Back in August, Ursa Major, which uses additive manufacturing (AM) for propulsion components, announced that it plans to go public early in 2027 via the Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation (SPAC) path. Ursa Major is far more of a proven entity than were the AM companies that helped ignite the SPAC fire that briefly burned so bright at the beginning of this decade. But as I noted in my post about the company’s decision, that history does likely put some extra pressure on Ursa Major to prove doubters wrong.
On the other hand, the traditional IPO process has also been subject to increasing scrutiny, which has perhaps helped lead to the current situation where a smaller IPO market seems to be the norm. Additionally, the companies that have been seizing all of the IPO attention tend to be mega-caps-in-utero that are being given the privilege of essentially writing their own rules. So perhaps what’s involved when companies go public is simply being redefined, for better or worse.
This is the backdrop against which the San Jose-based OEM Sakuu, which makes equipment for producing 3D printed batteries, has announced that it will go public via a merger with Pyrophyte Acquisition Corp II, a Houston-based blank check company focused on investing in companies supporting the energy transition. The deal implies a pre-money valuation of $600 million. Sakuu plans to put the funds primarily towards achieving its goal of offering its battery manufacturing platforms on the broader market by Q2 of next year.
The company’s system, Kavian, enables a fully-dry manufacturing process, and is compatible with a variety of different materials, including composites. Dry cathode production is gaining traction primarily because it’s far less environmentally destructive than conventional battery manufacturing processes, which — owing to a lower carbon footprint — also implies the potential for lower capex.
In its marketing approach, Sakuu has highlighted the AI opportunity that future Kavian users could tap into: batteries for data center server racks. I’ve written a lot about how AM could help lower the energy requirements and more general ecological damage associated with the AI infrastructure boom, and this would be a particularly direct example of that.
And, completely aside from AI, I think that the energy transition is one of the best long-term bets that the AM industry could make. This is truest of all in the countries that are attempting to execute some form of supply chain diversification, whether that be reshoring, nearshoring, or any of the other buzzwords that have been making the rounds for years. The US is desperately behind when it comes to implementing anything close to a comprehensive energy transition plan, and I don’t know that this has any possibility of changing without significantly accelerating the nation’s uptake of new manufacturing techniques.
The question of course is whether Sakuu is the sort of company that can deliver solutions to that set of problems, and I suppose that it will now be up to equity markets to answer that question. The company originally announced intentions to go public as far back as 2023, but that was right as the SPAC bubble was rapidly deflating, and I’m sure that must’ve influenced, at least to some extent, its decision to be patient. If nothing else, that’s some indicator of sound judgment on the company’s part.
Also, finally, Sakuu (and Ursa Major) can likely rest assured that they won’t be going it alone as AM companies that go public via SPAC in years ahead. Along these lines, as I mentioned in my post about Ursa Major, it’s worth mentioning again that Rocket Lab, an AM user, is a rare example amongst all industries of SPACs that have led to successful companies. There’s nothing written in stone which says that just because SPACs have been associated with poorer-than-average results in the past, that this trajectory must continue. If companies can travel that route towards profitability, investors’ perceptions will shift.
Images courtesy of Sakuu
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