CM.com, the Dutch conversational commerce platform that provides businesses with so-called mobile CPaaS services (Communication Platform as a Service), integrated payment solutions and cloud platforms, will go public on Euronext thanks to the business combination with Dutch Star Companies ONE (DSCO), a SPAC structured under Dutch law and listed on Euronext in February 2018 after raising 55.36 million euros from investors.
DSCO was promoted by the same Italian promoters of the Italian SPACs Industrial Stars of Italy 1, 2 and 3, that are Giovanni Cavallini, Attilio Arietti , Davide Milano, Enrico Arietti and the Oaklins group (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The general meetings of both the SPAC and CM.com’s shareholders for the vote on the business combination have been set for the next 20 and 21 February 2020. The transaction is also subject to the authorization of the Dutch Central Bank.
The four promoters said: “The success of DSCO attests to the development prospects of SPACs in Europe and confirms its validity as a tool that facilitates and accelerates the listing on the stock exchange. These development prospects are confirmed by the SPACs boom in the Usa which, in 2019 alone, led to the formation of 59 Spac. It is therefore our intention to continue promoting initiatives in this sector from an Italian and pan-European perspective “.
Returning to the business combination with CM.com, in addition to the capital raised by DSCO, net of any withdrawals, an additional 10 million euros from DSCO’s cornerstone investors will be added to the business combination and other 15-20 million euros will be added by the institutional investor Teslin Participaties. As part of the transaction, the CM.com founders will sell shares worth 7 million euros. The remaining financial resources will be used to support the growth of the company.
The CM.com platform includes messaging channels such as SMS, WhatsApp Business, Apple Business Chat and Google RCS and allows users to complete a purchase and pay quickly, easily and securely with a click on their smartphone. CM.com has technologies and skills highly sought after by all those companies that consider customer interaction through online chat and voice interfaces as an important marketing lever.In 2019 CM.com processed about 2.6 billion messages, in addition to 141 million minutes of voice calls and more than 625 million euros in payment transactions. On a global scale, customers include large corporations, government agencies and small and medium-sized enterprises. In the first half of last year, the company attracted important new customers including Chronopost, Easypark, ING and Société Generale, maintaining solid financial performance, with core revenues growing by over 30% in the second half of the year. In 2019 the company achieved a turnover close to 100 million euros.
The DSCO promoters already had made the business combinations of Industrial Stars of Italy 1 (with Lu-Ve), Industrial Stars of Italy 2 (with SIT Group) and of Industrial Stars of Italy 3 (with Salcef)
