SPAC Kairous Acquisition Starts Trading on NASDAQ

Kairous Acquisition Corp Ltd, an Asia-focused special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) led by the founder of Malaysia-based Kairous Capital , has started trading on Nasdaq on Wednesday, under the symbol “KACLU”.

“Today’s listing signifies our commitment to live by our tagline, being the cross-border partner to great founders and helping them to build exceptional & long-lasting regional/global companies,” Kairous Capital said in a Linkedin Post on Wednesday. “This is just a start and we couldn’t be more excited to see what’s to come in the coming future.”

“We think that the timing is just right as we believe that Southeast Asia is on the verge of producing many more great tech companies in years to come,” the company added.

Kairous Acquisition has raised $75 million by offering 7.5 million units at $10. Each unit consists of one ordinary share, one-half (1/2) of one redeemable warrant, and one right. Each whole warrant entitles the holder to purchase one ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as described in this prospectus.

Every ten rights entitle the holder to receive one ordinary share upon consummation of its initial business combination, its filing dated Dec 13 showed.

“Our units have been approved for listing on the Nasdaq Global Market, or Nasdaq, under the symbol ‘KACLU’,” the company said in the filing.

“Our efforts to identify a prospective target business will not be limited to a particular industry or geographic region, although the company intends to focus on opportunities in Asia (excluding China). We shall not undertake our initial business combination with any entity with its principal business operations in China (including Hong Kong and Macau),” the SPAC said.

The company intends to primarily focus on fast-growing technology companies in different industry verticals, including but not limited to e-commerce, financial technology, insurance technology, digital health, digital media, and digital services, it added.

Kairous Acquisition is led by Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Joseph Lee, the founder and Managing Partner of Kairous Capital, a regional venture firm focused on technology investments across China and Southeast Asia. Lee has more than 16 years of experience in cross-border investment across the Asia Pacific.

Since 2004, Lee has been actively involved in private equity and venture capital investment. In 2006, he joined Kuwait Finance House (Malaysia) Bhd as the pioneer team in setting up their private equity division and first Islamic private equity fund in the Asia Pacific.

Launched in 2015, Kairous Capital is a venture capital firm with a hybrid model as it has some private equity elements such as its involvement in the post-investment value creation of startups.

The blank check company earlier said it plans to acquire businesses with enterprise values between $120 million and $300 million and revenue or net profit at an annual growth rate of at least 50 percent.

Maxim Group LLC acts as the sole book-running manager and representative of the underwriters.