Climate and Clean Tech | January 25, 2021

Electric charging operator EVgo to go public via a climate SPAC

Dennis Price
ImpactAlpha Editor

Dennis Price

ImpactAlpha, Jan. 25 – Electric charging operator EVgo will go public via a climate SPAC. The deal will value the Los Angeles-based electric-vehicle charging network at $2.6 billion. The $175 million offering, topped with a $400 million PIPE, will fund expansion for EVgo, which operates in 34 states.

The spate of backdoor IPOs via such special purpose acquisition companies is unleashing a boom in venture capital investment into renewable energy, green infrastructure and EVs, by making public-markets financing available for capital-intensive sectors – and exits for earlier-stage investors.

More than 30 clean-tech startups announced mergers with SPACs last year. 

  • Power players.  EVgo will go public through a reverse merger with Climate Change Crisis Real Impact I Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company led by David Crane, former CEO of NRG Energy, Credit Suisse veterans John Cavalier and Anne Frank-Shapiro, and Beth Comstock, who played a key role in GE’s clean-energy transformation.
  • Sand Hill Road. Cleantech VC is officially back. “The venture industry moves toward returns,” venture capitalist Dan Oros of G2VP, told The Wall Street Journal. Three G2VP portfolio companies have agreed to merge with SPACs, including electric fleet company Proterra last week. “If investors start making huge returns in EV companies, battery companies, industrial-tech companies, then they will invest in those things.”