Santa Cruz Tech Companies Again in Top 10
In 2019, we announced that Looker had entered an acquisition agreement with Google. The $2.6B deal was the largest funding exit in Santa Cruz tech history.
In January 2020, we announced that Joby Aviation and PayStand were in the top 10 companies funded by VCs - globally. And now with 2020 behind us, Joby resoundingly maintained their dominance throughout 2020 as the 8th largest venture capital deal worldwide in 2020. Furthermore, Joby’s funding was more than other 2020 funded companies such as Impossible Foods, Snowflake, Uber Freight, Robinhood, Doordash, and Aurora.
And this is just the start
As the number of SPACs increase, we are likely to see Joby rise to the top as reported in our article SPAC Goldrush. Archer Aviation, Inc., a Palo Alto based competitor to Joby, announced on February 10, 2021 it will merge with Atlas Crest Investment Corp., having landed a SPAC valued at $500M, The companies believe their pro forma equity value will be $3.8B after the merger. That valuation includes an order from United Airlines valued at $1.1B. Santa Cruz Works believes if Joby completes a SPAC, it is likely to be at a much higher valuation. The reasons:
Joby announced on Feb. 9 that it has begun generating revenue as part of achieving another major milestone in the U.S. Air Force’s (USAF) Agility Prime program, which stands to give Joby a significant leg up on the competition
Several aviation magazines have declared Joby the eVTOL “market leader” being years ahead of the first paying passenger’s flight.