Full-Year 2024 SPAC Review
by Kristi Marvin on 2025-01-01 at 9:01am

An In-Depth Look at SPAC Activity Throughout the Full-Year of 2024

Below is a summary of the Full-Year 2024 SPAC market. If you’d like a pdf copy, you access the link HERE.

SPACs have emerged from 2024 with a cautious optimism that feels both hard-earned and fragile. After weathering the turbulence of the past few years—marked first by explosive growth in 2020 and 2021, then a stark correction in 2022 and 2023 —2024 brought a steadier rhythm to the market. Yet, it was far from a smooth ride.

The year saw SPACs continue to struggle with redemptions and closings, but also signs of maturation, as participants prioritized quality over quantity and focused on sustainability in deal structures. While the Goldilocks moment many hoped for remains elusive, the market has undeniably taken steps toward stability.

As we turn the page to 2025, let’s first reflect on 2024—a year that demanded adaptation, and set the stage for what could be a pivotal period for SPACs in the evolving capital markets landscape.

SPAC IPO Count

2024 was a rebuilding year for SPACs as the program continued to trim the 2021 bubble, while IPO’ing a new vintage of SPACs, mostly from the serial sponsors. The full-year 2024 SPAC IPO count of 57 closely mirrors the 2019 count of 59, which was an encouraging sign for all involved in the SPAC asset class. It represented a return to normalcy after the frothy boom years of 2020 and 2021, but an improvement over the fallow years of 2022 and 2023. 2024 felt like SPACs were finally getting back to that sweet middle spot of healthy SPAC activity.

IPO Count by Year

2024 SPAC Review 2

If we look at IPO activity on a monthly basis, the first half of 2024 mirrored 2023 and was still quite muted.  The second half of 2024, on the other hand, shows a marked difference.  The resurgence in IPO activity, which started in June, remained active all the way through December, largely thanks to the re-emergence of the Serial Sponsor. If we look at IPO activity from January through May, SPACs were averaging only 1.8 IPOs per month (April priced zero IPOs), while June through December averaged 6.9 IPOs per month.

IPO Count by Month

2024 SPAC Review 1


Traditional IPO vs. SPAC IPO Count by Year

Looking at total IPO composition across both SPACs and Traditional IPOs, SPACs represented 28% of all IPO activity in 2024.  This is a slight step up from 2023, which showed SPACs representing only 23% of all IPO activity. However, it should be noted that Traditional IPO activity continued to remain muted in 2024.

There were 148 Traditional IPOs priced in 2024, but similar to 2023, the vast majority were extremely small with the median Traditional IPO size being just $10 million. In fact, only 17 Traditional IPOs, or 11%, were greater than $500 million in size, and 85 (57%) were smaller than $20 million in size.

Notably, because of the increase in SPAC IPOs towards the latter half of 2024, there was an increase in the percentage of SPACs representing all IPO activity. At the end of the Q3-2024, SPACs represented 24% of the total IPO market. At the end of Q4-2024, SPACs represented 28%.

2024 SPAC Review 16

Source: SPACInsider & IPOInsider. IPOInsider only tracks non-unit traditional IPOs and does not include uplists.


Median IPO Size by Quarter of Pricing

If we look at SPAC IPO size, we can clearly see an increase in median IPO size starting in Q2-2024, which coincided with the return of the serial sponsors. Q2-2024 saw both Churchill Capital Corp IX and GP-Act III Acquisition Corp. price their IPOs at $287.5 million each. That helped to bring the Q2-median to $195 million, which is a little more than double Q1’s median of $92 million.

Furthermore, the median for full-year 2024 is $168.4 million, which is close to 2.4x greater than 2023’s median IPO size of $69 million. However, it should be noted that 2024 IPO sizes were still not as large as those seen in 2020 and 2021. If you recall, there were a number of $1 billion+ SPAC IPOs during that time period.

Interestingly, there have only been 10 SPAC IPOs $1 billion or larger in size and all priced in 2020 and 2021. Of those 10, five Liquidated, one is technically a “SPARC” and is still Searching, but four completed their DeSPACs and currently show an average split-adjusted trading price of $1.335, and a median of $0.893.  Bigger is not always better, so perhaps the 2024 median price of $175 million is close to “just right” to give the maximum amount of flexibility when it comes to target companies.

Note: given the small number of IPOs priced per month in 2023 and early 2024 (some months had just one or no IPOs), grouping by quarter became necessary. 

2024 SPAC Review 4


Total Gross IPO Proceeds 

Below you can find the total gross IPO proceeds raised broken out by month of IPO. In total, SPACs raised $9.6 billion in gross proceeds in 2024, with an average IPO size of $168.4 million. August raised the most in IPO proceeds this year, with $2.1 billion over nine IPOs.

IPO Gross Proceeds by Month

If we look at IPO Gross Proceeds on a yearly basis, you can see the big step up from 2023’s $3.8 billion raised. However, the numbers are still dwarfed by 2021’s $162 billion in IPO proceeds, which is roughly 17x larger than 2024’s numbers.

IPO Gross Proceeds by Year

2024 SPAC Review 6


Number of De-SPAC Closings by Quarter

Other than in the first quarter of 2024, DeSPAC closings have been light all year. However, this can partly be attributable to SPACs being caught between two distinct cohorts of deals.  The current cohort of Announced SPACs are mainly comprised of extremely old SPACs with very little left in Trust after multiple redemption events. This is in contrast to the other cohort of SPACs which are very young and newly IPO’d.  Neither are in a good position to be closing deals. However, for the younger cohort, it’s simply too soon.

To provide additional context for how light 2024 was on closings, 2022 closed 102 De-SPACs, while 2023 closed 98.  2024, on the other hand, closed 73.

2024 SPAC Review 17


Median De-SPAC Value by Quarter of Announcement

Looking at De-SPAC values now, median pro forma equity and enterprise valuations for Announced SPAC combinations in 2024 overall show an increase in size compared to 2023. However, it should be noted that many of the DeSPACs that announced this year did so with a bare minimum of information and often without providing an equity or enterprise value.

Having said that, for the deals that did provide values, you can see that Announced deals are growing in size as optimism has come back to the market. Additionally, 2025 should see a further increase in DeSPAC values as the newer and larger IPOs of 2024 start announcing.


SPAC IPO Day-1 Trading Performance

SPACInsider IPO Performance Tracker (32)

The IPO trading performance for the past 12 months has been on a downward trend after hitting a high in December 2023 with a day-one performance average relative to Net-Asset-Value of 1.37%. However, that shouldn’t necessarily be taken as a negative since there is some nuance to the numbers.

Nonetheless, as a refresher, we measure IPO performance by looking at the day-one VWAPS and the % held in trust (NAV) to arrive at a percentage above or below NAV.  The worst month since January 2019 was June 2022 at -2.35%, which was followed by zero IPOs in July 2022. In contrast, SPACs hit incredible highs of over 5% in the second half of 2020 and early 2021.

As we close 2024, SPACs have somewhat reverted to the mean between those extremes, albeit, they’re still underperforming. But IPOs in the second half of 2024 were highlighted by the “anchor investor” SPACs, which brought many of the repeat sponsors back to the market. Typically, the anchor investor IPOs do not trade well since most have sold or nearly sold all of the IPO to those anchor investors. But, SPACs weren’t exactly in a solidly “risk-on” environment either. The was a lot of background noise in 2024 between the election, the on-going inflation/interest rate debate, an attempted Presidential assassination, continued upheaval in the Mid-east, a 3-hour coup in South Korea, Brazil’s interest rates and currency issues, and snap elections in France, Germany and the UK. While 2024 was noted for increased optimism, it still somehow felt chaotic.

Nonetheless, what tends to lift IPO performances are strong DeSPAC announcements. However, we might have to wait one or two more quarters before the newer IPO’d SPACs start to deliver on definitive agreements. Until then, SPAC IPO performance should remain the same.

Note: We register SPAC IPOs to be included in a quarter or a month by trading day. For example, if a SPAC prices on March 31st and begins trading on April 1st, the SPAC will be included as a Q2-2024 SPAC.


Full Year 2024 SPAC IPOs by Underwriter

23 SPACs priced IPOs in the fourth quarter of 2024, which is 40% of the yearly count of 57. If we include both Q3 and Q4-2024, there were 41 SPACs that priced IPOs during that time period and leading that charge was Cantor Fitzgerald. Cantor priced 12 IPOs in 2024, 11 of them in the second half of the year. To say Cantor had a very good H2-2024 would be an understatement. They were aggressive for sure, but those efforts helped reinvigorate the SPAC market. In total, Cantor was responsible for a total of $2.826 billion in gross public proceeds raised.

However, both BTIG and Cohen & Company were strong underwriters as well with BTIG bookrunning 8 IPOs and Cohen & Company 6. Although, for a good portion of Q4, BTIG and Cohen were neck and neck for second place in the league tables. BTIG managed to price two IPOs in December to take command of the #2 spot, but both banks proved to be worthy competition of Cantor, which should make for interesting league tables in 2025.

Lastly, Seaport Global and Maxim Group tied with EarlyBird, to round out the top five with five and four IPOs priced, respectively. However, it should be noted that Seaport’s deal count came by way of joint book-running to the right of the Cohen & Company deals. It still counts, but both EarlyBird and Maxim solo led their four IPOs each.

In all there were 24 different book-runners or lead managers in 2024, showing the breadth of banking SPAC experience that has accrued over the past four years.

2024 IPO Count by Underwriter

2024 SPAC Review 9

For the past few quarters we have also looked at the underwriters based on gross proceeds raised since the deal count was low. We found it useful and have decided to keep it permanently. However, the maximum number of underwriters we are able to display is 18.

Nevertheless, Cantor’s $2.83 billion in gross proceeds raised is immediately what jumps out since it takes up such a significant portion of the pie. What’s even more remarkable is that the top five underwriters raised $6.9 billion of the total $9.6 billion in gross IPO proceeds raised in 2024.

2024 SPAC Review 22

 


Full Year 2024 SPAC Deal Terminations

Full-year 2024 saw 57 SPAC deals terminate their combinations, with the bulk of those terminations coming in Q3 with 19. Q4 was relatively light with only 11 deals terminated.  However, these numbers are still significantly elevated compared to 2023’s numbers which saw a total of 21 deals terminate during the full year.

This was not unanticipated since 47 of 2024’s 57 deal terminations came from SPACs that priced their IPOs in 2020 or 2021. A further seven IPO’d in 2022 and just three from 2023.  Many of these deals simply ran out of time, energy, the ability to raise additional capital, or some combination of all three.

Ultimately, 31 of these SPACs that had a deal terminate  in 2024 went on to liquidate their trust.  However, 18 SPACs are still Searching for a new target company. Of these 18 that are still Searching, 14 are 2021 IPO SPACs and remain doggedly persistent.

An additional seven SPACs have gone on to announce new definitive agreements, while one, Swiftmerge Acquisition Corp., announced a new deal in June and managed to close its combination on December 13, 2024.


Full Year 2024 SPAC Liquidations

At only 58 liquidation announcements in 2024, SPACs liquidating their trusts slowed significantly in 2024 compared to 2023.  For reference, 2023 had 193 SPACs announce they were liquidating, with many of these from the Q1-2021 cohort of SPAC IPOs. Of the 613 IPOs priced in 2021, 314, or 51.2%, have opted to liquidate, to-date. A further 227 have completed their DeSPAC, but 72 of the 2021 SPACs remain Searching or Announced despite pricing their IPOs three or more years ago.

However, as you can see, the liquidation rate (the percentage of SPACs from an IPO year that have liquidated their trusts) has been steadily decreasing. As we move further out in time, some of the more recent years will show increases in their liquidation rates, but the point being that the massive number of 2021 IPOs have largely either completed or liquidated already with only 72 remaining, to-date.

chart (87)

Looking at 2024’s liquidations on a monthly basis we do not see any excessively high liquidating months.  In fact, it was expected that December would see an increase in liquidation announcements due the sheer number of SPACs older than 36 months. However, that never materialized. Instead, many opted to extend even further and are working their way towards a completion vote.

In total there were 58 SPACs that had a liquidation announcement in 2024, with 56 having completed their liquidations to-date.

SPAC Liquidations (16)


Average Percentage Redeemed 

Redemption rates have yet to improve and still look pretty ugly. However, it’s important to note that the very old SPACs were largely attributable to the results. Meaning that because these older SPACs have had multiple shareholder votes to extend, they have seen multiple redemption events. Hence, by the time they get to the DeSPAC completion vote there is usually only $10 million or less in trust, or 90% or greater redeemed. Redemption averages will continue to remain high as long as the very old SPACs are still completing combinations.

The good news is, 2024 priced 57 new SPACs with full trusts. Once that cohort starts closing, we should have redemption rates that better reflect the current SPAC population.

With that being said, the capital markets are still not completely “risk-friendly”. It still takes a very strong deal to run through the DeSPAC steeplechase unscathed by redemptions.

2024 SPAC Review 18


Maximum Deadline Dates: Searching and Announced SPACs Expiring by Month

SPAC Maximum Deadline Dates (20)

*Note: There are a few SPACs that have yet to release 8-Ks announcing their extension vote results. Or, some SPACs are still in litigation. This is why Nov and Dec 2024 still show SPACs with “deadlines”. These will be moved once more info becomes available.

The chart above shows the “maximum” deadline date, which assumes all extension months have been taken as a better measure of a SPACs true deadline date. This is the date at which a SPAC must decide whether to ask for an additional extension via shareholder vote, or opt to liquidate.

As noted in prior quarterly and yearly SPAC reviews, the bubble of SPACs needing to extend keeps rolling, but the numbers needing to extend are slowly coming down. For example, if we look at Q1-2025 above you’ll notice that in January, a total of 12 SPACs will need to extend, with three in February and 8 in March.  Last year at this time, SPACs showed 22 SPACs needing to extend in January 2024, 38 in February and 33 in March. Slowly but surely, the bubble is deflating.

However, of the current 196 active SPACs that are Searching or Announced, 112, or 57%, originally priced their IPOs in 2020, 2021, or 2022. The two oldest of which are Breeze Holdings and Corner Growth, which IPO’d in November and December of 2020, respectively. That’s more than 48 months since IPO.

Nevertheless, of the 196 active SPACs (104 Searching / 92 Announced), 135 of them, or 68.9%, have already taken at least one extension. However, this is down from year-end 2023 which showed 87.6% of Searching or Announced SPACs had extended. This drop is thanks to the newly priced 2024 IPOs with significantly more time on their clocks.

If we break out the Searching and Announced categories, we see the “new SPACs” quite clearly having an effect on the Searching category with just 45.2% having extended, down from 78.7% at year-end 2023.  On the other hand, the Announced category still shows 95.7%, have extended their deadlines, which matches year-end 2023’s 95.7%.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Average Time to Complete a Transaction

The below graph is grouped by quarter since some months were lighter on closings than others. Nonetheless, the average time it’s taking a SPAC from IPO to closing continues to rise. If we look back at the end of Q3-2024, the average time from IPO to closing had dipped slightly going from 35.6 months in October, to 33.5 months in November. Alas, this turned out to be a temporary blip with full Q4-2024 averaging 35.4 months. Again, as has been noted repeatedly, the older cohort of SPACs from 2020 and 2021 are still dominating much of the data. And, with 74 active Searching and Announced SPACs currently three years or older in life, this number will continue to climb as they close their combinations.

The newer SPACs are still too early to start closing, so SPACs may have to wait another year before these averages start to meaningfully come down.

2024 SPAC Review 14


Age Profile of the Active SPACs (Searching and Announced)

SPAC Count by Time in Market (7)

Lastly, as further demonstration of just how many SPACs are of significant age, you can see in the chart above that as of the end of December, there are now an incredible 74 SPACs that are older than 36 months. There are a further 28 that are between 30 and 36 months of age for a total of 102 SPACs that are older than 30 months of age. In fact, there are now more SPACs older than 30 months of age (102) than there are SPACs less than 24 months of age (83).

Once again, this highlights how SPACs are “book-ending” age profiles with a lot of very young SPACs, combined with a lot of very old SPACs, and very little in between. As a result, we’re currently not seeing very many deal announcements.  It’s too soon for the younger cohort, but the majority of the older cohort is already Announced and trying to close. Or, they’re Searching “zombie SPACs” with very little left in trust and a slim chance of announcing a deal.

That’s not to say the middle group of SPACs, or the “young adults” won’t be announcing, but with only seven Searching in the 12-18 month category and four in the 18-24 group, there aren’t enough of them to account for a substantial number of deal announcements.

However, the bigger takeaway is that there are now 74 SPACs older than 36 months.  It is also rare for a SPAC to complete a successful combination past 36 months of age (not impossible, just rare). Plus, it remains to be seen how many of these SPACs actually close. But in the meantime, it’s the overhang on the SPAC market that just won’t give up. In previous reviews, we had postulated that surely after 40 or so months of life these SPACs will have concluded by liquidation or completion, but we missed the mark on that. We did not anticipate the tenacity.  And, as evidence, we still have two SPACs from 2020 still alive.


Serial SPAC Sponsors

In 2021, we debuted our Serial Sponsor league table, which keeps a running ranking of sponsor teams that have completed at least two deals based on the average price performance of their De-SPACs (split-adjusted).

However, also keep in mind that this is an imperfect way to rank teams since we are comparing teams with five or more deals completed against teams with just two. It’s a lot easier to rank with a high average with just two deals (especially if one is trading poorly) than it is with five or more deals. However, this league table does have the ability to filter based on deal count if you choose.

Nevertheless, the GS Acquisition team once again leads the rankings overall at the end of 2024 with an average share price of their De-SPACs of $66.81. The value includes both Vertiv (NYSE: VRT) which is trading around $113.00 and is a technology infrastructure play, which includes A.I., as well as Mirion Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: MIR), which is trading around $17.50 and provides radiation detection, measurement, analysis, and monitoring products and services globally. Somehow the GS team managed to strike gold with its combinations focusing on two of the hottest sectors in 2024 – A.I and the nuclear industry.

However, you’ll also notice that the top 20 teams are showing positive average returns and for the top 10 teams those average returns are greater than 35%. It tends to get lost in the media noise, but it should be recognized that there are good deals going public via the SPAC route.

Lastly, keep in mind that this list is very fluid and based on closing prices. As a result, the rankings can change day-to-day and depending on the economic cycle, but if you have read prior yearly reviews you will notice that the same sponsors repeatedly rank near the top.

This list is only showing the Top 25, but you can see all the teams (and filter by deal count) HERE.

2024 SPAC Review 21


Summary

As we noted in the third-quarter review, the lingering effects of the 2021 overhang continue to weigh heavily on the current SPAC market. While the number of 2021 SPACs has thinned out significantly in 2024, the remaining few still hold a substantial presence that will inevitably extend into 2025. This has led to a steady stream of extension events, skewing redemption figures and creating a sense of inertia on the overall market.

Yet, there are reasons to approach 2025 with cautious optimism. Inflation appears to be stabilizing (at least for now), and interest rates are gradually coming down. A new crop of SPAC sponsor teams has hit the market, actively seeking deals in an environment where companies need capital and private equity and venture capital players are eager for public exits. Perhaps more importantly, SPACs are poised to benefit from a friendlier regulatory environment. With new SEC leadership expected to take the helm and Howard Lutnick, a seasoned SPAC sponsor and CEO of a SPAC bank, likely to be nominated as the next Commerce Secretary, the winds of change seem favorable.

Still, the optimism feels fragile. SPACs have faced similar bursts of hope before, only to be met with disappointment. Every quarter for the past year or two has carried the refrain, “next quarter will bring a turnaround,” without any payoff. Realistically, the first quarter of 2025 may be too early for newly IPO’d SPACs to begin announcing meaningful transactions, and the second quarter has its own historical lulls due to holidays and seasonal breaks. But Q3 is usually when the SPAC magic happens.

In the meantime, fresh teams will continue to IPO, and seasoned sponsors will return to the market as everyone waits for strong De-SPACs to arrive. If luck is on investors’ side, a few teams may announce deals earlier than expected, providing much-needed momentum. As for a predicted IPO count, that’s always tough since there is inevitably one event every year that upends the market (Covid, warrant accounting, new SPAC Rule, etc) ruining any predictions. However, SPACs were averaging roughly seven IPOs per month in the second half of the 2024. If that average holds, SPACs could see 84 IPOs in 2025. That feels right for a healthy market since 100 would represent a very busy year, while something less than 70 would represent a slower year.

At any rate, the outlook is cautious, and SPAC Land would not be too disappointed if the real payoff takes until late 2025 or even 2026. After all, patience has always been part of the SPAC story.

DOWNLOAD VERSION HERE

 

Recent Posts
by Nicholas Alan Clayton on 2025-02-11 at 4:36pm

Texas Ventures Acquisition III Corp. (NASDAQ:TVACU) became the third SPAC to file for an IPO with Cohen & Company in a row Monday morning, but it has some distinct differences from its cousin SPACs on terms. While Cohen’s other recent pair Real Asset Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:RAAQU) and Digital Asset Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:DAAQU) have initially asked...

by Nicholas Alan Clayton on 2025-02-11 at 8:20am

At the SPAC of Dawn  Companies going public in SPAC mergers have gotten used to dips in stock price of some magnitude or another when their transactions close, but only recently have they attempted to be proactive in setting the narrative during such times. Retail technology firm Alpha Modus (NASDAQ:AMOD) recently put out an aggressive...

by Kristi Marvin on 2025-02-10 at 7:32pm

Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners II Co. (NASDAQ:ATIIU) announced the pricing of its $200 million IPO and its units are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol “ATIIU”, Tuesday, February 11, 2025. The new SPAC intends to search for a target company in the technology industry, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence,...

by Nicholas Alan Clayton on 2025-02-10 at 2:06pm

Goldman Sachs veteran Peter Ort headlines two new SPACs that filed for IPOs Friday in Real Asset Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:RAAQU) and Digital Asset Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:DAAQU), which collectively sport some of the most team-friendly terms yet seen in 2025. Both new SPACs have 1/4 warrants in their units and no rights, bringing a level of...

by Nicholas Alan Clayton on 2025-02-10 at 8:17am

At the SPAC of Dawn  The pace of new SPAC filings has not slackened as three new S-1s were filed on either end of Super Bowl weekend seeking a combined $500 million in IPO proceeds. All three are underwritten by Cohen & Company and feature anchor investors as well as promotes upsized to the equivalent...

logo

Copyright © 2023 SPACInsider, Inc. All Rights Reserved