstanding warrants but not upon conversion of the Class B common stock or the issuance of the forward purchase securities. Shares of Class B common stock are convertible into shares of Class A common stock, initially at a one-for-one
ratio but subject to adjustment as set forth herein. As of December 31, 2021 there are no preferred shares issued and outstanding.
We may issue a substantial number of additional shares of Class A common stock, and may issue preferred shares, in order to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue shares of Class A common stock to redeem the warrants or upon conversion of the shares of Class B common stock at a ratio greater than one-to-one
at the time of our initial business combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation . However, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides, among other things, that prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional common stock that would entitle the holders thereof to (1) receive funds from the trust account or (2) vote as a class with our public shares on any initial business combination. The issuance of additional common stock or preferred shares, including pursuant to the forward purchase agreement:
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may significantly dilute the equity interest of investors in our initial public offering, which dilution would increase if the anti-dilution provisions in the Class B common stock resulted in the issuance of shares of Class A common stock on a greater than one-to-one
basis upon conversion of the shares of Class B common stock;
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may subordinate the rights of holders of common stock if preferred shares are issued with rights senior to those afforded our common stock;
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could cause a change of control if a substantial number of our common stock is issued, which may affect, among other things, our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards, if any, and could result in the resignation or removal of our present directors and officers;
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may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of us by diluting the share ownership or voting rights of a person seeking to obtain control of us;
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may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our units, common stock and/or warrants; and
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may not result in adjustment to the exercise price of our warrants.
Resources could be wasted in researching acquisitions that are not completed, which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we have not completed our initial business combination within the required time period, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
We anticipate that the investigation of each specific target business and the negotiation, drafting and execution of relevant agreements, disclosure documents and other instruments will require substantial management time and attention and substantial costs for accountants, attorneys and others. If we decide not to complete a specific initial business combination, the costs incurred up to that point for the proposed transaction likely would not be recoverable. Furthermore, if we reach an agreement relating to a specific target business, we may fail to complete our initial business combination for any number of reasons including those beyond our control. Any such event will result in a loss to us of the related costs incurred which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business. If we have not completed our initial business combination within the required time period, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.
Since our initial stockholders will lose their entire investment in us if our initial business combination is not completed, a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination.
On February 10, 2021, our sponsor paid $25,000, or approximately $0.003 per share, in exchange for an aggregate of 7,187,500 founder shares (up to 937,500 of which were subject to forfeiture depending on the extent to which the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised). On September 11, 2021, the remaining option expired. As a result, 937,500 shares of Class B common stock were forfeited, and an aggregate of 6,250,000 founder shares remain. Our initial stockholders collectively own 20% of our issued and outstanding shares. The founder shares will be worthless if we do not complete an initial business combination.
In addition, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 7,700,000 private placement warrants each exercisable to purchase one share of Class A common stock at $11.50 per share, at a price of $1.00 per warrant, or $7,700,000 that will also be worthless if we do not complete our initial business combination. Each private placement warrant may be exercised for one share of Class A common stock at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as provided herein.
The founder shares are identical to the common stock included in the units sold in our initial public offering except that: (1) prior to our initial business combination, only holders of the founder shares have the right to vote on the appointment of directors and holders of a majority of our founder shares will have the
exclusive right to remove any director; (2) the founder shares are subject to certain transfer restrictions; (3) our initial stockholders, directors and officers have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive: (i) their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and public shares held by them, as applicable, in connection with the completion of our initial business combination; (ii) their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and public shares held by them in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial
business combination activity; and (iii) their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares they hold if we fail to complete our initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of our initial public offering (although they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any public shares they hold if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame); (4) the founder shares will automatically convert into our shares of Class A common stock at the time of our initial business combination, or earlier at the option of the holder, on a one-for-one
basis, subject to adjustment pursuant to certain anti-dilution rights, as described in more detail below; and (5) the founder shares are entitled to registration rights directors and officers. If we submit our initial business combination to our public stockholders for a vote, our initial stockholders have agreed (and their permitted transferees will agree), pursuant to the terms of a letter agreement entered into with us, to vote their founder shares and any public shares held by them purchased during or after our initial public offering in favor of our initial business combination.
The personal and financial interests of our sponsor, directors and officers may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business combination, completing an initial business combination and influencing the operation of the business following the initial business combination. This risk may become more acute as the 24-month
deadline following the closing of our initial public offering nears, which is the deadline for the completion of our initial business combination. While we do not expect our board of directors to approve any amendment to or waiver of the letter agreement or registration rights agreement prior to our initial business combination, it may be possible that our board of directors, in exercising its business judgment and subject to its fiduciary duties, chooses to approve one or more amendments to or waivers of such agreements in connection with the consummation of our initial business combination. Any such amendments or waivers would not require approval from our stockholders, may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible, and may have an adverse effect on the value of an investment in our securities.
We may issue notes or other debt securities, or otherwise incur substantial debt, to complete a business combination, which may adversely affect our leverage and financial condition and thus negatively impact the value of our stockholders’ investment in us.
Although we have no commitments as of December 31, 2021 to issue any notes or other debt securities, or to otherwise incur outstanding debt following our initial public offering, we may choose to incur substantial debt to complete our initial business combination. We have agreed that we will not incur any indebtedness unless we have obtained from the lender a waiver of any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to the monies held in the trust account. As such, no issuance of debt will affect the per-share
amount available for redemption from the trust account. Nevertheless, the incurrence of debt could have a variety of negative effects, including:
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default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues after an initial business combination are insufficient to repay our debt obligations;
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acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant;
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our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt is payable on demand;
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our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt is outstanding;
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our inability to pay dividends on our common stock;
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using a substantial portion of our cash flow to pay principal and interest on our debt, which will reduce the funds available for dividends on our common stock if declared, expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes;
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limitations on our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in our business and in the industry in which we operate;
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increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation; and
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limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, execution of our strategy and other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt.
The exercise price for the public warrants is higher than in many similar blank check company offerings in the past, and, accordingly, the warrants are more likely to expire worthless.
The exercise price of the public warrants is higher than is typical in many similar blank check companies in the past. Historically, the exercise price of a warrant was generally a fraction of the purchase price of the units in the initial public offering. The exercise price for our public warrants is $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as provided herein. As a result, the warrants are more likely to expire worthless.
Our sponsor paid an aggregate of $25,000, or approximately $0.003 per founder share, and, accordingly, our sponsor could make a substantial profit after our initial business combination even if our public stockholders lose money on their investment as a result of a decrease in the post-combination value of their Class A common stock.
Because the founder shares were purchased by our sponsor at approximately $0.003 per share, the holders of our founder shares (including members of our management team and board of directors, each of whom indirectly own founder shares and have a significant economic interest in our sponsor) could make a substantial profit after our initial business combination even if our public stockholders lose money on their investment as a result of a decrease in the post-combination value of their Class A common stock (after accounting for any adjustments in connection with an exchange or other transaction contemplated by the business combination). For example, a holder of 1,000 founder shares would have paid approximately $3.00 to obtain such shares. At the time of an initial business combination, such holder would be able to convert such founder shares into 1,000 shares of our Class A common stock, and would receive the same consideration in connection with our initial business combination as a public stockholder for the same number of shares of Class A common stock. If the value of our Class A common stock on a post-combination basis (after accounting for any adjustments in connection with an exchange or other transaction
contemplated by the business combination) were to decrease to $5.00 per share of Class commons stock, the holder of our founder shares would obtain a profit of approximately $4,997 on account of the 1,000 founder shares that the holder had converted into shares of Class A common stock in connection with the initial business combination. By contrast, a public stockholder holding 1,000 shares of Class A common stock would lose approximately $5,000.00 in connection with the same transaction.
We may amend the terms of the warrants in a manner that may be adverse to holders of public warrants with the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants.
Our warrants are issued in registered form under a warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any mistake, including to conform the provisions of the warrant agreement to the description of the terms of the warrants and the warrant agreement set forth in this prospectus or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders of public warrants. Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the public warrants in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants approve of such amendment and, solely with respect to any amendment to the terms of the private placement warrants or forward purchase warrants or any provision of the warrant agreement with respect to the private placement warrants or forward purchase warrants, 50% of the number of the then-outstanding private placement warrants and forward purchase warrants. Although our ability to amend the terms of the public warrants with the consent of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of common stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
A provision of our warrant agreement may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination.
Unlike most blank check companies, if
i. we issue additional common stock or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of our initial business combination at a Newly Issued Price of less than $9.20 per share of Class A common stock;
ii. the aggregate gross proceeds from such issuances represent more than 60% of the total equity proceeds, and interest thereon, available for the funding of our initial business combination on the date of the completion of our initial business combination (net of redemptions), and
iii. the Market Value is below $9.20 per share,
then the exercise price of the warrants will be adjusted to be equal to 115% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, and the $18.00 per share redemption trigger will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 180% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price. This may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination with a target business.
Our warrant agreement will designate the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by holders of our warrants, which could limit the ability of warrant holders to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with our company.
Our warrant agreement provides that, subject to applicable law, (i) any action, proceeding or claim against us arising out of or relating in any way to the warrant agreement, including under the Securities Act, will be brought and enforced in the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and (ii) that we irrevocably submit to such jurisdiction, which jurisdiction shall be the exclusive forum for any such action, proceeding or claim. We will waive any objection to such exclusive jurisdiction and that such courts represent an inconvenient forum.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, these provisions of the warrant agreement will not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal district courts of the United States of America are the sole and exclusive forum. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our warrants shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to the forum provisions in our warrant agreement. If any action, the subject matter of which is within the scope the forum provisions of the warrant agreement, is filed in a court other than a court of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (a “foreign action”) in the name of any holder of our warrants, such holder shall be deemed to have consented to: (x) the personal jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in the State of New York in connection with any action brought in any such court to enforce the forum provisions (an “enforcement action”), and (y) having service of process made upon such warrant holder in any such enforcement action by service upon such warrant holder’s counsel in the foreign action as agent for such warrant holder.
This choice-of-forum
provision may limit a warrant holder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with our company, which may discourage such lawsuits and result in warrant holders incurring additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions. Alternatively, if a court were to find this provision of our warrant agreement inapplicable or unenforceable with respect to one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and result in a diversion of the time and resources of our management and board of directors.
We may redeem your unexpired warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to you, thereby making your warrants worthless.
We have the ability to redeem outstanding warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant if, among other things, the last reported sale price of our shares of Class A common stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant) for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading-day
period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws. As a result, we may redeem the public warrants as set forth above even if the holders are otherwise unable to exercise the warrants. Redemption of the outstanding warrants could force you to: (1) exercise your warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so; (2) sell your warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your warrants; or (3) accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding warrants are called for redemption, we expect would be substantially less than the market value of your warrants. None of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us so long as they are held by our sponsor or its permitted transferees.
In addition, we have the ability to redeem outstanding warrants commencing ninety days after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.10 per warrant if, among other things, the last reported sale price of our shares of Class A common stock equals or exceeds $10.00 per share (as adjusted
to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant) on the trading day prior to the date on which we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders. In such a case, the holders will be able to exercise their warrants for cash or on a cashless basis prior to redemption and receive that number of shares of Class A common stock based on the redemption date and the “fair market value” of our shares of Class A common stock. Any such redemption may have similar consequences to a cash redemption described above. In addition, such redemption may occur at a time when the warrants are “out-of-the-money,”
in which case you would lose any potential embedded value from a subsequent increase in the value of the shares of Class A common stock had your warrants remained outstanding. The value received upon exercise of the warrants (1) may be less than the value the holders would have received if they had exercised their warrants at a later time where the underlying share price is higher and (2) may not compensate the holders for the value of the warrants, including because the number of common stock received is capped at 0.361 shares of Class A common stock per warrant (subject to adjustment) irrespective of the remaining life of the warrants.
Our warrants are accounted for as a warrant liability and are recorded at fair value upon issuance with any changes in fair value each period reported in earnings, which may have an adverse effect on the market price of our securities or may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination.
There are 20,200,000 warrants outstanding (comprised of the 12,500,000 Public Warrants and 7,700,000 Private Placement Warrants, and 2,000,000 Forward Purchase Warrants. We currently expect to account for these warrants as a warrant liability, which means that we will record them at fair value upon issuance with any changes in fair value each period reported in earnings. The impact of changes in fair value on earnings may have an adverse effect on the market price of our securities. In addition, potential targets may seek a business combination partner that does not have warrants that are accounted for as a warrant liability, which may make it more difficult for us to consummate an initial business combination with a target business.
Our warrants and founder shares may have an adverse effect on the market price of our shares of Class A common stock and make it more difficult to effectuate our initial business combination.
We issued the warrants to purchase 12,500,000 shares of Class A common stock, at a price of $11.50 per whole share, as part of the units offered in the initial public offering and, simultaneously with the closing of the initial public offering, we issued in a private placement an aggregate of 7,700,000 private placement warrants, each exercisable to purchase one share of Class A common stock at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as provided herein. We may also issue up to 2,000,000 forward purchase warrants pursuant to the forward purchase agreement and shares of Class A common stock on exercise thereof. Our initial stockholders currently hold 6,250,000 shares of Class B common stock. The shares of Class B common stock are convertible into shares of Class A common stock on a one-for-one
basis, subject to adjustment as set forth herein. In addition, if our sponsor, an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our directors and officers make any working capital loans, up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be converted into warrants, at the price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants. To the extent we issue shares of Class A common stock to effectuate a business combination, the potential for the issuance of a substantial number of additional shares of Class A common stock upon exercise of these warrants or conversion rights could make us a less attractive acquisition vehicle to a target business. Any such issuance will increase the number of issued and outstanding shares of Class A common stock and reduce the value of the shares of Class A common stock issued to complete the business combination. Therefore, our warrants and founder shares may make it more difficult to effectuate a business combination or increase the cost of acquiring the target business.
The private placement warrants are identical to the warrants sold as part of the units in the initial public offering except that, so long as they are held by our sponsor or its permitted transferees: (1) they will not be redeemable by us; (2) they (including the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of these warrants) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by our sponsor until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination; (3) they may be exercised by the holders on a cashless basis; and (4) they (including the common stock issuable upon exercise of these warrants) are entitled to registration rights.
Because each unit contains one-half
of one warrant and only a whole warrant may be exercised, the units may be worth less than units of other blank check companies.
Each unit contains one-half
of one warrant. Pursuant to the warrant agreement, no fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units, and only whole warrants will trade. This is different from other offerings similar to ours whose units include one share of Class A common stock and one whole warrant to purchase one share. We have established the components of the units in this way in order to reduce the dilutive effect of the warrants upon completion of a business combination since the warrants will be exercisable in the aggregate for a half of the number of shares compared to units that each contain a whole warrant to purchase one whole share, thus making us, we believe, a more attractive business combination partner for target businesses. Nevertheless, this unit structure may cause our units to be worth less than if they included a warrant to purchase one whole share.
A market for our securities may not develop, which would adversely affect the liquidity and price of our securities.
The price of our securities may vary significantly due to one or more potential business combinations and general market or economic conditions, including as a result of the COVID-19
outbreak. Furthermore, an active trading market for our securities may never develop or, if developed, it may not be sustained. You may be unable to sell your securities unless a market can be established and sustained.
Because we must furnish our stockholders with target business financial statements, we may lose the ability to complete an otherwise advantageous initial business combination with some prospective target businesses.
The federal proxy rules require that a proxy statement with respect to a vote on a business combination meeting certain financial significance tests include historical and/or pro forma financial statement disclosure in periodic reports. We will include the same financial statement disclosure in connection with our tender offer documents, whether or not they are required under the tender offer rules. These financial statements may be required to be prepared in accordance with, or be reconciled to, accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, or U.S. GAAP, or international financial reporting standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, or IFRS, depending on the circumstances and the historical financial statements may be required to be audited in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), or PCAOB. These financial statement requirements may limit the pool of potential target businesses we may acquire because some targets may be unable to provide such financial statements in time for us to disclose such financial statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame.
Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and Delaware law may inhibit a takeover of us, which could limit the price investors might be willing to pay in the future for our shares of Class A common stock and could entrench management.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that stockholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions include a staggered board of directors and the ability of the board of directors to designate the terms of and issue new series of preferred stock, which may make more difficult the removal of management and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.
We are also subject to anti-takeover provisions under Delaware law, which could delay or prevent a change of control. Together these provisions may make the removal of management more difficult and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.
Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and Delaware law may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation requires, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, that (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any director, officer or other employee to us or our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim against us, our directors, officers or employees arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL or our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or bylaws, or (iv) any action asserting a claim against us, our directors, officers or employees governed by the internal affairs doctrine may be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware, except any claim (A) as to which the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware determines that there is an indispensable party not subject to the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery (and the indispensable party does not consent to the personal jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery within ten days following such determination), (B) which is vested in the exclusive jurisdiction of a court or forum other than the Court of Chancery, (C) for which the Court of Chancery does not have subject matter jurisdiction, or (D) any action arising under the Securities Act, as to which the Court of Chancery and the federal district court for the District of Delaware shall have concurrent jurisdiction. If an action is brought outside of Delaware, the stockholder bringing the suit will be deemed to have consented to service of process on such stockholder’s counsel. Although we believe this provision benefits us by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law in the types of lawsuits to which it applies, a court may determine that this provision is unenforceable, and to the extent it is enforceable, the provision may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers, although our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the exclusive forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder.
Additionally, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal courts shall be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act against us or any of our directors, officers, other employees or agents. Section 22 of the Securities Act, however, created concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. Accordingly, there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce such provisions, and the enforceability of similar choice of forum provisions in other companies’ charter documents has been challenged in legal proceedings. While the Delaware courts have determined that such exclusive forum provisions are facially valid, a stockholder may nevertheless seek to bring a claim in a venue other than those designated in the exclusive forum provisions, and there can be no assurance that such provisions will be enforced by a court in those other jurisdictions. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in our securities shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to these provisions; however, we note that investors cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.
Although we believe this provision benefits us by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law in the types of lawsuits to which it applies, the provision may limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us and may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers.
Risks Related to our Management Team
We are dependent upon our directors and officers and their departure could adversely affect our ability to operate.
Our operations are dependent upon a relatively small group of individuals. We believe that our success depends on the continued service of our directors and officers, at least until we have completed our initial business combination. In addition, our directors and officers are not required to commit any specified amount of time to our affairs and, accordingly, will have conflicts of interest in allocating their time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence. We do not have an employment agreement with, or key-man
insurance on the life of, any of our directors or officers. The unexpected loss of the services of one or more of our directors or officers could have a detrimental effect on us.
Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination and to be successful thereafter will be dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel, some of whom may join us following our initial business combination. The loss of our or a target’s key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination is dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel. The role of our key personnel in the target business, however, cannot presently be ascertained. Although some of our key personnel may remain with the target business in senior management or advisory positions following our initial business combination, it is likely that some or all of the management of the target business will remain in place. While we intend to closely scrutinize any individuals we engage after our initial business combination, we cannot assure you that our assessment of these individuals will prove to be correct. These individuals may be unfamiliar with the requirements of operating a company regulated by the SEC, which could cause us to have to expend time and resources helping them become familiar with such requirements.
In addition, the directors and officers of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial business combination. The departure of a business combination target’s key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business. The role of an acquisition candidate’s key personnel upon the completion of our initial business combination cannot be ascertained at this time. Although we contemplate that certain members of an acquisition candidate’s management team will remain associated with the acquisition candidate following our initial business combination, it is possible that members of the management of an acquisition candidate will not wish to remain in place. The loss of key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.
Our key personnel may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with a particular business combination. These agreements may provide for them to receive compensation following our initial business combination and as a result, may cause them to have conflicts of interest in determining whether a particular business combination is the most advantageous.
Our key personnel may be able to remain with the company after the completion of our initial business combination only if they are able to negotiate employment or consulting agreements in connection with the business combination. Such negotiations would take place simultaneously with the negotiation of the business combination and could provide for such individuals to receive compensation in the form of cash payments and/or our securities for services they would render to us after the completion of our initial business combination. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business, subject to his or her fiduciary duties. However, we believe the ability of such individuals to remain with us after the completion of our initial business combination will not be the determining factor in our decision as to whether or not we will proceed with any potential business combination. There is no certainty, however, that any of our key personnel will remain with us after the completion of our initial business combination. We cannot assure you that any of our key personnel will remain in senior management or advisory positions with us. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with us will be made at the time of our initial business combination.
We may have limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and, as a result, may affect our initial business combination with a target business whose management may not have the skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company.
When evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with a prospective target business, our ability to assess the target business’s management may be limited due to a lack of time, resources or information. Our assessment of the capabilities of the target’s management, therefore, may prove to be incorrect and such management may lack the skills, qualifications or abilities we suspected. Should the target’s management not possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to manage a public company, the operations and profitability of the post-combination business may be negatively impacted. Accordingly, any stockholder or warrant holder who chooses to remain a stockholder or warrant holder, respectively, following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders and warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.
The directors and officers of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial business combination. The departure of a business combination target’s key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business. The role of an acquisition candidate’s key personnel upon the completion of our initial business combination cannot be ascertained at this time. Although we contemplate that certain members of an acquisition candidate’s management team will remain associated with the acquisition candidate following our initial business combination, it is possible that members of the management of an acquisition candidate will not wish to remain in place.
Our directors and officers will allocate their time to other businesses thereby causing conflicts of interest in their determination as to how much time to devote to our affairs. This conflict of interest could have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination.
Our directors and officers are not required to, and will not, commit their full time to our affairs, which may result in a conflict of interest in allocating their time between our operations and our search for a business combination and their other businesses. We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Our officers are engaged in several other business endeavors for which they may be entitled to substantial compensation and our officers are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs. Certain of our independent directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities. If our officers’ and directors’ other business affairs require them to devote substantial amounts of time to such affairs in excess of their current commitment levels, it could limit their ability to devote time to our affairs, which may have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination. For a complete discussion of our officers’ and directors’ other business affairs, please see “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance” and “Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions.”
Certain of our directors and officers are now, and all of them may in the future become, affiliated with entities engaged in business activities similar to those intended to be conducted by us and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.
Following the completion of our initial public offering and until we consummate our initial business combination, we intend to engage in the business of identifying and combining with one or more businesses. Our sponsor and directors and officers are, or may in the future become, affiliated with entities that are engaged in a similar business. Our sponsor and directors and officers are also not prohibited from sponsoring, or otherwise becoming involved with, any other blank check companies prior to us completing our initial business combination.
Our directors and officers also may become aware of business opportunities which may be appropriate for presentation to us and the other entities to which they owe certain fiduciary or contractual duties. Accordingly, they may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented. These conflicts may not be resolved in our favor and a potential target business may be presented to other entities prior to its presentation to us, subject to his or her fiduciary duties. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of the company and it is an opportunity that we are able to complete on a reasonable basis.
For a complete discussion of our officers’ and directors’ business affiliations and the potential conflicts of interest that you should be aware of, please see “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance” and “Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions.”
Our directors, officers, security holders and their respective affiliates may have competitive pecuniary interests that conflict with our interests.
We have not adopted a policy that expressly prohibits our directors, officers, security holders or affiliates from having a direct or indirect pecuniary or financial interest in any investment to be acquired or disposed of by us or in any transaction to which we are a party or have an interest. In fact, we may enter into a business combination with a target business that is affiliated with our sponsor, our directors or officers, although we do not intend to do so. Nor do we have a policy that expressly prohibits any such persons from engaging for their own account in business activities of the types conducted by us. Accordingly, such persons or entities may have a conflict between their interests and ours.
In particular, affiliates of our sponsor have invested in a diverse set of industries. As a result, there may be substantial overlap between companies that would be a suitable business combination for us and companies that would make an attractive target for such other affiliates.
We may engage in a business combination with one or more target businesses that have relationships with entities that may be affiliated with our sponsor, directors or officers which may raise potential conflicts of interest.
In light of the involvement of our sponsor, directors and officers with other entities, we may decide to acquire one or more businesses affiliated with our sponsor, directors and officers. Certain of our directors and officers also serve as officers and board members for other entities, including those described under “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance and “Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions.” Such entities may compete with us for business combination opportunities. Our sponsor, directors and officers are not currently aware of any specific opportunities for us to complete our initial business combination with any entities with which they are affiliated, and there have been no preliminary discussions concerning a business combination with any such entity or entities. Although we will not be specifically focusing on, or targeting, any transaction with any affiliated entities, we would pursue such a transaction if we determined that such affiliated entity met our criteria and guidelines for a business combination and such transaction was approved by a majority of our independent and disinterested directors. Despite our agreement that we, or a committee of independent and disinterested directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or from an independent accounting firm, regarding the fairness to our company from a financial point of view of a business combination with one or more domestic or international businesses affiliated with our sponsor, directors or officers, potential conflicts of interest still may exist and, as a result, the terms of the business combination may not be as advantageous to our public stockholders as they would be absent any conflicts of interest.
Our management may not be able to maintain control of a target business after our initial business combination. We cannot provide assurance that, upon loss of control of a target business, new management will possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to profitably operate such business.
We may structure our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public stockholders own shares will own less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business, but we will complete such business combination only if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the issued and outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target business sufficient for us not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. We will not consider any transaction that does not meet such criteria. Even if the post-transaction company owns 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our stockholders prior to our initial business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post business combination company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in our initial business combination transaction. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new common stock in exchange for all of the issued and outstanding capital stock, shares or other equity securities of a target. In this case, we would acquire a 100% interest in the target. However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new common stock, our stockholders immediately prior to such transaction could own less than a majority of our issued and outstanding common stock subsequent to such transaction. In addition, other minority stockholders may subsequently combine their holdings resulting in a single person or group obtaining a larger share of the company’s shares than we initially acquired. Accordingly, this may make it more likely that our management will not be able to maintain our control of the target business.
Past performance by our management team and their affiliates may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in the company.
Information regarding performance by our management team and their affiliates is presented for informational purposes only. Past performance by our management team and their affiliates is not a guarantee either (1) that we will be able to identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination or (2) of success with respect to any business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record of our management team or their affiliates or any related investment’s performance as indicative of our future performance of an investment in the company or the returns the company will, or is likely to, generate going forward.
If our management following our initial business combination is unfamiliar with U.S. securities laws, they may have to expend time and resources becoming familiar with such laws, which could lead to various regulatory issues.
Following our initial business combination, any or all of our management could resign from their positions as officers of the company, and the management of the target business at the time of the business combination could remain in place. Management of the target business may not be familiar with U.S. securities laws. If new management is unfamiliar with U.S. securities laws, they may have to expend time and resources becoming familiar with such laws. This could be expensive and time-consuming and could lead to various regulatory issues which may adversely affect our operations.
General Risk Factors
We are a newly incorporated company with no operating history and no revenues, and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective.
We are a blank check company incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware with no operating results, and we will not commence operations until obtaining funding through our initial public offering. Because we lack an operating history, you have no basis upon which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective of completing our initial business combination. We have no plans, arrangements or understandings with any prospective target business concerning a business combination and may be unable to complete our initial business combination. If we fail to complete our initial business combination, we will never generate any operating revenues.
We are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company within the meaning of the Securities Act, and if we take advantage of certain exemptions from disclosure requirements available to emerging growth companies or smaller reporting companies, this could make our securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with other public companies.
We are an “emerging growth company” within the meaning of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As a result, our stockholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including if the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates
equals or exceeds $700 million as of the end of any second quarter of a fiscal year, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the end of such fiscal year. We cannot predict whether investors will find our securities less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions, the trading prices of our securities may be lower than they otherwise would be, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the trading prices of our securities may be more volatile.
Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging
growth companies but any such election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected not to opt out of such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K.
Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates
equals or exceeds $250 million as of the end of that year’s second fiscal quarter, or (2) our annual revenues equaled or exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates
equals or exceeds $700 million as of the end of that year’s second fiscal quarter. To the extent we take advantage of such reduced disclosure obligations, it may also make comparison of our financial statements with other public companies difficult or impossible.
Compliance obligations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may make it more difficult for us to effectuate our initial business combination, require substantial financial and management resources, and increase the time and costs of completing an acquisition.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and report on our system of internal controls beginning with our Annual Report on Form 10-K
for the year ending December 31, 2022. Only in the event we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer, and no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, will we be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on our internal control over financial reporting. The fact that we are a blank check company makes compliance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act particularly burdensome on us as compared to other public companies because a target business with which we seek to complete our initial business combination may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of its internal controls. The development of the internal control of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such acquisition.
Cyber incidents or attacks directed at us could result in information theft, data corruption, operational disruption and/or financial loss.
We depend on digital technologies, including information systems, infrastructure and cloud applications and services, including those of third parties with which we may deal. Sophisticated and deliberate attacks on, or security breaches in, our systems or infrastructure, or the systems or infrastructure of third parties or the cloud, could lead to corruption or misappropriation of our assets, proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data. As an early stage company without significant investments in data security protection, we may not be sufficiently protected against such occurrences. We may not have sufficient resources to adequately protect against, or to investigate and remediate any vulnerability to, cyber incidents. It is possible that any of these occurrences, or a combination of them, could have adverse consequences on our business and lead to financial loss.
If our management team pursues a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we may face additional burdens in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing such combination, and if we effect such initial business combination, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may negatively impact our operations.
If our management team pursues a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we would be subject to risks associated with cross-border business combinations, including in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing our initial business combination, conducting due diligence in a foreign market, having such transaction approved by any local governments, regulators or agencies and changes in the purchase price based on fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.
If we effect our initial business combination with such a company, we would be subject to any special considerations or risks associated with companies operating in an international setting, including any of the following:
•
costs and difficulties inherent in managing cross-border business operations and complying with commercial and legal requirements of overseas markets;
•
rules and regulations regarding currency redemption;
•
complex corporate withholding taxes on individuals;
•
laws governing the manner in which future business combinations may be effected;
•
tariffs and trade barriers;
•
regulations related to customs and import/export matters;
•
longer payment cycles;
•
tax consequences, such as tax law changes, including termination or reduction of tax and other incentives that the applicable government provides to domestic companies, and variations in tax laws as compared to the United States;
•
currency fluctuations and exchange controls;
•
rates of inflation;
•
challenges in collecting accounts receivable;
•
cultural and language differences;
•
employment regulations;
•
crime, strikes, riots, civil disturbances, terrorist attacks, natural disasters and wars, including the war between Russia and the Ukraine;
•
deterioration of political relations with the United States;
•
obligatory military service by personnel; and
•
government appropriation of assets.
We may not be able to adequately address these additional risks. If we were unable to do so, we may be unable to complete such combination or, if we complete such combination, our operations might suffer, either of which may adversely impact our results of operations and financial condition.
After our initial business combination, our results of operations and prospects could be subject, to a significant extent, to the economic, political, social and government policies, developments, and conditions in the country in which we operate.
The economic, political and social conditions, as well as government policies, of the country in which our operations are located could affect our business. Economic growth could be uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy and such growth may not be sustained in the future. If in the future such country’s economy experiences a downturn or grows at a slower rate than expected, there may be less demand for spending in certain industries. A decrease in demand for spending in certain industries could materially and adversely affect our ability to find an attractive target business with which to consummate our initial business combination and if we effect our initial business combination, the ability of that target business to become profitable.
The coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic and the impact on businesses and debt and equity markets could have a material adverse effect on our search for an initial business combination, and any target business with which we ultimately consummate an initial business combination.
In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus was reported to have surfaced in Wuhan, China, which has and is continuing to spread throughout the world, including the United States. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the coronavirus a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern.” On January 31, 2020, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar II declared a public health emergency for the United States to aid the U.S. healthcare community in responding to the coronavirus, and on March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization characterized the outbreak as a “pandemic.” The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a widespread health crisis that has adversely impacted the economies and financial markets worldwide, business operations and the conduct of commerce generally. There is no way of being certain how long these adverse impacts will last. The coronavirus, or other disease outbreaks, could have a material adverse effect on the business of any potential target business with which we consummate an initial business combination. Furthermore, we may be unable to complete an initial business combination if concerns relating to the coronavirus pandemic continue to restrict travel, limit the ability to have meetings with potential investors or the target company’s personnel, vendors and services providers are unavailable to negotiate and consummate a transaction in a timely manner. The extent to which the coronavirus impacts our search for an initial business combination will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the coronavirus pandemic and the actions to contain the coronavirus or treat its impact, among others. If the disruptions posed by the coronavirus or other matters of global concern continue for an extensive period of time, it could have a material adverse effect on our ability to consummate an initial business combination, or the operations of a target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination.
In addition, our ability to consummate an initial business combination may be dependent on the ability to raise equity and debt financing and the coronavirus pandemic and other related events could have a material adverse effect on our ability to raise adequate financing, including as a result of increased market volatility, decreased market liquidity and third-party financing being unavailable on terms acceptable to us or at all.

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ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.
None.

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ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
Item 2. Properties.
Our executive offices are located at 1001 Green Bay Rd, #227 Winnetka, IL 60093. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.

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ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
Item 3. Legal Proceedings.
There is no material litigation, arbitration or governmental proceeding currently pending against us or any members of our management team.

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ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURE
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.
Not applicable.
PART II

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ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.
Market Information
Our units, common stock, and warrants are each traded on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the symbols “HWELU,” “HWEL,” and “HWELW,” respectively. Our units commenced public trading on August 3, 2021, and our Class A common stock and warrants commended separate public trading on September 22, 2021.
Holders
As of March 25, 2022, we
had one holder of record of our Class A common stock and one holder of our Class B common stock, one holder of record of our units, and two holders of record of our
warrants.
Dividends
We have not paid any cash dividends on our common stock to date and do not intend to pay cash dividends prior to the completion of our initial business combination. The payment of cash dividends in the future will be dependent upon our revenues and earnings, if any, capital requirements and general financial condition subsequent to completion of our initial business combination. The payment of any cash dividends subsequent to our initial business combination will be within the discretion of our board of directors at such time. In addition, our board of directors is not currently contemplating and does not anticipate declaring any share dividends in the foreseeable future. Further, if we incur any indebtedness in connection with our initial business combination, our ability to declare dividends may be limited by restrictive covenants we may agree to in connection therewith.
Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans
None.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities; Use of Proceeds from Registered Offerings
Unregistered Sales
On February 10, 2021, our sponsor paid $25,000 in consideration for 6,250,000 shares of Class B common stock. The Founder Shares included an aggregate of up to 937,500 shares subject to forfeiture by our sponsor to the extent that the underwriter’s over-allotment was not exercised in full or in part, so that our sponsor would collectively own, on an as-converted
basis, 20% of the Company’s issued and outstanding shares after the initial public offering. On September 11, 2021, the remaining over-allotment option expired. As a result, 937,500 shares of Class B common stock were forfeited. The Founder Shares were issued in connection with our organization pursuant to the exemption from registration contained in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act.
Simultaneously with the closing of the initial public offering on August 5, 2021, we consummated the sale of 7,700,000 warrants at a price of $1.00 per warrant in a private placement (the “Private Placement Warrants”) to our sponsor, generating gross proceeds of $7,700,000. Each Private Placement Warrant is exercisable to purchase one share of Class A common stock at a price of $11.50 per share. The sales of the Private Placement Warrants were made pursuant to the exemption from registration contained in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act. The proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants were added to the net proceeds from the Initial Public Offering held in the Trust Account.
Use of Proceeds
On August 5, 2021, the Company consummated the initial public offering of 25,000,000 Units (the “Units” and, with respect to the shares of Class A common stock included in the Units sold, the “Public Shares”), at $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds of $250,000,000.
Simultaneously with the closing of the initial public offering, we consummated the sale of 7,700,000 Private Placement Warrants at a price of $1.00 per warrant, generating gross proceeds of $7,700,000.
The underwriter was granted a 45-day
option to purchase up to 3,750,000 additional Units to cover over-allotments at the Initial Public Offering price, less the underwriting discounts and commissions. On September 11, 2021, the over-allotment option expired. The underwriter was paid a cash underwriting discount of $0.20 per Unit, or $5,000,000 in the aggregate upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering.
On February 10, 2021, we issued an unsecured promissory note to our Sponsor (the “Promissory Note”), pursuant to which we received proceeds of $350,000 to cover expenses related to the initial public offering. The outstanding balance under the Promissory Note of $350,000 was repaid at the closing of the initial public offering on August 5, 2021.
Transaction costs related to the issuances described above amounted to $21,720,139 consisting of $5,000,000 of underwriting fees, $8,750,000 of deferred underwriting fees, $7,207,313 of anchor investor offering costs and $762,826 of other offering costs. After deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses, the total net proceeds from the initial public offering and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants were approximately $252,700,000, of which $250,000,000 (or $10.00 per share sold in the initial public offering) was placed in the Trust Account.
Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers
None.

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ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
Item 6. Selected Financial Data.
[Reserved]

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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
The following discussion and analysis of the Company’s financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the audited financial statements, including the related notes, contained in this Annual Report. This Annual Report includes “forward-looking statements” that are not historical facts and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected and projected. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included in this Annual Report including, without limitation, statements in this “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” regarding the Company’s financial position, business strategy and the plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. Words such as “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “estimate,” “seek” and variations and similar words and expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance, but reflect management’s current beliefs, based on information currently available. A number of factors could cause actual events, performance or results to differ materially from the events, performance and results discussed in the forward-looking statements. For information identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, please refer to “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factor Summary,” “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
The Company’s securities filings can be accessed on the EDGAR section of the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Except as expressly required by applicable securities law, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Overview
We are a blank check company incorporated on February 2, 2021 as a Delaware corporation and formed for the purpose of effectuating a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses, which we refer to throughout this Annual Report as our “initial business combination”. We intend to effectuate our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of our initial public offering that occurred on August 5, 2021, (the “Initial Public Offering”) and the private placement of the Private Placement Warrants (as defined below), the proceeds of the sale of our shares in connection with our initial business combination (pursuant to forward purchase agreements or backstop agreements we may enter into following the consummation of the Initial Public Offering or otherwise), shares issued to the owners of the target, debt issued to bank or other lenders or the owners of the target, or a combination of the foregoing.
Results of Operations
We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenues to date. Our only activities for the period from February 2, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021 were organizational activities, those necessary to prepare for the Initial Public Offering, described below, and after our Initial Public Offering, identifying target companies for a business combination. We do not expect to generate any operating revenues until after the completion of our initial business combination. We generate non-operating
income in the form of interest income on cash and cash equivalents held after the Initial Public Offering. We incur expenses as a result of being a public company (for legal, financial reporting, accounting and auditing compliance), as well as due diligence expenses.
For the period from February 2, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, we had net income of $4,490,977, which resulted from a gain on change in the fair value of warrant liabilities of $6,666,000, unrealized gain on investments held in Trust Account of $18,824, and realized gain on investments held in Trust Account of $18,126, offset in part by expensed offering costs of $1,020,874, formation and operating costs of $552,633, change in fair value of derivative liability-forward purchase agreement of $456,000, and franchise tax expense of $182,466.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
On August 5, 2021, we consummated an initial public offering of 25,000,000 units generating gross proceeds to the Company of $250,000,000. Simultaneously with the consummation of the initial public offering, we completed the private sale of 7,700,000 warrants to the Sponsor at a purchase price of $1.00 per warrant (the “Private Placement Warrants”), generating gross proceeds of $7,700,000. The proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants were added to the net proceeds from the initial public offering held in a trust account (the “Trust Account”). If we do not complete an initial business combination within 24 months from the closing of the initial public offering, the proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants will be used to fund the redemption of the public shares (subject to the requirements of applicable law) and the Private Placement Warrants will expire worthless.
For the period from February 2, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, net cash used in operating activities was $1,212,918, which was due to a non-cash
gain on the change in fair value of warrant liabilities of $6,666,000, changes in working capital of $477,819, unrealized gain on investments in the Trust Account of $18,824 and realized gain on investments in the Trust Account of $18,126, offset in part by our net income of $4,490,977, expensed offering costs added back to net income of $1,020,874, and change in fair value of derivative liability-forward purchase agreement of $456,000.
For the period from February 2, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021, net cash used in investing activities of $250,000,000 was the result of the amount of net proceeds from the Initial Public Offering being deposited to the Trust Account.
For the period from February 2, 2021 (inception) through December 31, 2021 net cash provided by financing activities of $251,962,174 was comprised of $245,000,000 in proceeds from the issuance of units in the Initial Public Offering net of underwriter’s discount paid, $7,700,000 in proceeds from the issuance of warrants in a private placement to our sponsor, proceeds from the promissory note-related party of $350,000 and proceeds from the sale of Class B common stock to our sponsor of $25,000, offset in part by the payment of $762,826 for offering costs associated with the initial public offering and repayment of the outstanding balance on the promissory note to our sponsor of $350,000.
As of December 31, 2021, we had cash of $749,256 held outside the Trust Account. We intend to use the funds held outside the Trust Account primarily to identify and evaluate target businesses, perform business due diligence on prospective target businesses, travel to and from the offices, plants or similar locations of prospective target businesses or their representatives or owners, review corporate documents and material agreements of prospective target businesses, and structure, negotiate and complete a business combination. We also incur expenses as a result of being a public company for legal, financial reporting, accounting and compliance. We will also have obligations to pay Delaware state franchise taxes with the funds held outside of the Trust Account to the extent that interest earned on the Trust Account is not sufficient to cover this tax.
We intend to use substantially all of the funds held in the Trust Account., including any amounts representing interest earned on the Trust Account. (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and excluding deferred underwriting commissions) to complete our initial business combination. We may withdraw interest to pay taxes, if any. We estimate our annual franchise tax obligations, based on the number of shares of our common stock authorized and outstanding after the completion of the Initial Public Offering, to be $182,466 to date, which we may pay from funds held outside of the Trust Account or from interest earned on the funds held in the Trust Account and released to us for this purpose. Our annual income tax obligations will depend on the amount of interest and other income earned on the amounts held in the Trust Account. To the extent that our common stock or debt is used, in whole or in part, as consideration to complete our initial business combination, the remaining proceeds held in the Trust Account will be used as working capital to finance the operations of the target business or businesses, make other acquisitions and pursue our growth strategies.
We do not believe we will need to raise additional funds following this offering in order to meet the expenditures required for operating our business prior to the completion of our initial business combination, other than funds available from loans from our sponsor, members of our management team or any of their affiliates. However, if our estimates of the costs of identifying a prospective partner business, undertaking in-depth
due diligence and negotiating an initial business combination are less than the actual amount necessary to do so, we may have insufficient funds available to operate our business prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Moreover, we may need to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination, either because the transaction requires more cash than is available from the proceeds held in our Trust Account, or because we become obligated to redeem a significant number of our public shares upon completion of the business combination, in which case we may issue additional securities or incur debt in connection with such business combination.
In order to fund working capital deficiencies or finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination, our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required on a non-interest
basis. If we complete our initial business combination, we would repay such loaned amounts. In the event that our initial business combination does not close, we may use a portion of the working capital held outside the trust account to repay such loaned amounts but no proceeds from our Trust Account would be used for such repayment. Up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be convertible into warrants of the post business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the Private Placement Warrants. The terms of such loans, if any, have not been determined and no written agreements exist with respect to such loans. Prior to the completion of our initial business combination, we do not expect to seek loans from parties other than our Sponsor or an affiliate of our Sponsor as we do not believe third parties will be willing to loan such funds and provide a waiver against any and all rights to seek access to funds in our Trust Account.
These amounts are estimates and may differ materially from our actual expenses. In addition, we could use a portion of the funds not being placed in trust to pay commitment fees for financing, fees to consultants to assist us with our search for a target business or as a down payment or to fund a “no-shop”
provision (a provision designed to keep target businesses from “shopping” around for transactions with other companies or investors on terms more favorable to such target businesses) with respect to a particular proposed business combination, although we do not have any current intention to do so. If we entered into an agreement where we paid for the right to receive exclusivity from a target business, the amount that would be used as a down payment or to fund a “no-shop”
provision would be determined based on the terms of the specific business combination and the amount of our available funds at the time. Our forfeiture of such funds (whether as a result of our breach or otherwise) could result in our not having sufficient funds to continue searching for, or conducting due diligence with respect to, prospective target businesses.
Off-Balance
Sheet Arrangements
We did not have any off-balance
sheet arrangements as of December 31, 2021.
Contractual Obligations
We do not have any long-term debt obligations, capital lease obligations, operating lease obligations, purchase obligations or other long-term liabilities, other than described below.
Promissory Note-Related Party
On February 10, 2021, the Company issued an unsecured promissory note, as amended on July 6, 2021, to our sponsor (the “Promissory Note”), pursuant to which the Company could borrow up to an aggregate of $350,000 to cover expenses related to the Initial Public Offering. The Promissory Note was non-interest
bearing and was payable on the earlier of (i) June 30, 2022 or (ii) the consummation of the Initial Public Offering. As of December 31, 2021, there was no borrowings outstanding under the Promissory Note. On August 5, 2021, the Company repaid the outstanding balance under the Promissory Note of $350,000 that was borrowed prior to the Initial Public Offering.
Underwriting Agreement
The Company granted the underwriters a 45-day
option to purchase up to 3,750,000 additional Units to cover over-allotments at the Initial Public Offering price, less the underwriting discounts and commissions. On September 11, 2021, the over-allotment option expired.
The underwriters were paid a cash underwriting discount of $0.20 per Unit, or $5,000,000 in the aggregate, upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering. In addition, $0.35 per unit, or $8,750,000 in the aggregate will be payable to the underwriters for deferred underwriting commissions. The deferred fee will become payable to the underwriters from the amounts held in the Trust Account solely in the event that the Company completes a Business Combination, subject to the terms of the underwriting agreement.
Deferred Fees
The underwriters of the initial public offering are entitled to a deferred fee $8,750,000. The deferred fee will become payable to the underwriters from the amounts held in the trust account solely in the event that we complete our initial business combination, subject to the terms of the underwriting agreement.
Critical Accounting Policies
The preparation of financial statements and related disclosures in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, and income and expenses during the periods reported. Actual results could materially differ from those estimates. We have identified the following critical accounting policies.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period.
Making estimates requires management to exercise significant judgment. It is at least reasonably possible that the estimate of the effect of a condition, situation or set of circumstances that existed at the date of the financial statements, which management considered in formulating its estimate, could change in the near term due to one or more future confirming events. Accordingly, the actual results could differ significantly from those estimates. Significant estimates included in the financial statements include warrant liabilities and derivative financial instruments.
Warrant Liabilities
The Company accounts for warrants as either equity-classified or liability-classified instruments based on an assessment of the warrant’s specific terms and applicable authoritative guidance in ASC 480, Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity
(“ASC 480”) and Topic ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging
(“ASC 815”). The assessment considers whether the warrants are freestanding financial instruments pursuant to ASC 480, meet the definition of a liability pursuant to ASC 480, and whether the warrants meet all of the requirements for equity classification under ASC 815, including whether the warrants are indexed to the Company’s own common stock, among other conditions for equity classification. This assessment is conducted at the time of warrant issuance and as of each subsequent quarterly period end date while the warrants are outstanding.
For issued or modified warrants that meet all of the criteria for equity classification, the warrants are required to be recorded as a component of additional paid-in
capital at the time of issuance. For issued or modified warrants that do not meet all the criteria for equity classification, the warrants are required to be recorded at their initial fair value on the date of issuance, and each balance sheet date thereafter. Changes in the estimated fair value of the warrants are recognized as a non-cash
gain or loss on the statement of operations. The accounting treatment of derivative financial instruments required that the Company record the warrants as derivative liabilities at fair value upon the closing of the Initial Public Offering. As of December 31, 2021, the Company estimated the fair value of the warrant derivative liabilities to be $11,918,000. The Public Warrants were allocated a portion of the proceeds from the issuance of the Units equal to its fair value.
Common stock subject to possible redemption
All of the 25,000,000 shares of Class A common stock sold as part of the units in the Initial Public Offering (the “Public Shares”) contain a redemption feature which allows for the redemption of such Public Shares in connection with the Company’s liquidation, if there is a stockholder vote or tender offer in connection with our initial business combination and in connection with certain amendments to the Company’s amended and restated certificate of incorporation. In accordance with SEC and its staff’s guidance on redeemable equity instruments, which has been codified in ASC 480-10-S99,
redemption provisions not solely within the control of the Company require common stock subject to redemption to be classified outside of permanent equity. Therefore, all Public Shares have been classified outside of permanent equity.
The Company recognizes changes in redemption value immediately as they occur and adjusts the carrying value of redeemable common stock to equal the redemption value at the end of each reporting period. Increases or decreases in the carrying amount of redeemable common stock are affected by charges against additional paid-in
capital and accumulated deficit.
Net Income Per Share of Common Stock
Net income per common share is computed by dividing net income by the weighted-average number of shares of common stock outstanding during the period. Accretion associated with the redeemable shares of Class A common stock is excluded from net income per share as the redemption value approximates fair value. Therefore, the earnings per share calculation allocates income and losses shared pro rata between Class A and Class B common stock. As a result, the calculated net income per share is the same for Class A and Class B shares of common stock. The Company has not considered the effect of the warrants sold in the Initial Public Offering and private placement to purchase an aggregate of 20,200,000 shares in the calculation of diluted income per share, since the exercise of the warrants is contingent upon the occurrence of future events. As a result, diluted income per share is the same as basic income per share for the periods presented.
Recent Accounting Standards
In August 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2020-06,
Debt - Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20)
and Derivatives and Hedging - Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40)
(“ASU 2020-06”)
to simplify accounting for certain financial instruments. ASU 2020-06
eliminates the current models that require separation of beneficial conversion and cash conversion features from convertible instruments and simplifies the derivative scope exception guidance pertaining to equity classification of contracts in an entity’s own equity. The new standard also introduces additional disclosures for convertible debt and freestanding instruments that are indexed to and settled in an entity’s own equity. ASU 2020-06
amends the diluted earnings per share guidance, including the requirement to use the if-converted
method for all convertible instruments. ASU 2020-06
is effective January 1, 2022 and should be applied on a full or modified retrospective basis, with early adoption permitted beginning on January 1, 2021. The Company early adopted ASU 2020-06 in 2021. The adoption of ASU 2020-06
did not have a material impact on the financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021.
Management does not believe that any other recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting standards, if currently adopted, would have a material effect on the Company’s financial statements.

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ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.
We are a smaller reporting company as defined by Rule 12b-2
of the Exchange Act and are not required to provide the information otherwise required under this item.

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ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.
This information appears following Item 16 of this Form 10-K
and is incorporated herein by reference

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ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS
Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure.
None.

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ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures.
Disclosure controls and procedures are controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
As required by Rules 13a-15
and 15d-15
under the Exchange Act, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer carried out an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2021. Based upon their evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15 (e) and 15d-15
(e) under the Exchange Act) were not effective as of December 31, 2021, due to the restatement of our August 5, 2021 balance sheet (the “restatement”) related to the classification of redeemable Class A Shares and the accounting treatment of the purchase of Founder Share interests by Anchor Investors, which combined, constitutes a material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting.
Regarding the restatement of the Company’s balance sheet included on the Company’s Form 8-K,
as filed with the SEC on August 12, 2021, certain redemption provisions not solely within the control of the Company require common stock subject to redemption to be classified outside of permanent equity. The Company had previously classified a portion of the Class A common stock in permanent equity. The Company revised its financial statements to classify all Class A common stock as temporary equity and any related impact, as the threshold in its charter would not change the nature of the underlying shares as redeemable and thus would be required to be disclosed outside of permanent equity. Additionally, due to the requirement to record additional deferred offering costs for the excess fair value of the Founder Share interests sold over the purchase price, the Company has determined that the misstatement of the Balance Sheet as of August 5, 2021 was material based on quantitative criteria.
It is noted that the non-cash
adjustments to the financial statements do not impact the amounts previously reported for our cash and cash equivalents, cash held in trust, or total assets. In light of this material weakness, we performed additional analysis as deemed necessary to ensure that our annual audited financial statements were prepared in accordance with GAAP. Accordingly, management believes that the financial statements included in this Report on Form 10-K
present fairly in all material respects our financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the period presented.
Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
This Annual Report on Form 10-K
does not include a report of management’s assessment regarding internal control over financial reporting or an attestation report of our independent registered public accounting firm due to a transition period established by rules of the SEC for newly public companies.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Other than the implementation of the remediation activities regarding the restatement of our August 5, 2021 balance sheet, during the most recently completed fiscal quarter, there has been no change in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f)
and 15d-15(f)
under the Exchange Act) that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting. In light of the restatement of our August 5, 2021 balance sheet, we enhanced our processes to identify and appropriately apply applicable accounting requirements to better evaluate and understand the nuances of the complex accounting standards that apply to our financial statements. Our remediation plans at this time include providing enhanced access to accounting literature, research materials and documents and increased communication among our personnel and third-party professionals with whom we consult regarding complex accounting applications. The elements of our remediation plan can only be accomplished over time, and we can offer no assurance that these initiatives will ultimately have the intended effects.

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ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
Item 9B. Other Information.
None.

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ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance.
As of the date of this Report, our directors and officers are as set forth in the table below. There are no family relationships between any of our directors or senior management. There are no arrangements or understandings with major stockholders, customers, suppliers or others, pursuant to which any person referred to above was selected as a director or member of senior management. The Company is not aware of any agreements or arrangements between any director and any person or entity other than the Company relating to the compensation or other payments in connection with such director’s candidacy or service as a director of the Company.
Name
Age
Position
Alyssa Rapp
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Tracy Wan
President, Chief Financial Officer and Director
Curtis Feeny
Co-Chair
George Hornig
Co-Chair
Matt Wandoloski
Director
Christie Hefner
Director
John McCarthy
Director
Ellen Levy
Director
Carl Allegretti
Director
Alyssa Rapp,
age 43,
serves as Chief Executive Officer and Director. Ms. Rapp was formerly the Chief Executive Officer of Surgical Solutions, a tech-enabled healthcare services business providing non-clinical
surgical services to hospitals (from 2018-April 2021). As CEO, Ms. Rapp led a successful turnaround of the enterprise, driving 21% sales growth with 90% customer retention. Ms. Rapp has also serves as an independent director of Elevate Women’s Health Network, a portfolio company of Shore Capital Partners and Illinois Humanities since 2020. She previously served on the board of the Illinois Housing Development Authority from 2015-2019. From 2005-2015, Ms. Rapp served as the founder & CEO of Bottlenotes, Inc., a leading interactive media company. Starting in 2015, Ms. Rapp has served as the Managing Partner of AJR Ventures, a strategic advisory firm for family offices and private equity firms on market development, digital and e-commerce
strategies for select portfolio companies. In addition, Ms. Rapp has served as a lecturer-in-management
at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business since 2014 and Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago’s Booth Business School since 2019. Ms. Rapp earned a B.A. in Political Science and the History of Art from Yale University in 2000 and an M.B.A. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in 2005. She is the author of Amazon Bestseller, Leadership and Life Hacks: Insights from a Mom, Wife, Entrepreneur & Executive (ForbesBooks, October 2019). Ms. Rapp was selected to serve on the Board due to her experience in the technology and healthcare industries.
Tracy Wan,
age 62, serves as President, Chief Financial Officer and Director. Ms. Wan is a seasoned executive who has spent over 25 years in senior management roles as chief financial officer and chief operating officer at public and private companies. Ms. Wan is a Managing Partner of TYW Consultants LLC (2016-present and 2006-2009), a consulting and advisory firm that provides services to executive teams, boards and investors of business to develop strategic business plans, and to improve financial and operational performance. As part of her consulting and advisory practice at TYW Consulting, she provided consulting services to Surgical Solutions (2018-2021), including as Acting COO (2019-2020), working with Surgical Solutions’ management team and the company’s board, other healthcare companies, OEMs of
medical equipment and supplies, and hospital administration. Ms. Wan has worked closely with Ms. Rapp on a variety of business projects over the last ten years. For her executive roles, Ms. Wan served as President, COO (1999-2006) and Director (2004-2006); and as Executive Vice President and CFO (1994-1999) of The Sharper Image (formerly NASDAQ: SHRP). Ms. Wan served as President, COO and Director (2015-2016), and as COO (2009-2015) of Cycle Gear, Inc., a private-equity backed omni-channel retail business. Ms. Wan earned a B.S. in Business Administration, Accounting from San Francisco State University. Early in Ms. Wan’s career, she worked as a CPA (not currently active) in the public accounting firm of Laventhol and Horwath in San Francisco, California. Ms. Wan was chosen to serve on the Board in light of her experience in public companies and private equity, and the healthcare industry.
Curtis Feeny,
age 64, serves as
Co-Chair
of our Board. Mr. Feeny has served as a Senior Advisor to Peterson Partners since March 2020. From 2000-2017 he was Managing Director at Voyager Capital, a leading technology venture capital firm where Mr. Feeny invested in healthcare technology, SaaS, enterprise software, data analytics and wireless infrastructure, amongst other sectors. Mr. Feeny also served as Managing Director for Silicon Valley Data Capital from 2017 to 2019, where he focused on early stage technology investing. Prior investments include Ayla Networks, Kaggle (acquired by Google), Wise.io (acquired by GE), Sensys Networks, WellnessFX (acquired by Thorne Research), and ClearCare (acquired by Wellsky). Mr. Feeny has served on over 30 Boards, both public and private, including the Board of CBRE from 2006 to 2021 (NYSE:CBRE), Staples from 2016-2017, Khan Academy since 2016, Stanford Federal Credit Unit since 2006, Silicon Valley Executive Network since 2012 and Docusign, Inc. from 2010 to 2020 (NASDAQ: DOCU) and was a senior executive at the Stanford Management Company and Trammell Crow prior to joining Voyager in 2000. During his time at Stanford Management Company, the office within Stanford University that invests Stanford University’s endowment and other financial assets, Mr. Feeny was responsible for overseeing the investment of the University’s endowment as it grew from $2.5 billion to $8.9 billion over eight years. Mr. Feeny has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University. Upon consummation of our initial public offering, Peterson Partners received the right, to nominate to our Board one director prior to our initial business combination. Peterson Partners nominated Curtis Feeny upon consummation of our initial public offering. Mr. Feeny was chosen to serve on the Board due to his experience in the technology, healthcare and private equity
industries.
George Hornig
,
age 67,
serves as Co-Chair
of our Board. From 2010-2016, Mr. Hornig was a Senior Managing Director and Global COO of PineBridge Investments, a global asset manager focused on active, high-conviction investing with over $125 billion in assets under management. Mr. Hornig previously served as COO of Credit Suisse Asset Management from 1999-2010, Deutsche Bank Americas from 1993-1999, and Wasserstein Perella from 1988-1991, where he was also a co-founder
of the firm. Mr. Hornig has also been an active Director and seed investor for private technology-enabled companies over the last 30 years, serving as a director (and now chairman) of Xometry since 2013, an AI-driven
manufacturing platform. Mr. Hornig has served as a director of Vaxxinity Inc. since 2022, and as Board Chairman of The Seed Lab since 2019, Lasso Partners since 2020 and LEX Markets since 2021, Director and Audit Chair of Syntax since 2018 and Director of Daniel J. Edelman Holdings since 2016. He was a director of KBL Merger Corp IV from 2017 to 2020, a director of Forrester Research from 1997 to 2018. He has been member of the Advisory Board for Babiators since 2014, Stojo since 2018, Copper Publishing since 2019, Ready Set Jet since 2019, Longsight Advisors since 2019 and Vantage Point since 2020 and previously was an Advisory Board Member of VNTANA from 2016 to 2019. Mr. Hornig holds an A.B, J.D, and M.B.A from Harvard University. Mr. Hornig was selected as a member of the Board due to his decades of experience in the healthcare, investment banking and technology industries.
Matt Wandoloski
,
age 68, serves as a Director. Since 2019, Mr. Wandoloski has served as CEO of Paloma Healthcare Consulting, a consulting firm that partners with innovative healthcare related companies to accelerate growth and profitability through Board and Strategic Advisor roles. From 2011-2018, he served as Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Informatics, & Subsidiary Development at Blue Cross Blue Shield
of Arizona. Other notable senior roles during his extensive healthcare tenure include serving as the former CEO of UnitedHealthcare, S. Arizona, as a Partner with Mercer, and Interim CEO & Board member for Children’s Clinic of S. Arizona. He has an extensive background with Healthplans, Delivery systems, and large Self-Funded Employers. Mr. Wandoloski has served on the board of directors of Complia Health since 2021, a home health home care hospice software company. In addition, he has served as an advisor/advisory board member for Solera Health since 2019, Rivia Health from 2020-2022, Reciprocity Health since 2021, Curatus since 2019, Healthplan Innovation roundtable since 2019, WealthVP since 2020 and Genius Avenue since 2020. He has also served as an advisor to Edgewater Funds since 2021 and Triple Tree Capital Partners since 2020. He holds a M.B.A in Finance from Long Island University - C.W Post, New York. Mr. Wandoloski was selected to serve on the Board due to his extensive experience in the healthcare industry.
Christie Hefner
,
age 69, serves as a Director. Ms. Hefner has served as Chairman of the Board of Hatch Beauty Brands which offers both beauty and wellness incubation, since 2014. Ms. Hefner has served on the Boards of R.D. Offutt Company since 2016, Scent Beauty since 2019, Metro Edge since 2019 and Fyllo since 2020 and previously served as a Director for Luminary Digital Media, LLC from 2013 to 2016. Previously, she served in a variety of executive positions with Playboy Enterprises, serving as the longest tenured female public company CEO. She was widely credited with developing and leading the execution of strategies that repositioned the company from its legacy domestic magazine business to a global multi-media and lifestyle company and building its institutional shareholder base. Ms. Hefner has been a Trustee of Rush University Medical Center since 1993 and former Chairman of the CORE Center from 1995-2002, a national model for the integrated treatment of people with HIV AIDS and other infectious diseases. Ms. Hefner was the former Executive Chairman of Canyon Ranch Enterprises from 2009-2015. Ms. Hefner holds a B.A. in English and American Literature from Brandeis University. Ms. Hefner was chosen to serve on the Board due to her wide range of experience, including in the beauty and wellness industry.
John MacCarthy,
age 62, serves as a Director. He has been a member of the board of directors of the Nuveen Global Cities REIT, an unlisted Real Estate Investment Trust with over $1.5 billion in assets under management, since July 2017. He served as the Chief Legal Officer of Nuveen, an investment management firm owned by TIAA with over $1 trillion in assets under management in 2017 and 2018. Mr. MacCarthy was Chief Operating Officer of TIAA Global Real Assets in 2016 and 2017. Mr. MacCarthy joined Nuveen Investments (NYSE: NUV) as General Counsel in 2006, serving as Executive Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel from 2008 through 2015. Before joining Nuveen, Mr. MacCarthy was a partner at the law firm of Winston & Strawn LLP, serving as Chairman of the Corporate Department from 2001 to 2006. Mr. MacCarthy holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School and a B.A. from Williams College. Pursuant to an agreement with our sponsor, a trust established for the benefit of the heirs of Gregory J. Purcell and a member of our sponsor, was entitled to nominate two directors for appointment to our Board in connection with the closing of our initial public offering, which nominees are Carl Allegretti and John MacCarthy. Mr. Purcell is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Arbor Investments. Mr. MacCarthy was selected to serve on the Board due to his extensive legal, investments and private equity experiences.
Ellen Levy,
age 52, serves as a Director. Dr. Levy is the Founder & Managing Director of Silicon Valley Connect, working with organizations and entrepreneurs on opportunities for “networked innovation”, while also managing a portfolio of 50+ startups as an angel investor/advisor (a sample of investments including: RelateIQ, acquired by Salesforce; Accompany, acquired by Cisco; Outreach, BetterUp; DoctorOnDemand; Happiest Baby; Trusted Health). Additionally, she is a member of the Board of Directors of Learn CW Investment Corp, (NYSE: LCW) an education technology special purpose acquisition company, and is a member of the Board of Directors of commercial real estate finance company Walker & Dunlop (NYSE: WD), financial services company CAIS, social network for military and veterans company Rallypoint, and from 2015-2020, education technology company Instructure (NYSE: INST). Dr. Levy spent nearly a decade (2003-2012) working with LinkedIn, including as Vice President of Corporate Development & Strategy and member of the Executive Team following her original role as Advisory Board member when the company was first founded. Over her career, Ellen has held formal roles in venture capital (Softbank Venture Capital; NeoCarta Ventures; Draper Fisher Jurvetson), startups (WhoWhere, bought by Lycos; Softbook Press, bought by Gemstar TVGuide; LinkedIn, bought by Microsoft), technology think tanks (Interval
Research), large corporations (Apple Computer; PriceWaterhouse Coopers), and universities (Harvard; Stanford; Arizona State University). Dr. Levy has a BA from the University of Michigan, and MA & PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Stanford University. Dr. Levy was selected to serve on the Board due to her experience in the technology industry.
Carl Allegretti,
age 60, serves as a Director. Mr. Allegretti has been the President of Arbor Investments since March 2020. He began his professional career at Arthur Andersen’s Chicago office in 1983. Mr. Allegretti worked with Deloitte leadership to successfully lead the Chicago tax practice of Arthur Andersen to Deloitte in 2002. While at Deloitte, Mr. Allegretti served as Chairman and CEO of Deloitte Tax LLP, led the tax practice for the Canadian member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL), led Deloitte’s Global Private Practice, was Vice Chair of the US Board of Directors and was a member of Deloitte’s Global Board of Directors. Most recently, Mr. Allegretti was Managing Partner of Deloitte’s Chicago Office until 2020. Mr. Allegretti is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and is a certified CPA in Illinois and Indiana. He serves on the boards of World Business Chicago, Civic Committee of the Commercial Club, Imerman Angels, and the National Football Foundation. Mr. Allegretti also serves as Chair of the Audit Committee of the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, is the Co-Chair
of the After School Matters Advisory Board, and was the former Chair of Illinois Special Olympics. Mr. Allegretti received his bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Butler University in Indiana. Pursuant to an agreement with our sponsor, a trust established for the benefit of the heirs of Gregory J. Purcell and a member of our sponsor, was entitled to nominate two directors for appointment to our Board in connection with the closing of our initial public offering, which nominees are Carl Allegretti and John MacCarthy. Mr. Purcell is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Arbor Investments. Mr. Allegretti was selected to serve on the board due to his decades of business experience.
Number, Terms of Office and Appointment of Directors and Officers
Our board of directors consists of 9 members. Prior to our initial business combination, holders of our founder shares have the right to appoint all of our directors and remove members of the board of directors for any reason, and holders of our public shares do not have the right to vote on the appointment of directors during such time. These provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation may only be amended by approval of a majority of at least 90% of the shares of our Class B common stock. Each of our directors holds office for a two-year
term. Subject to any other special rights applicable to the stockholders, any vacancies on our board of directors may be filled by the affirmative vote of a majority of the directors present and voting at the meeting of our board of directors or by a majority of the holders of our common stock (or, prior to our initial business combination, holders of our founder shares).
Our officers are appointed by the board of directors and serve at the discretion of the board of directors, rather than for specific terms of office. Our board of directors is authorized to appoint persons to the offices set forth in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation as it deems appropriate. Our bylaws provide that our officers may consist of a Chairman, a Chief Executive Officer, a President, a Chief Operating Officer, a Chief Financial Officer, Vice Presidents, a Secretary, Assistant Secretaries, a Treasurer and such other offices as may be determined by the board of directors.
Director Independence
Nasdaq listing standards require that a majority of our board of directors be independent within one year of our initial public offering. An “independent director” is defined generally as a person other than an officer or employee of the company or its subsidiaries or any other individual having a relationship which in the opinion of the company’s board of directors, would interfere with the director’s exercise of independent judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director. We have three “independent directors” as defined in the Nasdaq listing standards and applicable SEC rules prior to completion of our initial public offering. Our board has determined that each of Curtis Feeny, George Hornig, Christie Hefner, Ellen Levy, and Matt Wandoloski is an independent director under applicable SEC rules and the Nasdaq listing standards.
Employees
We currently have two officers and do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Members of our management team are not obligated to devote any specific number of hours to our matters but they intend to devote as much of their time as they deem necessary to our affairs until we have completed our initial business combination. The amount of time that any such person will devote in any time period will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial business combination and the current stage of the business combination process.
Committees of the Board of Directors
Pursuant to Nasdaq listing rules we will establish two standing committees-an audit committee in compliance with Section 3(a)(58)(A) of the Exchange Act and a compensation committee, each comprised of independent directors. Under Nasdaq listing rule 5615(b)(1), a company listing in connection with its initial public offering is permitted to phase in its compliance with the independent committee requirements. We do not intend to rely on the phase-in
schedules set forth in Nasdaq listing rule 5615(b)(1).
Audit Committee
Curtis Feeny, George Hornig and Christie Hefner serve as members of the audit committee. George Hornig serves as chair of the audit committee.
Each member of the audit committee is financially literate and our board of directors has determined that qualifies as an “audit committee financial expert” as defined in applicable SEC rules and has accounting or related financial management expertise.
We adopted an audit committee charter, which details the purpose and principal functions of the audit committee, including:
•
assisting board oversight of (1) the integrity of our financial statements, (2) our compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, (3) our independent registered public accounting firm’s qualifications and independence, and (4) the performance of our internal audit function and independent registered public accounting firm;
•
the appointment, compensation, retention, replacement, and oversight of the work of the independent registered public accounting firm and any other registered public accounting firm engaged by us;
•
pre-approving
all audit and non-audit
services to be provided by the independent registered public accounting firm or any other registered public accounting firm engaged by us, and establishing pre-approval
policies and procedures;
•
reviewing and discussing with the independent registered public accounting firm all relationships the independent registered public accounting firm has with us in order to evaluate their continued independence;
•
setting clear hiring policies for employees or former employees of the independent registered public accounting firm;
•
setting clear policies for audit partner rotation in compliance with applicable laws and regulations;
•
obtaining and reviewing a report, at least annually, from the independent registered public accounting firm describing (1) the independent registered public accounting firm’s internal quality-control procedures and (2) any material issues raised by the most recent internal quality-control review, or peer review, of the audit firm, or by any inquiry or investigation by governmental or professional authorities, within the preceding five years respecting one or more independent audits carried out by the firm and any steps taken to deal with such issues;
•
meeting to review and discuss our annual audited financial statements and quarterly financial statements with management and the independent registered public accounting firm, including reviewing our specific disclosures under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”;
•
reviewing and approving any related party transaction required to be disclosed pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation S-K
promulgated by the SEC prior to us entering into such transaction; and
•
reviewing with management, the independent registered public accounting firm, and our legal advisors, as appropriate, any legal, regulatory or compliance matters, including any correspondence with regulators or government agencies and any employee complaints or published reports that raise material issues regarding our financial statements or accounting policies and any significant changes in accounting standards or rules promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the SEC or other regulatory authorities.
Compensation Committee
Curtis Feeny, George Hornig and Christie Hefner serve as members of our compensation committee. George Hornig is the chair of the compensation committee.
We adopted a compensation committee charter, which details the principal functions of the compensation committee, including:
•
reviewing and approving on an annual basis the corporate goals and objectives relevant to our Chief Executive Officer’s compensation, evaluating our Chief Executive Officer’s performance in light of such goals and objectives and determining and approving the remuneration (if any) of our Chief Executive Officer based on such evaluation;
•
reviewing and making recommendations to our board of directors with respect to the compensation, and any incentive-compensation and equity-based plans that are subject to board approval of all of our other officers;
•
reviewing our executive compensation policies and plans;
•
implementing and administering our incentive compensation equity-based remuneration plans;
•
assisting management in complying with our proxy statement and annual report disclosure requirements;
•
approving all special perquisites, special cash payments and other special compensation and benefit arrangements for our officers and employees;
•
producing a report on executive compensation to be included in our annual proxy statement; and
•
reviewing, evaluating and recommending changes, if appropriate, to the remuneration for directors.
The charter also provides that the compensation committee may, in its sole discretion, retain or obtain the advice of a compensation consultant, independent legal counsel or other adviser and will be directly responsible for the appointment, compensation and oversight of the work of any such adviser. However, before engaging or receiving advice from a compensation consultant, external legal counsel or any other adviser, the compensation committee will consider the independence of each such adviser, including the factors required by Nasdaq and the SEC.
Code of Ethics
We have adopted a code of ethics applicable to our directors, officers and employees (our “Code of Ethics”). A copy of the Code of Ethics will be provided without charge upon request from us. We intend to disclose any amendments to or waivers of certain provisions of our Code of Ethics in a Current Report on Form 8-K.
Limitation on Liability and Indemnification of Officers and Directors
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our officers and directors will be indemnified by us to the fullest extent authorized by Delaware law, as it now exists or may in the future be amended. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our directors will
not be personally liable for monetary damages to us or our stockholders for breaches of their fiduciary duty as directors, unless they violated their duty of loyalty to us or our stockholders, acted in bad faith, knowingly or intentionally violated the law, authorized unlawful payments of dividends, unlawful stock purchases or unlawful redemptions, or derived an improper personal benefit from their actions as directors.
We will enter into agreements with our officers and directors to provide contractual indemnification in addition to the indemnification provided for in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. Our bylaws also will permit us to secure insurance on behalf of any officer, director or employee for any liability arising out of his or her actions, regardless of whether Delaware law would permit such indemnification. We will purchase a policy of directors’ and officers’ liability insurance that insures our officers and directors against the cost of defense, settlement or payment of a judgment in some circumstances and insures us against our obligations to indemnify our officers and directors. Except with respect to any public shares they acquired in the initial public offering or thereafter (in the event we do not consummate an initial business combination), our officers and directors have agreed to waive (and any other persons who may become an officer or director prior to the initial business combination will also be required to waive) any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies in the trust account, and not to seek recourse against the trust account for any reason whatsoever, including with respect to such indemnification.
These provisions may discourage stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against our directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against officers and directors, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our stockholders. Furthermore, a stockholder’s investment may be adversely affected to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against officers and directors pursuant to these indemnification provisions.
We believe that these provisions, the directors’ and officers’ liability insurance and the indemnity agreements are necessary to attract and retain talented and experienced officers and directors.

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ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
Item 11. Executive Compensation.
Executive Officer and Director Compensation
None of our directors or officers have received any cash compensation for services rendered to us. Our sponsor has issued units in the sponsor for service as directors to each of our non-employee directors representing indirect interests in 151,721 founder shares in the case of each of our Board Co-Chairman, 97,534 founder shares in the case of each of our independent non-employee directors, 113,791 founder shares in the case of each of our other non-employee directors and 205,906 founder shares in the case of our President and Chief Financial Officer. Each of our directors and executive officers are members of our sponsor and have indirect economic interests in the founder shares and private placement warrants. See “Item 12 Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters.” Our sponsor, directors and officers, or any of their respective affiliates, will be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket
expenses incurred in connection with activities on our behalf such as identifying potential target businesses and performing due diligence on suitable business combinations. Our audit committee will review on a quarterly basis all payments that were made by us to our sponsor, directors, officers or our or any of their affiliates.
After the completion of our initial business combination, directors or members of our management team who remain with us may be paid consulting, management or other compensation from the combined company. All compensation will be fully disclosed to stockholders, to the extent then known, in the tender offer materials or proxy solicitation materials furnished to our stockholders in connection with a proposed business combination. It is unlikely the amount of such compensation will be known at the time, because the directors of the post-combination business will be responsible for determining executive officer and director compensation. Any compensation to be paid to our officers after the completion of our initial business combination will be determined by a compensation committee constituted solely by independent directors.
We are not party to any agreements with our directors and officers that provide for benefits upon termination of employment. The existence or terms of any such employment or consulting arrangements may influence our management’s motivation in identifying or selecting a target business, and we do not believe that the ability of our management to remain with us after the consummation of our initial business combination should be a determining factor in our decision to proceed with any potential business combination.
Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation
None of our executive officers currently serves, and in the past year has not served, as a member of the compensation committee of any entity that has one or more executive officers serving on our board of directors.

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ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS
Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters.
The following table sets forth information regarding the beneficial ownership of our shares of common stock as of March 28, 2022 by:
•
each person known by us to be the beneficial owner of more than 5% of our outstanding shares of common stock;
•
each of our directors, officers and director nominees that beneficially owns common stock; and
•
all our directors, officers and director nominees as a group.
Unless otherwise indicated, we believe that all persons named in the table have sole voting and investment power with respect to all shares of common stock beneficially owned by them.
The beneficial ownership of our common stock is based on 31,250,000 shares of common stock issued and outstanding as of March 28, 2022, consisting of 25,000,000 shares of Class A common stock and 6,250,000 shares of Class B common stock.
Class A Common Stock
Class B Common Stock
Name and Address of Beneficial Owner(1)
Number of
Shares
Beneficially
Owned
% of
Class
Number of
Shares
Beneficially
Owned(2)
% of
Class
Healthwell Acquisition Corp. I Sponsor LLC (our Sponsor)(3)
*
6,250,000
%
Alyssa Rapp(3) (4)
*
6,250,000
%
John MacCarthy(3) (4)
*
6,250,000
%
Tracy Wan (4)
*
*
George Hornig (4)
*
*
Curtis Feeny (4)
*
*
Carl Allegretti (4)
*
*
Christie Hefner (4)
*
*
Ellen Levy (4)
*
*
Matt Wandoloski (4)
*
*
All directors and officers as a group (9 persons) (3) (4)
*
6,250,000
%
Castle Creek Arbitrage, LLC(4) (5)
2,400,000
9.6 %
*
Magnetar Financial LLC (4)(6)
2,400,000
9.6 %
*
Entities affiliated with Atalaya Capital Management LP and Corbin Capital Partners Group, LLC (4) (7)
2,400,000
9.6
%
*
Shaolin Capital Management LLC(4)
(8)
2,201,235
8.8
%
*
Radcliffe Capital Management, L.P. (4)(9)
1,830,762
7.3
%
*
PEAK6 Capital Management LLC (4)(10)
1,582,080
6.3
%
*
Apollo SPAC Fund I, L.P. (4)(11)
1,440,000
5.8
%
*
* Less than 1%
(1) Unless otherwise noted, the business address of each of the following is 1001 Green Bay Rd, #227., Winnetka, IL 60093.
(2) Interests shown consist of founder shares, classified as Class B common stock. Such common stock will convert into shares of Class A common stock on a one-for-one
basis, subject to adjustment. Amounts shown do not reflect any warrants.
(3) Healthwell Acquisition Corp. I Sponsor LLC, our sponsor, is the record holder of the Class B common stock reported herein. The sponsor is managed by Alyssa J. Rapp and John L. MacCarthy as Managers, in each case acting by unanimous consent. Each of Ms. Rapp and Mr. MacCarthy may be deemed to beneficially own the shares of Class B common stock held by the sponsor. Each of Ms. Rapp and Mr. MacCarthy disclaims beneficial ownership of the reported shares of Class B common stock except to the extent of their respective pecuniary interests therein.
(4) Excludes interests held in Healthwell Acquisition Corp I Sponsor LLC representing indirect interests in Class B common stock over which such persons do not have voting or dispositive power. Our directors and officers hold interests in our sponsor representing in aggregate an economic interest in 2,046,515 shares of Class B common stock. Other than Ms. Rapp and Mr. MacCarthy, none of our officers or directors shares beneficial ownership over the securities held by our sponsor.
(5) According to a Schedule 13G filed with the SEC on February 11, 2022, Castle Creek Arbitrage, LLC serves as a registered investment adviser whose clients are CC Arb West, LLC, Castle Creek SPAC Fund, LLC, and CC Arbitrage, Ltd. Mr. Weine is the managing member of Castle Creek. By virtue of these relationships, each of Castle Creek and Mr. Weine may be deemed to beneficially own the shares of Class A common stock directly owned by CC ARB West, LLC, Castle Creek SPAC Fund, LLC, and CC Arbitrage, Ltd.
(6) According to a Schedule 13G filed with the SEC on January 14, 2022, Magnetar Constellation Fund II, Ltd (“Constellation Fund II”), Magnetar Constellation Master Fund, Ltd (“Constellation Master Fund”), Magnetar Systematic Multi-Strategy Master Fund Ltd (“Systematic Master Fund”), Magnetar Capital Master Fund Ltd (“Master Fund”) , Magnetar Discovery Master Fund Ltd (“Discovery Master Fund”), Magnetar Xing He Master Fund Ltd (“Xing He Master Fund”), Purpose Alternative Credit Fund Ltd (“Purpose Fund”), Magnetar SC Fund Ltd (“SC Fund”), all Cayman Islands exempted companies; Magnetar Structured Credit Fund, LP (“Structured Credit Fund”), a Delaware limited partnership; Magnetar Lake Credit Fund LLC (“Lake Credit Fund”), Purpose Alternative Credit Fund-T LLC (“Purpose Fund-T”), Delaware limited liability companies; collectively (the “Magnetar Funds”) beneficially own 1,400,000 shares of Class A common Stock. Magnetar Financial serves as the investment adviser to the Magnetar Funds, and as such, Magnetar Financial exercises voting and investment power over the Shares held for the Magnetar Funds’ accounts. Magnetar Capital Partners serves as the sole member and parent holding company of Magnetar Financial. Supernova Management is the general partner of Magnetar Capital Partners. The manager of Supernova Management is Mr. Litowitz.
As of December 31, 2021, each of Magnetar Financial, Magnetar Capital Partners, Supernova Management and Mr. Litowitz held 2,400,000 shares of Class A common stock. The amount consists of (A) 251,492 shares of Class A common stock held for the account of Constellation Fund II; (B) 779,400 shares of Class A common stock held for the account of Constellation Master Fund; (C) 63,400 shares of Class A common stock held for the account of Systematic Master Fund; (D) 41,800 shares of Class A common stock held for the account of Master Fund; (E) 29,100 shares of Class A common stock held for the account of Discovery Master Fund; (F) 308,134 shares of Class A common stock held for the account of Xing He Master Fund; (G) 142,740 shares of Class A common stock held for the account of Purpose Fund; (H) 199,382 shares of Class A common stock held for the account of SC Fund; (I) 285,478 shares of Class A common stock held for the account of Structured Credit Fund; (J) 249,228 shares of Class A common stock held for the account of Lake Credit Fund; and (K) 49,846 shares of Class A common stock held of the account of Purpose Fund-T
(7) According to a Schedule 13G/A filed with the SEC on December 14, 2021, a group, which include entities affiliated with Atalaya Capital Management L.P. and Corbin Capital Partners GP LLC, owns 2,400,000 shares of Class A common stock. Atalaya Capital Management L.P. may be deemed the beneficial owner of 1,477,680 shares of Class A common stock, which amount includes (i) the 535,368 shares of Class A common stock beneficially owned by Atalaya Special Purpose Investment Fund II LP, and (ii) the 942,312 shares of Class A common stock beneficially owned by ACM Alameda Special Purpose Investment Fund II LP. Each of Corbin Capital Partners Group, LLC and Corbin Capital Partners GP, LLC may be deemed the beneficial owner of 922,320 shares of Class A common stock, which amount includes (i) the 599,508 shares of Class A common stock beneficially owned by Corbin ERISA Opportunity Fund, Ltd. and (ii) the 322,812 shares of Class A common stock beneficially owned by Corbin Opportunity Fund.
(8) According to a Schedule 13G filed with the SEC on February 11, 2022, Shaolin Capital Management LLC owns 2,201,235 shares of Class A common stock.
(9) According to a Schedule 13G/A filed with the SEC on February 14, 2022, 1,830,762 shares of Class A common stock are deemed beneficially owned by Radcliffe Capital Management, L.P., 1,830,762 shares of Class A common stock are deemed beneficially owned by RGC Management Company, LLC, 1,830,762 shares of Class A common stock are deemed beneficially owned by Steven B. Katznelson, 1,830,762 shares of Class A common stock are deemed beneficially owned by Christopher Hinkel, 1,830,762 shares of Class A common stock are deemed beneficially owned by Radcliffe SPAC Master Fund, L.P., and 1,830,762 shares of Class A common stock are deemed beneficially owned by Radcliffe SPAC GP, LLC.
(10) According to a Schedule 13G filed with the SEC on February 11, 2022, 1,582,080 shares of Class A common stock are beneficially owned by PEAK6 Capital Management LLC, 1,582,080 shares of Class A common stock are beneficially owned by PEAK6 Group LLC, 1,582,080 shares of Class A common stock are beneficially owned by PEAK6 Investments LLC, 1,582,080 shares of Class A common stock are beneficially owned by PEAK6 LLC, 1,582,080 shares of Class A common stock are beneficially owned by Matthew Hulsizer and 1,582,080 shares of Class A common stock are beneficially owned by Jennifer Just.
(11) According to a Schedule 13G filed with the SEC on August 16, 2021, the shares of Class A common stock are beneficially owned by (i) Apollo Atlas Master Fund, LLC (“Atlas”); (ii) Apollo Atlas Management, LLC (“Atlas Management”); (iii) Apollo PPF Credit Strategies, LLC (“PPF Credit Strategies”); (iv) Apollo Credit Strategies Master Fund Ltd. (“Credit Strategies”); (v) Apollo ST Fund Management LLC (“ST Management”); (vi) Apollo ST Operating LP (“ST Operating”); (vii) Apollo ST Capital LLC (“ST Capital”); (viii) ST Management Holdings, LLC (“ST Management Holdings”); (ix) Apollo A-N
Credit Fund (Delaware), L.P. (“A-N
Credit”); (x) Apollo A-N
Credit Management, LLC (“A-N
Credit Management”); (xi) Apollo SPAC Fund I, L.P. (“SPAC Fund I”); (xii) Apollo SPAC Management I, L.P. (“SPAC Management I”); (xiii) Apollo SPAC Management I GP, LLC (“SPAC Management I GP”) (xiv) Apollo Capital Management, L.P. (“Capital Management”); (xv) Apollo Capital Management GP, LLC (“Capital Management GP”); (xvi) Apollo Management Holdings, L.P. (“Management Holdings”); (xvii) Apollo Management Holdings GP, LLC (“Management Holdings GP”).
Securities Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans
None.
Changes in Control
None.

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ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS
Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions and Director Independence
Founder Shares
On February 10, 2021, our sponsor paid $25,000 in consideration for 6,250,000 shares of Class B common stock. The Founder Shares included an aggregate of up to 937,500 shares subject to forfeiture by our sponsor to the extent that the underwriter’s over-allotment was not exercised in full or in part, so that our sponsor would collectively own, on an as-converted
basis, 20% of the Company’s issued and outstanding shares after the initial public offering (assuming our sponsor did not purchase any public shares in the Initial Public Offering). On September 11, 2021, the remaining over-allotment option expired. As a result, 937,500 shares of Class B common stock were forfeited.
Private Placement Warrants
Simultaneously with the closing of the Initial Public Offering on August 5, 2021, our Sponsor purchased an aggregate of 7,700,000 warrants at a price of $1.00 per warrant in a private placement (the “Private Placement Warrants”), generating gross proceeds of $7,700,000. Each Private Placement Warrant is exercisable to purchase one share of Class A common stock at a price of $11.50 per share. The proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants were added to the net proceeds from the Initial Public Offering held in the Trust Account. If we do not complete a Business Combination within the Combination Period, the proceeds from the sale of the Private Placement Warrants will be used to fund the redemption of the Public Shares (subject to the requirements of applicable law) and the Private Placement Warrants will expire worthless. The Private Placement Warrants (including the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the Private Placement Warrants) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by it until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination.
Promissory Note-Related Party
On February 10, 2021, the Company issued an unsecured promissory note to the Sponsor (the “Promissory Note”), pursuant to which the Company received proceeds of $350,000 to cover expenses related to the Initial Public Offering. The Promissory Note was non-interest
bearing and was payable on the earlier of June 30, 2022 or the completion of the Initial Public Offering. The outstanding balance under the Promissory Note of $350,000 was repaid at the closing of the Initial Public Offering on August 5, 2021, and no additional borrowings occurred through December 31, 2021.
Forward Purchase Agreement
We have entered into a forward purchase agreement with Peterson Partners, a member of our sponsor, pursuant to which Peterson Partners has subscribed to purchase from us 4,000,000 units, with each unit consisting of one share of Class A common stock, or a forward purchase share, and one-half
of one warrant to purchase one share of Class A common stock, or a forward purchase warrant, for $10.00 per unit, or an aggregate amount of up to $40.0 million, in a private placement that will close concurrently with the closing of our initial business combination. Peterson Partners has the right to nominate to our Board one director, as described below. Peterson Partners’ commitment under the forward purchase agreement is subject to, among other conditions, the approval of its investment committee to purchase the units no later than five business days after we notify them of our intention to enter into a definitive agreement for a proposed business combination. The forward purchase shares will be identical to the shares of Class A common stock included in the units being sold in our initial public offering, except that they will be subject to certain transfer restrictions, as described herein, and the forward purchase warrants shall be identical to the private placement warrants. In connection with the forward purchase agreement, our sponsor issued Peterson Partners interests in our sponsor representing an indirect economic interest in approximately 4% of our Class B Common Stock. Upon consummation of our initial public offering, Peterson Partners nominated Curtis Feeny to our Board.
In addition, Peterson Partners has agreed with us that, during the Lock-Up
Period (as defined below) without the prior written consent of the Company, it shall not (i) sell, offer to sell, contract or agree to sell, hypothecate, pledge, grant any option to purchase or otherwise dispose of or agree to dispose of, directly or indirectly, or establish or increase a put equivalent position or liquidate or decrease a call equivalent position within the meaning of Section 16 of the Exchange Act, and the rules and regulations of the SEC promulgated thereunder, with respect to, the forward purchase units, the forward purchase securities or any shares of Class A common stock received upon exercise of the forward purchase warrants (the “Lock-up
Securities”), owned by it, (ii) enter into any swap or other arrangement that transfers to another, in whole or in part, any of the economic consequences of ownership of any Lock-up
Securities owned by it, whether any such transaction is to be settled by delivery of such securities, in cash or otherwise, or (iii) publicly announce any intention to effect any transaction specified in clause (i) or (ii).
Registration Rights
We have entered into a registration rights agreement with respect to the founder shares, private placement warrants, warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans and forward purchase securities that may be issued pursuant to the forward purchase agreements (and any shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the exercise of the private placement warrants, forward purchase warrants and warrants that may be issued upon conversion of the working capital loans and upon conversion of the founder shares).
Policy for Approval of Related Party Transactions
The audit committee of our board of directors adopted a policy setting forth the policies and procedures for its review and approval or ratification of “related party transactions.” A “related party transaction” is any consummated or proposed transaction or series of transactions: (i) in which the company was or is to be a participant; (ii) the amount of which exceeds (or is reasonably expected to exceed) the lesser of $120,000 or 1% of the average of the company’s total assets at year-end
for the prior two completed fiscal years in the aggregate over the duration of the transaction (without regard to profit or loss); and (iii) in which a “related party” had, has or will have a direct or indirect material interest. “Related parties” under this policy include: (i) our directors, nominees for director or executive officers; (ii) any record or beneficial owner of more than 5% of any Class of our voting securities; (iii) any immediate family member of any of the foregoing if the foregoing person is a natural person; and (iv) any other person who maybe a “related person” pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation S-K
under the Exchange Act. Pursuant to the policy, the audit committee will consider (i) the relevant facts and circumstances of each related party transaction, including if the transaction is on terms comparable to those that could be obtained in arm’s-length
dealings with an unrelated third party, (ii) the extent of the related party’s interest in the transaction, (iii) whether the transaction contravenes our code of ethics or other policies, (iv) whether the audit committee believes the relationship underlying the transaction to be in the best interests of the company and its stockholders and (v) the effect that the transaction may have on a director’s status as an independent member of the board and on his or her eligibility to serve on the board’s committees. Management will present to the audit committee each proposed related party transaction, including all relevant facts and circumstances relating thereto. Under the policy, we may consummate related party transactions only if our audit committee approves or ratifies the transaction in accordance with the guidelines set forth in the policy. The policy does not permit any director or executive officer to participate in the discussion of, or decision concerning, a related person transaction in which he or she is the related party.
Director Independence
Nasdaq listing standards require that a majority of our board of directors be independent. An “independent director” is defined generally as a person other than an officer or employee of the company or its subsidiaries or any other individual having a relationship which in the opinion of the company’s board of directors, would interfere with the director’s exercise of independent judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director. Our board of directors has determined that George Hornig, Curtis Feeny, Matt Wandoloski, Ellen Levy, Christie Hefner are “independent directors” as defined in Nasdaq listing standards and applicable SEC rules. Our independent directors have regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent directors are present.

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ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES
Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services.
The following is a summary of fees paid or to be paid to Marcum LLP, or Marcum, for services rendered.
Audit Fees.
Audit fees consist of fees billed for professional services rendered for the audit of our year-end
financial statements and services that are normally provided by Marcum in connection with regulatory filings. The aggregate fees billed by Marcum for professional services rendered for the audit of our annual financial statements, review of the financial information included in our Form 10-K
and other required filings with the SEC for the year ended December 31, 2021 totaled approximately $98,365. The above amount includes interim procedures, audit fees, and consent issued for registration statements and comfort letters.
Audit-Related Fees.
Audit-related services consist of fees billed for assurance and related services that are reasonably related to performance of the audit or review of our financial statements and are not reported under “Audit Fees.” These services include attest services that are not required by statute or regulation and consultations concerning financial accounting and reporting standards. We did not pay Marcum for consultations concerning financial accounting and reporting standards for the year ended December 31, 2021.
Tax Fees.
We did not pay Marcum for tax planning and tax advice for the year ended December 31, 2021.
All Other Fees.
We did not pay Marcum for other services for the year ended December 31, 2021.
Pre-Approval
Policy
Since the formation of our audit committee upon the consummation of our Initial Public Offering, and on a going-forward basis, the audit committee has and will pre-approve
all auditing services and permitted non-audit
services to be performed for us by our auditors, including the fees and terms thereof (subject to the de minimis exceptions for non-audit
services described in the Exchange Act which are approved by the audit committee prior to the completion of the audit). The audit committee pre-approved
all auditing services provided by Marcum set forth above for 2021.
PART IV

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ITEM 15. EXHIBITS, FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules.
a. The following documents are filed as part of this Amendment:
Financial Statements: See “Index to Financial Statements” at “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” herein.
b. Exhibits: The following exhibits are filed as part of, or incorporated by reference into, this Report on Form 10-K.