Blockchain Mortgage Platform Figure Launches SPAC to Raise $250M

Michael Cagney, the founder of blockchain lending startup Figure Technologies, wants to set up a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Figure announced in a regulatory filing Thursday.

The blank-check firm seeks to raise $250 million, according to the prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and will be called Figure Acquisition Corp. I.

Figure Technologies issues mortgages and loans, using its own blockchain, called Provenance, to automate portions of the process. It was founded in 2018 and raised $220 million from Ribbit Management, DST Capital, RPM Ventures, Nimble Ventures and Morgan Creek, the prospectus noted.

Cagney would be the chairman of the new company's board.

Figure is the latest crypto firm setting up a SPAC, which have been used as vehicles to bring companies to the public market. Digital asset custodian and derivatives provider Bakkt went public through a similar method earlier this year. Other companies such as Coinbase have instead chosen to go public through a direct listing.

Figure's prospectus said it expects "to identify companies that have compelling growth potential" and various other characteristics that it can acquire to go public.

"We expect to differentiate ourselves through our … capacity to leverage proven and scaled blockchain platform which drives operational, technological and marketing improvements to maximize the growth potential of businesses," the prospectus said.

The prospectus did not say that Figure Technologies itself would go public through the SPAC.

According to SEC documents, Figure filed its form S-1, initially announcing the SPAC, on Feb. 3, with an updated filing going live on Thursday. A draft registration statement was filed in mid-January.

Figure also filed to become a bank last year, applying for a charter through the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in November, though it's yet to receive approval.

Figure also created an ad campaign featuring an anthropomorphic "blockchain" in early 2020.