Mar. 17 at 9:47 PM
$MRLN First Day Brief
Merlin, Inc. officially began trading on Nasdaq today after closing its SPAC merger with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. IV yesterday March 16.
The structure:
SPAC listing — ticker flipped from
$BACQ to
$MRLN this morning. Not a traditional IPO. Most retail platforms gave zero advance notice of the ticker transition.
The numbers:
$800M pre-money valuation
$200M gross proceeds via committed PIPE
Investors include Baillie Gifford and several new institutional names
Why this company is real:
$100M+ in active defense contracts
$105M deal with US Special Operations Command
Integrating the Merlin Pilot onto the C-130J Super Hercules
Hundreds of autonomous flight already completed
The product:
Aircraft-agnostic AI pilot system. Designed to fly any plane — military or civilian — from takeoff to touchdown without a human crew.
CEO:
Matthew George, Founder. Rang the Opening Bell at Nasdaq MarketSite.
What to watch:
180-day lockup expiry for SPAC listings.