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Stanford – Vienna Transatlantic Technology Law Forum A joint initiative of Stanford Law School and the University of Vienna School of Law TTLF Working Papers No. 77 Spotlight on SPACs in the Fintech Sector: Evolving Market Trends and Recent Regulatory Developments for SPACs in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe Diana Milanesi 2021 TTLF Working Papers Editors: Siegfried Fina, Mark Lemley, and Roland Vogl About the TTLF Working Papers TTLF’s Working Paper Series presents original research on technology-related and business-related law and policy issues of the European Union and the US. The objective of TTLF’s Working Paper Series is to share “work in progress”. The authors of the papers are solely responsible for the content of their contributions and may use the citation standards of their home country. The TTLF Working Papers can be found at http://ttlf.stanford.edu. Please also visit this website to learn more about TTLF’s mission and activities. If you should have any questions regarding the TTLF’s Working Paper Series, please contact Vienna Law Professor Siegfried Fina, Stanford Law Professor Mark Lemley or Stanford LST Executive Director Roland Vogl at the Stanford-Vienna Transatlantic Technology Law Forum http://ttlf.stanford.edu Stanford Law School University of Vienna School of Law Crown Quadrangle Department of Business Law 559 Nathan Abbott Way Schottenbastei 10-16 Stanford, CA 94305-8610 1010 Vienna, Austria II About the Author Diana is an attorney member of the State Bar of California and the New York State Bar. Diana works as Associate Legal Director at Monzo Bank, a leading UK bank, where she focuses on corporate and capital raising transactions, tech commercial transactions, as well as partnership and open banking activities. Prior to joining Monzo Bank, Diana worked as Legal Adviser at Startup Europe India Network; Corporate Attorney at Squire Patton Boggs LLP (San Francisco (CA) office), where she advised domestic and international clients in connection with venture capital transactions, IPOs, Rule 144A/Regulation S offerings, fund formation, tech-focused transactions, cross-border reorganizations and M&As; and Legal Adviser at an international venture capital firm in San Francisco (CA), where she focused on seed and early stage venture capital investments in technology companies. Diana started her legal career as an Associate in the Banking and Finance Department at Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Partners (Milan office, Italy), where she gained extensive experience on banking and finance, private equity, and capital markets transactions. Diana earned her Bachelor Degree in Judicial Science (LL.B.), summa cum laude, in 2007 and her Master Degree in Law (J.D.), summa cum laude, in 2009 both from Luigi Bocconi University, Italy. As part of her Master Degree in Law, in 2008 she attended an exchange program at Duke University School of Law, where she focused her studies on business law and financial regulation. In 2010, she received a certificate in debt market from the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. Diana earned her LL.M. Degree from UC Berkeley School of Law in 2012, with a concentration in securities regulation and corporate finance. During the LL.M. program, she served as member on the Berkeley Business Law Journal. Diana received her J.S.D. Degree from UC Berkeley School of Law in 2017, with a concentration in venture capital, financial derivatives, regulation of capital markets and securities. During the J.S.D. program, she also attended MBA courses in financial derivatives, private equity, and venture capital at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. Diana has published various articles in the fields of securities law, financial regulation, and venture capital. She has also collaborated as lecturer and researcher at Mind the Bridge Foundation and Startup Europe Partnership, an integrated platform established by the European Commission to support the growth and sustainability of European startups and scaleups. Her present research focuses on the rapidly evolving legislative and regulatory frameworks for financial technology in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe. She has been a TTLF Fellow since 2016. General Note about the Content The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Transatlantic Technology Law Forum or any of its partner institutions, or the sponsors of this research project. III Suggested Citation This TTLF Working Paper should be cited as: Diana Milanesi, Spotlight on SPACs in the Fintech Sector: Evolving Market Trends and Recent Regulatory Developments for SPACs in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, Stanford-Vienna TTLF Working Paper No. 77, http://ttlf.stanford.edu. Copyright © 2021 Diana Milanesi IV Abstract Recent years have seen significant market developments and increased innovation in capital markets. The path to enter these markets has rapidly transformed as a stronger and clearer desire to innovate on the traditional initial public offering (“IPO”) process has arisen, with alternative structures being utilized to take private companies public and to raise capital. Among them, special purpose acquisition companies (“SPACs”) have recently emerged to dominate the capital markets scene, with the volume and size of SPAC IPOs and business combinations completed by SPACs reaching record high levels in 2020 and the first half of 2021. A SPAC is a shell company with no commercial operations, which is formed by a sponsor to raise capital through an IPO for the purposes of financing the acquisition of a private operating company within a specified timeframe, typically 18 to 24 months following the SPAC’s IPO. The target company being acquired is taken public via the business combination of the two entities. If the SPAC fails to close the business combination before its expiration date or permitted extension, the investors’ capital will be returned and the SPAC will be liquidated. Whilst to date SPACs have mostly been a U.S. phenomenon, SPAC activity has gradually gained traction in other geographic areas including Europe and the United Kingdom, with financial centers like Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London positioning themselves to best capture this emerging trend. From a sector perspective, SPACs have increasingly targeted acquisitions in high-growth industries and have rapidly become an integral part of fast-evolving sectors, including the fintech sector. A few high-profile fintech companies have recently gone public via a SPAC, and a growing number of fintech companies have reportedly been considering the SPAC route when weighting their options to go public. Many SPACs view the fintech sector as ripe for successful business combinations due to the large supply of mature and highly valued fintech companies eyeing the public markets, as well as the accelerated growth of many fintech companies and the increased demand for fintech services and products driven by rapid changes in customer behavior in the aftermaths of the recent Covid-19 pandemic. The surge in popularity of SPACs and the significant growth in SPAC activity have brought heightened scrutiny from regulators in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe. In recent months, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has initiated a number of SPAC-related enforcement actions and has issued several public statements and regulatory investor guidance on issues pertaining to SPACs, while the U.S. Congress has begun to hold hearings on SPACs. In parallel, the European Securities and Markets Authority has published disclosure and investor protection guidance on SPACs. The regulatory framework for SPACs in the United Kingdom has also rapidly evolved during the last few months as UK regulators have gone to great lengths to demonstrate their commitment to ensuring their public markets remain competitive listing venues, while at the same time introducing various measures aimed at strengthening the protection for investors in SPACs and increasing market efficiency and transparency in connection with SPAC activity. Despite the recent slow-down in U.S. SPAC transactions driven in part by growing concerns around SPAC-related litigation risks and increased regulatory scrutiny, the pace of SPAC activity is expected to remain at a high level in the months to come, with more SPACs launching and expanding internationally into non-U.S. markets including in the United Kingdom and Europe. SPAC activity in the fintech sector, in particular, is expected to progress at a steady pace in light of the sector’s strong revenue and growth projections, the anticipated wave of fintech companies reaching profitability, as well as a renewed appetite for a variety of fintech products and services. Interestingly, latest SPAC issuances have broadened the range and improved the makeup of the sponsors to include more institutional and high-reputable market participants, thus further legitimizing the SPAC process. The influx of large private equity and venture capital firms and seasoned managers with well- proven track records, coupled with better alignment of sponsors’ incentives and investors’ returns, has contributed to boost investor confidence, thus enabling SPACs to raise significant capital to use for acquisitions of larger and more mature target companies. Additionally, the high-profile companies that have recently gone public via a SPAC have helped accelerate the momentum and have lent increased credibility to the SPAC structure. The SPAC market

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