Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Phunware Goes Public On NASDAQ Via Reverse Merger

Austin-based Phunware, which develops mobile application lifecycle management software, has gone public via a reverse merger with a public "shell" company called Stellar Acquisition III. According to the companies, the transactionv alues PHunware at an enterprise value of $301M. The companies said that the newly combined company will be renamed PHunware, Inc. and will start trading on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the symbols PHUN and PHUNW. The newly merged company will be led by PHunware CEO Alan S. Knitowski, with Matthew Aune serving as CFO. Stellar--which is currently based in the Marshall Islands--will be redomesticated to Delaware as part of the transaction. Phunware is backed by Wavemaker Partners (Draper Network Fund), Fraser McCombs Ventures, Maxima Ventures, Samsung, Cisco Investments, World Wrestling Entertainment, PLDT Capital, Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN), Baylor Angel Network (BAN) and others. In addition to the reverse merger, Phunware said it is looking to launch its very own "Token Generation Event", its own efforts in the crytocurrency effort, based on its "PhunCoin" cryptonetworking efforts.