US-based commercial electric vehicle OEM, Xos, is on track to become a publicly traded business on the Nasdaq stock exchange through a merger with NextGen Acquisition Corporation.
The combined company is reported to have an implied pro forma market capitalisation of $2.0 billion USD. The transaction includes a $220 million USD oversubscribed and fully committed common stock PIPE anchored by Janus Henderson Investors and a consortium of truck dealers led by Thompson Truck Centers.
The transaction is expected to close this year.
Xos vehicles have been deployed in field operations since 2019 most notably with UPS, Loomis, Lonestar and Wiggins. There is also a backlog of 6000-plus units of contracted and optional orders.
Xos CEO and co-founder, Dakota Semler, said the business aims to decarbonise transport through the design, engineering and development of purpose-built commercial vehicles and has done so since 2016.
Following this merger, according to Xos co-founder and COO, Giordano Sordoni, the company is expanding its vehicle and battery manufacturing capacity, advancing generation battery and vehicle control systems and putting thousands more Xos vehicles on the road.
Xos is poised to capitalise on the electrification of what it considers to be a $100 billion USD total addressable market for medium and heavy duty last mile commercial electric vehicles.
“The strong secular tailwinds of climate change and e-commerce anchor our investment
conviction in Xos,” said NextGen co-founder and co-Chairman, George Mattson.
“Climate change is one of the world’s greatest challenges, and commercial trucks are the largest emitters per capita of greenhouse gases in the transportation industry.
“Simultaneously, last-mile e-commerce delivery is growing, accelerated by changes in consumer purchasing behaviours post-COVID.
“The dual drivers of strong underlying industry growth and the imperative to transition
traditional fossil fuel vehicles to zero emission vehicles, set the backdrop for strong underlying growth for years to come.”
NextGen is led by George Mattson, a former Partner at Goldman, Sachs & Co., and Gregory Summe, former Chairman and CEO of Perkin Elmer and Vice Chairman of the Carlyle Group.