Varsavsky launches his SPAC today on Wall Street with a capital of 210 million euros

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The SPAC promoted by businessman Martin Varsavsky debuts on Wall Street today with an initial valuation of 250 million dollars (210 million euros). It will be the capital with which to address the subsequent acquisition of a company that gives meaning to this investment vehicle booming on Wall Street, and which debuts on the Stock Market with the sole purpose of obtaining sufficient financing for a subsequent purchase transaction return on investment.

The SPAC promoted by Varsavsky, the renowned Argentine serial investor and entrepreneur, is called Levere Holdings and expresses its intention to focus on the acquisition of one or more companies within the mobility industry (focused on the development of driving autonomous, connected vehicles, mobility services and electric vehicles) that has a presence in EMEA or with a high potential to enter this geographical area, or that would benefit from expanding their activities in EMEA and then expanding to different regions.

Varsavsky will be the CEO and president of the company, which opens at a starting price of $ 10 per share. It is the usual price in the debut of this type of vehicle, whose subsequent evolution on the Stock Market will depend on the acquisition project that they present. In the Varsavsky operation, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank were the financial managers of the offer.

The businessman has chosen to launch his SPAC on Wall Street, the market where this vehicle is undoubtedly most developed. Europe is still far behind in the IPOs of SPAC, which in the United States has already raised financing for more than 150,000 million dollars in the last 15 months. In fact, there are many non-US promoters of this vehicle who, with capital also from outside the US, choose to have the vehicles they launch listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Varsavsky (60 years old) maintains, as this operation shows, his entrepreneurial spirit, after having created well-known companies such as Jazztel, Ya.com, Fon, Viatel or Eolia. The Argentine investor is currently dealing with some ambitious projects, such as Prelude, which after just over three years in operation has become the largest network of fertility centers in the United States or Overture, the startup that has been launched in Madrid to create embryos with robots.

But Varsavsky's bet that is most linked to the objective of his new SPAC is Goggo Networks, the startup with which he wants to stand up to Google and be a European autonomous car fleet operator, starting with Spain, France and Germany. In December 2019, the project raised 44 million euros from SoftBank and Axel Springer Digital Ventures, funds with which they would seek, as they explained, to help European governments establish the regulatory framework for the autonomous vehicle market.

The well-known investor already recognized then that he was not willing to be left out as an entrepreneur in a future mobility business, where electricity, autonomous driving and car sharing will be essential elements. And with this SPAC, he makes it clear that he wants to stomp on this terrain and that he will fight for competition in it, as in his day he did in the telecom industry. In his opinion, if there are no interesting alternative projects to Google in Europe, the American giant will end up being the dominant operator in autonomous driving in the Old Continent, something that poses a threat to Europe's economic and strategic interests.

If Varsavsky is famous for something, it is for having a nose for spotting market opportunities and a great ability to raise funds. Now you will have the opportunity to prove it again.