LONDON — British electrical car start-up Arrival introduced Wednesday that it’s going to go public via a merger with a U.S. blank-check firm.

This 12 months has seen a flurry of SPACs, or particular goal acquisition firms, come to market as companies have shunned the normal preliminary public providing course of. SPACs are firms that elevate funds to finance a merger deal that takes the goal agency public.

In Arrival’s case, the London-based firm is ready to mix with CIIG Merger Corp, a SPAC arrange by U.S. businessman Peter Cuneo. Cuneo beforehand ran the American private care model Remington and comedian e book writer Marvel as CEO. He’ll be part of Arrival’s board as non-executive chairman, whereas founder Denis Sverdlov will stay as CEO.

The deal provides Arrival an enterprise worth of $5.4 billion — it was final privately valued at 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) in January — with the mixed firm anticipated to lift a complete of $660 million in gross money proceeds. Arrival will listing on the Nasdaq underneath the ticker image “ARVL,” with the deal anticipated to shut by early 2021.

Arrival competes with Rivian, an organization that has gained backing from Amazon, within the electrical van house. It obtained a massive order to the tune of 10,000 automobiles from U.S. parcel service UPS, which can also be an investor within the firm. Arrival’s different backers embrace Hyundai, Kia and BlackRock.

Arrival says it stands out from different electrical car makers because it’s purely targeted on the industrial market moderately than promoting to shoppers. Based in 2015, Arrival says its expertise is “vertically built-in” all the way in which from manufacturing to growth.

Its two principal car merchandise are vans and buses. Avinash Rugoobur, Arrival’s president, informed CNBC that it expects to start out manufacturing on its bus within the fourth quarter of subsequent 12 months, whereas van manufacturing will start within the second quarter of 2022.

“Our expertise is at a maturity stage the place we’re seeking to scale the corporate quickly now,” Rugoobur informed CNBC in an interview Wednesday.

Rugoobur added that the rise out there worth of Elon Musk’s electrical automobile firm Tesla — which is now the world’s Most worthy automaker — was a validation of the inexperienced vitality transition. Arrival’s automobiles could be offered for a worth level much like — and even cheaper than — that of diesel automobiles, he stated.

One other factor that the corporate says makes it distinctive is its manufacturing mannequin. The agency has developed what it calls “microfactories” that are a lot smaller than conventional auto manufacturing strains and could be packed into present warehouse actual property.

It’s aiming to make three to 4 of those factories — which take up about 20,000 sq. meters of house and value $45 million to make — per 12 months.

SPACs have confirmed an more and more widespread means for firms to listing within the U.S., with various companies from house transportation agency Momentus to direct-to-consumer well being firm Hims merging with blank-check companies.

Nikola, one of the notable electrical car firms to have taken the SPAC route, was the topic of deep controversy this 12 months. Trevor Milton, Nikola’s CEO, stepped down following a scathing report from short-selling agency Hindenburg Analysis accusing him of fraud. Milton has referred to as the allegations “false.”