Michael Cagney, the founder of the blockchain credit startup Figure Technologies, plans to set up a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), he announced in an approval application on Thursday.
The blank check company is trying to raise $ 250 million, according to the prospectus filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It’s called Figure Acquisition Corp. I. Bloomberg first published the news.
Figure Technologies provides mortgages and loans using its own blockchain called Provenance to automate parts of the process. It was founded in 2018 and raised $ 220 million from Ribbit Management, DST Capital, RPM Ventures, Nimble Ventures and Morgan Creek, according to the prospectus.
Cagney would be the chairman of the new company’s board of directors.
Figure is the latest crypto firm to set up a SPAC that has been used as a vehicle to allow companies to go public. Digital asset custodian and derivatives provider Bakkt went public earlier this year using a similar method. Other companies like Coinbase have instead chosen to go public via direct listing.
Figure’s prospectus is expected to “identify companies with compelling growth potential” and acquire a combination of different characteristics that can be acquired for the IPO.
“We expect to differentiate ourselves through our … ability to leverage proven and scaled blockchain platforms that drive operational, technological, and marketing improvements to maximize businesses’ growth potential,” the prospectus reads.
The prospectus did not state that Figure Technologies would itself go public through the SPAC.
According to SEC documents, Figure filed his Form S-1 and initially announced the SPAC on February 3. An updated submission will be published on Thursday. A draft registration statement was submitted in mid-January.
Figure also registered as a bank last year and applied for a charter to the Office of the Currency Auditor in November, but it has not yet been approved.
Figure also created an advertising campaign with an anthropomorphic “blockchain” in early 2020.
