Analyzing the SPAC boom's effect on the technology M&A marketplace. The SPAC boom has injected over $50B of additional capital into the race for innovative late stage startups. This talk will discuss the effects of the 18 month deal window closing this summer for a sizeable portion of the 2020 SPAC wave has on deal valuations, target expectations and other market dynamics.

Chinedu Enekwe | General Partner | Aux21 Capital | https://au21.capital/

Chinedu Enekwe is the general partner at Aux21 Capital, an early stage venture capital firm  investing in the future of commerce creating market access for the next generation of  internet users. As part of his role as GP, he also co produces the Venture The World podcast, Social Media Week Lagos and the Future of Money conference. He’s a Moonshot Fellow of the Kravis Lab for Social Impact and a founding member of the Forbes Impact 
Community.

Prior to Aux21 Capital, he was a principal on the pre-seed & seed team of 
Exponential Creativity Ventures and managed AffinitiVC, an investment syndicate & consulting firm deploying over $15M since 2017. 
Before launching AffinitiVC, Chinedu co-founded tiphub and managed its pre-accelerator  program, Diaspora Demo, which supported over 35 early stage technology and social enterprises raise over $20 Million in after program funding and achieved 3 exits since 2014.  

Chinedu also led emerging market investment manager, Xcellon Capital, serving as investment director, raising and managing $25 Million of assets from institutional and high net worth investors, after holding positions in infrastructure advisory at the World Bank and OPIC, investment banking at Merrill Lynch and fund formation and corporate securities law at Weil Gotshal and Manges.

Eric Ball  | General Partner | Impact Venture Capital | https://impactvc.com

Impact Venture Capital invests in early stage technology companies applying artificial intelligence and data analytics to conventional sectors. In 2017-19 Impact Fund I made investments in 17 portfolio companies, and Impact Fund II invested in six new portfolio companies in 2020. Portfolio includes:
- Cornami (a high performance computing company in Campbell, California)
- CapConnect+ (a capital markets startup linking corporate bond issuers to their institutional buyers)
- BondCliq (providing market information for secondary trading in bonds, based in New York)

Impact's first fund brought together alumni of Oracle, DCM Ventures (Dixon Doll), and Velocity VC (Jack Crawford). Impact launched its Fund II in 2020, with a continuing differentiation based on:
- Investments in early-stage applications of artificial intelligence
- An investment thesis centered around technologies which cut across multiple verticals
- A commitment to partnering and co-investing with corporate venture arms.

Eric has a board seat or board observer seat with several portfolio companies: CapConnect+ (capital markets), Scaeva (music), Nightingale Security (drones), Airlinq (mobile IoT), and BondCliq (capital markets). From 2005 to 2015, Eric served as Senior VP & Treasurer at Oracle, one of the world’s premier technology companies. While there he was named one of the 100 most influential people in finance by the editors of Treasury & Risk Magazine. Prior to joining Oracle, Eric served in various finance roles at Flextronics International, Cisco Systems, Avery Dennison, and AT&T. Eric holds a Phd. in Finance , Strategy & Managment from the Drucker School of Management. 

Robert Fuchs | Managing Partner | Tree Street Advisors LLC 

Robert Fuchs is Managing Partner of Tree Street Advisors LLC, An advisory firm focused on helping institutional investors and others navigate the SPAC marketplace.  He advises several institutions formally and informally on SPAC related matters. Mr. Fuchs is a sub-advisor to a large multi-strategy hedge fund on a dedicated SPAC fund.   

Robert is an investment professional who has been working in the investment banking/ capital markets space for over 25 years. During that time, Robert has been intimately involved in $1.7 billion of SPAC issuances. He has also helped lead investing efforts in over $500m of investments in private equity and venture capital funds. Robert started his career in the corporate finance department of Drexel, Burnham Lambert, and received his MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School.