CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that statements that are not strictly historical statements of fact constitute forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements under the captions “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Business” and are identified by words like “believe,” “expect,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “seek,” “anticipate,” or “could” and similar expressions. Forward looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K may include, for example, statements about:
Forward-looking statements are not assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. Our actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements include those discussed elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and in future Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q or other reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).
Any forward-looking statement made by us in this report is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date of this report. We undertake no obligation to publicly revise or update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law.
References to a fiscal year refer to our fiscal year ended December 31 of the specified year.
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PART I
Item 1. Business
In this Annual Report on Form 10-K (the “Form 10-K”), references to the “SPAC,” “Company” and to “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Spark I Acquisition Corporation.
Introduction
We are a blank check company incorporated on July 12, 2021, as a Cayman Islands exempted company for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar combination with one or more businesses or assets, which we refer to throughout this Annual Report on Form 10-K as our initial business combination. To date, our efforts have been limited to organizational activities and activities related to the search for a target business for our initial business combination. We have generated no revenues to date, and we do not expect that we will generate operating revenues at the earliest until we consummate our initial business combination. Since our initial public offering (“IPO”), we have completed a detailed assessment of SparkLabs Group ecosystem companies, and have finalized initial targets to prioritize. We are currently having substantive discussions with multiple prioritized targets and are working to having non-binding letters of intent signed with all prioritized targets, with the goal of executing a binding business combination agreement with a final target as efficiently as practicable.
On October 11, 2023, we consummated our IPO of 10,000,000 units (the “Units”). Each Unit consists of one Class A ordinary share of the Company, par value $0.0001 ( “Class A ordinary shares”), and one-half of one redeemable warrant (each whole warrant, a “Public Warrant”), with each Public Warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment, beginning 30 days after the completion of the Company’s initial business combination. We granted Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., as representative of the underwriters (“Cantor”), a 45-day option to purchase up to 1,500,000 additional Units to cover over-allotments. Subsequently, On October 10, 2023, Cantor informed the Company that it will not be exercising the over-allotment option. As a result, SLG SPAC Fund LLC (the “Sponsor”) forfeited an aggregate of 448,052 Class B ordinary shares of the Company, par value $0.0001 per share (the “Class B ordinary shares”). Such forfeited shares were cancelled by the Company prior to the consummation of the IPO.
Simultaneously with the closing of the IPO, we consummated the private placement (the “Private Placement”) with the Sponsor, who purchased 8,490,535 warrants (the “Private Warrants”), generating total proceeds of $8,490,535. The terms of the Private Warrants are identical to the Public Warrants, except that, for so long as the Private Warrants are held by the Sponsor or their permitted transferees, the Private Warrants (i) may not (including the Class A ordinary shares issuable upon exercise of the Private Warrants), subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold until 30 days after the completion of the Company’s initial business combination, and (ii) are entitled to registration rights. The Private Warrants will be worthless if the Company does not complete an initial business combination.
A total of $100,500,000 ($10.05 per Unit, which amount includes $3,500,000 of the underwriters’ deferred discount) of the net proceeds from the sale of Units in the IPO and the Private Placement on October 11, 2023 was placed in a trust account maintained for the benefit of the public shareholders at Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as a trustee. Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the trust account that may be released to the Company to pay its taxes and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses, the funds held in the trust account will not be released from the trust account until the earliest of (i) the completion of the Company’s initial business combination, (ii) the redemption of the Class A ordinary shares included in the Units sold in the IPO if the Company is unable to complete its initial business combination by July 11, 2025, subject to applicable law or (iii) the redemption of any of the public shares properly submitted in connection with a shareholder vote to amend the Company’s amended and restated memorandum and articles of association (A) to modify the substance or timing of the Company’s obligation to allow redemption in connection with its initial business combination or to redeem 100% of its public shares if it has not consummated an initial business combination by July 11, 2025 or (B) with respect to any other material provisions relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity.
Business Strategy
The Company was jointly founded by SparkLabs Group Management, LLC and our management team.
SparkLabs Group Management oversees SparkLabs Group, a premier global network of startup accelerators and venture capital funds that has invested in over 480 startups (primarily technology focused) across 6 continents since 2013. SparkLabs Group believes innovation is global and entrepreneurial knowledge, excitement and talent continue to spread around the world. SparkLabs Group is first and foremost an ecosystem builder that helps local startups grow and go global, and it is passionate about helping entrepreneurs by leveraging the Group’s prior experience, knowledge, and extended leadership and networks. SparkLabs Group has built the leading accelerator network in Asia and continues to expand globally.
SparkLabs Group also runs the world’s three largest annual demodays (held in Korea, Taiwan, and Australia) — events that bring together company founders, investors, industry leaders, ecosystem partners, and media from across the globe to feature game-changing startups, new technologies and innovations, and discussions on the latest issues and trends from global leaders in technology, media and telecommunications. The SparkLabs accelerator model and demodays were highlighted in the Netflix series Start-Up.
We, with SparkLabs Group and our management team, are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the growing set of acquisition opportunities focused on the SparkLabs Group ecosystem of companies, including both portfolio companies and a wider set of companies that are linked to overall SparkLabs Group networks and initiatives. SparkLabs Group has actively helped to nurture and grow these ecosystem companies throughout their lifecycle — supporting them through fund raising from initial seed investments to late-stage funding, and through involvement in helping them build business networks and capabilities. We believe that many of these ecosystem companies have matured to the stage where they are looking for a path to a public listing, and we believe that the SPAC structure is ideally suited to help bring these companies to market. We are also ideally suited to targeting and acquiring SparkLabs Group ecosystem companies via a de-SPAC transaction given our leadership role in building the ecosystem and based on the relationships and trust that we have built with these companies, and the value we have helped these companies create over time. We will utilize our existing investment opportunity identification, evaluation, structuring and execution experience to identify, evaluate, and execute a business combination. After the initial business combination, we will also continue to support the merged company and help it become successful in the public markets.
Market Opportunity
Given that our portfolio represents a wide range of investments in over 450 companies, we may pursue an initial business combination opportunity in any business, industry, sector or geographical location. However, we will likely focus our search on targets that are late-stage technology startups in Asia, or a U.S. technology company with a strong Asia presence or strategy, with enterprise value greater than $1 billion. We will not undertake our initial business combination with any entity with its principal business operations in China (including Hong Kong and Macau). We are especially interested in companies that have seen recent positive inflection points in their performance due to the adoption of disruptive strategies and business models driven by the changes in the global economy over the last few years during the pandemic. We believe these impacts are driven by permanent changes in consumer behavior towards online, virtual and sharing economies. We believe these changes have been wide reaching in nature and successful companies are present in every horizontal and vertical sector, including direct B2C companies in many consumer product categories (gaming, entertainment, fashion, consumables, finance, transportation, medical, payments, crypto-currency, blockchain, and many more), and the vast range of B2B companies supporting these B2C companies, including but not limited to hardware, software, middleware, infrastructure, and cloud companies.
Sourcing of Acquisition Targets
In addition to the market opportunity focus articulated above, members of SparkLabs Group network, and of our management and investment advisor teams have significant capital markets, investment firm, entrepreneurship, executive management and public company experience, and accordingly have developed a deep network of contacts and relationships that will provide us with an important additional source of acquisition opportunities. In addition, we anticipate that opportunities will be brought to our attention by various unaffiliated sources, including investment banks, private equity groups, consultants, accounting firms and other investment market participants.
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a business that is affiliated with our Sponsor, officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete our initial business combination with a business that is affiliated with our Sponsor, officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent and disinterested directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) or from an independent valuation, appraisal or accounting firm, that our initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
Members of our management team and board of directors own founder shares and/or Private Warrants, and, accordingly, may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial business combination. Further, each of our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a particular business combination if the retention or resignation of any such officers and directors was included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial business combination.
Since our IPO, we have completed a detailed assessment of SparkLabs Group ecosystem companies, and have finalized initial targets to prioritize. We are currently having substantive discussions with multiple prioritized targets and are working to having non-binding letters of intent signed with all prioritized targets, with the goal of executing a binding business combination agreement with a final target as efficiently as practicable.
Some of our officers and directors presently have, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to other entities pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity. Accordingly, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity that is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then-current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such entity. We expect that if an opportunity is presented to one of our officers or directors in his or her capacity as an officer or director of one of those other entities, such opportunity would be presented to such other entity and not to us. Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association provide that we renounce, to the maximum extent permitted by law, our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer, or about which any of our officers or directors acquires knowledge, unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of our company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue. In addition, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association contain provisions to exculpate and indemnify, to the maximum extent permitted by law, such persons in respect of any liability, obligation or duty to our company that may arise as a consequence of such persons becoming aware of any business opportunity or failing to present such business opportunity.
Certain of our officers and directors have fiduciary and contractual duties to SparkLabs Group Management and its affiliates and to certain companies in which SparkLabs Group Management has invested. However, we do not expect these duties to present a significant conflict of interest with our search for an initial business combination. We believe this conflict of interest will be naturally mitigated, to a material extent, by the differing nature of the investment targets SparkLabs Group Management typically considers most attractive for the investment vehicles it manages and the types of acquisitions we expect to find most attractive. SparkLabs Group Management’s traditional start-up incubation activities typically involve investing in early-stage private companies, and it typically invests in those entities several years prior to an initial public offering, not at the time of such offering. As a result, we may become aware of a potential transaction that is not a fit for the traditional start-up incubation activities of SparkLabs Group Management but that is an attractive opportunity for us.
Evaluation and Business Combination Criteria
In evaluating a prospective target business, we will conduct a thorough due diligence review which may encompass, among other things, meetings with management and employees, document reviews, inspection of facilities, as well as a review of financial, operational, legal and other information which will be made available to us.
Consistent with our strategy, we have categorized our entire portfolio and extended ecosystem companies based on various criteria to identify the candidates we think are the most public company ready and we will seek a business combination with a company that will benefit from being publicly traded and having access to the public capital markets. We believe the acquired company should have the following attributes: