$1 Billion Public Listing For Human Longevity Has Been Called Off

In June, Spannr reported that San Diego-based Human Longevity had agreed to go public in a SPAC transaction at an implied valuation of $1 billion.

The company was all but set to combine with the $345 million blank check company, Freedom Acquisition Corp (FACT).

As we reported at the time:

“With the SPAC and biotech market facing significant headwinds in the current macroeconomic environment, we expect a non-trivial number of investors to ask to redeem their stock.

Although SPAC redemptions across the industry have decreased in recent months, they have been as high as 90% this year, meaning that Human Longevity could receive significantly less than the $345 million pledged by Freedom Acquisition.”

Well, nearly 3 months later, it turns out that SPAC investors didn’t even get the chance to vote on the merger. That’s because out of left field this week, Freedom Acquisition Corp announced that they were dropping plans to merge with Human Longevity and instead merged with solar services company Solaria.

So what happened? At this stage we don’t have much clarity. All we have is a short interview that FACTs CEO, Tidjane Thiam, did with the Financial Times in which he stated: “We’re excited about Human Longevity, but they are just not ready for listing.”

Thiam went on to state that he has instead launched a new fund – Free Tiger Fund – to lead Human Longevity’s next round of funding.

“We have set up the Free Tiger Fund and [Human Longevity] has given us the mandate to do the next round of funding for them. They have two centers – San Diego and San Francisco – but they want to open more, so they will use that capital to open more centers”

Following the announcement, Spannr reached out to Human Longevity but the company, so far, has not responded to a request for comment.

Overall, what seemed like a bright light for the public longevity market, with a $1 billion longevity pure-play company entering the scene, is now on hold.