Troy Swope, a co-founder and CEO of Footprint
Photo courtesy Footprint
Footprint, an Arizona-based supplies science expertise firm identified for its plant-based packaging, will make its market debut by merging with blank-check agency Gores Holdings VIII. The deal is predicted to worth Footprint, ranked No. 45 on this 12 months’s CNBC Disruptor 50 checklist, at $1.6 billion following the SPAC merger’s completion.
SPACs — or particular goal acquisition firms — increase capital from public markets and use that money to merge with a personal firm, with the aim of taking the corporate public inside a two-year interval. There was an explosion in SPAC offers earlier this 12 months, however there are indications the area is cooling down. Still, valuations have gained as cash managers are additionally more and more factoring in ESG insurance policies of their investments.
Founded in 2014 by two former Intel engineers, Footprint develops and manufactures different options to single- and short-term-use plastic. Its sustainable merchandise are designed with the whole product lifecycle in thoughts, and are made out of 100% bio-based, biodegradable, compostable and recyclable fibers. That not solely reduces pointless waste from coming into the setting, but it surely additionally reduces publicity to poisonous chemical compounds present in plastic.
“With firms, regulators and customers alike more and more demanding high-quality, sustainable alternate options to single-use plastic, foam and different merchandise, Footprint’s options are capitalizing on a rising $315 billion annual market alternative that’s changing to environmentally pleasant options as shortly as potential,” the businesses stated in a press launch assertion.
Footprint says its plant-based fiber bowls, clamshell containers, trays, cups and different shopper packaging merchandise have already eradicated greater than 61 million kilos of plastic. They’re in a number of the nation’s largest supermarkets, together with Walmart, Target, Costco, Whole Foods, Albertsons’ Safeway, Kroger, Fry’s, Aldi, Wegmans and Trader Joe’s.
And the corporate is collaborating with main manufacturers, together with newly public Sweetgreen, McDonald’s, Kraft Heinz, Tyson Foods, Beyond Meat, Chick-fil-A, Dunkin, Panera Bread and True Food Kitchen.
In July, the corporate additionally entered into an agreement with the Phoenix Suns, re-naming the NBA group’s house complicated to Footprint Center, whereas additionally working with the sports team to remove single-use plastic and check new applied sciences at their facility.
Footprint and the Suns are aiming to get followers concerned, from movies speaking about sustainability and how you can handle their trash on the large scoreboard throughout video games, to encouraging folks to join a local weather pledge initiative to chop plastics from their lives. The Suns can even encourage gamers to participate within the pledge, in addition to different entertainers who carry out within the enviornment.
Footprint is predicted to start buying and selling on the Nasdaq within the first half of 2022 below ticker image “FOOT.”
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