It is official: Higher.com goes public

We didn’t suppose we’d see the day.

Digital mortgage lender Higher.com’s proposal to mix with Aurora Acquisition Corp. through a SPAC (particular objective acquisition) has been accepted by shareholders, the corporate confirmed at present.

In accordance with a Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) submitting, Higher.com will mix with Aurora, or go public, “on or about August 22, 2023.”  

“At the very least 65% of the excellent abnormal shares of the corporate entitled to vote at this assembly have voted in favor of (the) proposal,” Arnaud Massenet, CEO of Aurora Acquisition Corp, stated in a shareholder’s assembly on Friday, as reported by HousingWire.

Upon the closing of the transaction, the mixed entity will see an infusion of $750 million in new capital, based on Aurora’s submitting with the Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) in July and as reported by HousingWire. 

Higher.com had initially started planning to go public through a $6 billion SPAC in Might 2021. Issues took a dramatic flip for the more serious later that yr, and the SPAC was delayed.

With so many challenges going through Higher.com over the previous two years – together with layoffs, high-profile government resignations, a housing market slowdown and unfavorable publicity – business observers have been skeptical that the corporate’s going-public plans would truly materialize.

TechCrunch reported final week that the long-awaited vote for Higher.com to go public was scheduled for at present forward of the prolonged deadline to finish the merger deal on September 30.

In late July, Aurora had stated in an SEC submitting that shareholders can be requested to vote on a proposal that if the SPAC merger did happen, with Aurora surviving the merger, Aurora would change its identify to “Higher House & Finance Holding Firm.”

Final yr, Higher.com declared that it meant to maneuver ahead with its deliberate public debut, regardless of the lackluster efficiency of blank-check combos in earlier quarters. Higher.com itself had seen its justifiable share of turbulence because it introduced its plans to merge with a SPAC, together with a number of botched layoffs (extra on these right here and right here) and altering market circumstances that impacted components of its enterprise, together with a surge in mortgage rates of interest.

Final week, TechCrunch reported that the SEC had stated it didn’t intend to suggest an enforcement motion in opposition to Higher.com. The pronouncement got here after an investigation on the a part of the SEC to find out if violations of federal securities legal guidelines had occurred.

Final July, the SEC started trying into whether or not Higher.com had violated federal securities legal guidelines, requesting paperwork from each the corporate and SPAC accomplice Aurora Acquisition Corp. about their enterprise actions. 

The embattled fintech startup laid off its actual property workforce on June 7, shifting from an in-house agent mannequin to a partnership agent mannequin. It additionally continues to bleed money.

In accordance with HousingWire, different Aurora filings from July present that Higher.com had posted a web lack of $89.9 million in Q1 2023 and had slashed about 91% of its workforce over an roughly 18-month interval. Whereas Higher.com appears to have narrowed its loss in comparison with a web lack of $327.7 million within the first quarter of 2022, it’s clearly nonetheless struggling.

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