Virtuoso Acquisition’s shareholders on Wednesday approved it’s proposed merger with General Motors-backed Wejo, a connected car data pioneer. In May, Wejo had announced its intention to go public through SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) with Virtuoso Acquisition Corp.
The merger is expected to close today, following which the combined company will be called Wejo and will commence trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on November 19, 2021, under the ticker symbols “WEJO.”
“We are very pleased to achieve this important milestone in the merger process and thank our stockholders for their support,” says Jeffrey D. Warshaw, Chairman and CEO of Virtuoso.
He adds, “Wejo has built significant momentum in its business and is demonstrating the huge potential of connected vehicle data through the continued development of its technology platform, as well as its important collaborations with many market-leading companies and OEMs.”
Finance agreement
Earlier this month, Wejo and Virtuoso Acquisition Corp. disclosed two financing agreements to support their proposed merger:
- Forward Purchase Agreement. An affiliate of Wejo has entered into a forward purchase agreement for up to $75M (approx €66M) with funds managed by affiliates of Apollo.
- New PIPE Investment. Virtuoso has also entered into an agreement with Mason Stevens, an Australia-based institution that will invest $3.5M (approx €3M) as part of the PIPE financing, bringing the total financing to $128.5M (approx €113.4M). Mason Stevens joins other institutional and strategic PIPE investors, including Microsoft, Palantir Technologies, General Motors, and Sompo.
Virtuoso will combine with Wejo at an enterprise value of $800M (approx €706M), which implies an estimated $1.1B pro forma equity value.
Wejo: What you need to know
Based out of Chester, Wejo gathers and analyses car data from connected cars to help vehicle manufacturers improve their products through data-driven decisions.
The data and insights provided by the 15M cars on its platform are licensed to mobility businesses from traffic analysts to parking app developers and smart city planners to governments.
Wejo Studio
In October, the company launched Wejo Studio, a web-based SaaS platform that analyses data from millions of connected vehicles and translates billions of data points in near real-time into game-changing traffic and journey insights for all business users to leverage.
The company also appointed Lawrence D. Burns, former Corporate Vice President of Research and Development at General Motors, to its Board of Directors.
Founded by Richard Barlow in 2014, Wejo aims to make cities more liveable and deliver a better driving experience. Wejo employs more than 250 people and has offices in Manchester in the UK and across the globe.
About Virtuoso
Virtuoso Acquisition Corp. is a special purpose acquisition company formed to effect a merger, stock purchase, or similar business combination with one or more businesses.
Virtuoso is led by Jeffrey D. Warshaw, Chairman and CEO, and Michael O. Driscoll, Chief Financial Officer.
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