Yubico, a provider of hardware authentication security keys, announced recently that it is now publicly traded under the ticker symbol YUBICO on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Stockholm.
The company announced its intent to go public on April 19, 2023, through a merger with Swedish holding company — ACQ Bure.
Explaining about the rationale behind taking the SPAC route, Mattias Danielsson, CEO mentions in a blogpost, “The primary difference between Yubico going the SPAC route in Sweden vs. a traditional IPO in the U.S. is that our sponsors and investors are not in it for a quick exit to cash out. The sponsors behind us are institutional users – there’s no pipe and no need to raise capital as the capital is already in place.”
“I also honestly don’t see this as an ‘exit’ – our shareholders remain in place and the only change is that we now go from being private to publicly held. Of course, there’s a lot of change involved – this is a next step as we grow up as a company. This provides all the transparency needed for our customers and investors and solidifies the long-term perspective we have for the company.”
US company going public in Sweden
Talking about going public in Sweden, Mattias Danielsson, CEO says, “Regarding going public on the Stockholm stock exchange, it was a practical move. We’ve historically had a very good balance between U.S. investors and long-term Swedish institutional investors, so it made a lot of sense to maintain our roots in Sweden and the relationships we have built.”
“Additionally, another reason is that a SPAC in Sweden is different from the traditional U.S. version of a SPAC. The sponsors we have are long-term investors we have deep relationships with, and the lead investor in the SPAC is a Swedish company called Bure. We’ve established a way of working with them for years that works great. When they offered us this opportunity that would allow us to keep our existing owners and executives in place, but also add institutional investors, that gives us an extremely strong platform to go public,” he adds.
Benefits of merger through SPAC
The merger will expand Yubico’s resources globally and provide more protection to organisations and consumers against a growing number of cyber threats, such as AI-powered phishing schemes and ransomware attacks.
“Today marks an exciting milestone for Yubico and our global customers and partners,” says Mattias Danielsson, CEO, of Yubico. “We have been a pioneer of modern, hardware-based authentication, leading and setting cybersecurity standards over the past 16 years. As a publicly traded company, we look forward to building upon this in the next stage of growth, creating even more value for our customers and shareholders, and inviting others to join our journey.”
Yubico: Provider of hardware authentication security keys
Founded in 2007, Yubico, the investor of YubiKey, offers the gold standard for phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA).
The company’s solutions enable organisations to address the source of 90 per cent of cyberattacks such as phishing and stolen login credentials.
Its flagship YubiKey series provides phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA), based on modern authentication protocols, including FIDO2 passwordless (passkeys) and smart card PIV support.
The physical security keys work seamlessly with an organisation’s legacy and/or modern infrastructure. The company’s customers span over 160 countries.
“We are proud and humbled to have built and established a global gold standard for strong authentication, and being publicly traded ensures our technology will be able to better protect millions of individuals around the world,” says Stina Ehrensvärd, co-founder and chief evangelist, Yubico. “This path allows Yubico to continue innovating and investing in our technology to meet the growing demand for strong and frictionless authentication.”
Read the orginal article: https://siliconcanals.com/news/yubico-goes-public-in-stockholm/
