Innovid Corp (CTV)

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Innovid begins trading on NYSE at $1.3b valuation

Innovid is raising $251 million after the PIPE investment was increased but did not offset 80% of the SPAC investors pulling out of the deal.
Israeli tech company Innovid, which has developed a platform for analyzing and measuring digital ads on smart TVs, has completed its SPAC merger with ION Acquisition Corp. 2 and will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) today under the CTV ticker. ION announced yesterday that its shareholders' meeting approved the deal by an overwhelming majority of 97.4%.
Innovid has merged with the SPAC at a company valuation of $1.3 billion. When the merger was first announced in June, Innovid was due to raise $403 million including $253 million from the SPAC and $150 million in private investment in public equity (PIPE) from investment institutions including Fidelity and Israel Phoenix Assurance Ltd. (TASE: PHOE).

Subsequently the PIPE investment was raised to $200 million, meaning that Innovid would raise $453 million, after investors asked to increase their stakes. But ION's report yesterday said that Innovid would only be raising a total of $251 million, meaning that 80% of the SPAC investors preferred to cash in their shares before the merger and not participate in the deal. The increase in the PIPE investment only partially offset this.

Innovid was founded in 2008 by CEO Zvika Netter, Tal Chalozin and Zack Zigdon.
ION CEO Gilad Shany said, "Innovid has built an outstanding ad-serving, creative and measurement platform, purpose-built for CTV, to empower global advertisers as they transition $200 billion of TV advertising from broadcast television to the digital age. With strong customer relationships with the largest TV advertisers, deep partnerships across the ecosystem, independence of any media bias, and attractive usage-based unit economics, the company is uniquely positioned going forward," continued Gilad. "With the support of our shareholders for the business combination, we look forward to the next phase of our partnership with Zvika and the Innovid team as they commence their journey as a public company, and cement their leadership position in the CTV ecosystem.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 1, 2021.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2021.

https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-innovid-begins-trading-on-nyse-today-at-13b-valuation-1001392848