Alpha Star Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:ALSA) announced this afternoon that it has signed a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) to combine with global payments and SaaS provider Cyclebit Group.

Founded in 2012, Cyclebit builds technology across the payments sector including card acquiring, point-of-sale services and marketplace solutions. The Stockholm, Sweden-based payment provider operates a number of brands and solutions, that are focused on solving a specific market need for banks, telco, retail, and distribution customers. It generated $39.3 million in revenue in 2021, but expects to bring in $53.6 million for 2022.

Alpha Star kept the details pertaining to the potential merger to a minimum, but disclosed that Cyclebit’s existing equityholders will roll 100% of their equity into the combined public company. The SPAC expects to announce further details on the business combination once a definitive agreement is signed, which is expected to occur the fourth quarter of 2022.

Alpha Star announced the pricing of its $100 million IPO last year on December 13, 2021, and had originally intended to focus on middle-market growth businesses that have a connection to the Asian markets with a total enterprise value between $300 million and $600 million. Alpha Star is led by Chairman and CEO Zhe Zhang, and CFO Goujian Chen.

This LOI comes days before its deadline on September 15, 2022. The SPAC initially had 9 months to find a business combination, but has the ability to extend for an additional 12 months. Since this deal is not at the “definitive agreement” stage, and is still at the non-binding LOI stage, SPACInsider will not consider this deal “announced”. As such, it will remain in the “Searching” category until a definitive agreement is signed.