SPAC

Ali Parsa, CEO and founder of Babylon, discusses what the company learned from going public through merger with a special purpose acquisition company.

The newly public company, now trading on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "AKLI," will use the proceeds from the transaction to launch EndeavorRx, its video game-like digital therapeutic for children with ADHD.

This week's top stories include SCOTUS blocking the Biden Administration vaccination rule for employees of large companies, while upholding a mandate for healthcare workers at facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid funding, and digital medicine platform Akili plans to go public through merging with SPAC Social Capital Suvretta.

The merger with the special-purpose acquisition company Social Capital Suvretta Holdings Corp. I is expected to net Akili up to $412 million.

Health tech companies raised nearly $40 billion last year, according to Silicon Valley Bank's Healthcare Investments and Exits Report. IPOs were also up, but those companies didn't fare as well in the public markets.

The prescription digital therapeutics company said the transaction generated approximately $175 million.

Pear announced plans to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company in June, and the deal is set to close soon.

The company is currently trading under OWLT on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Once combined, the company will operate as HeartFlow Group and trade on the NYSE under symbol HFLO.  

Halfway through this year, digital health has received $14.7 billion in funding – already more than 2020’s full-year amount of $14.6 billion.