Luminar to go public in $3.4B merger

mrgordon · on Aug 25, 2020

Seems like the entire space has decided now is a good time to go public with Tesla at all time highs. Velodyne also went public recently under the symbol GRAF and has done well which is why Luminar quickly followed with a merger to go public. Seems like more of the electric vehicle startups like Fisker (symbol SPAQ) seem to be using Velodyne over Luminar.

Good to see a lot of enthusiasm for imaging and autonomous vehicles! I like the potential smart city applications

deepnotderp · on Aug 25, 2020

Congrats to Luminar! I believe this is the Thiel Fellowship's biggest exit to date.

edoceo · on Aug 25, 2020

Good news for Peter T, could this be a way for his funds to test the water before palantir?

svbanker · on Aug 25, 2020

This makes no sense. The fellowship doesn’t take equity. And its not like he has control over what Luminar does. Also, Luminar went public through a SPAC and Palantir is going to be a Direct Listing so one doing well wouldn’t say anything about the investor appetite for the other

kraavi · on Aug 25, 2020

The SPAC poured $400m and there is another $170m PIPE, which also includes Peter Thiel [1]

Peter Thiel was a current investor in Luminar [2]

[1] https://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUKKBN25K1BX

[2] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/luminar-technologies...