Thornton-based , which provides technology to enhance the performance of batteries and semiconductor chips, is going public through a nearly $1.6 billion deal with Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners II.
The companies announced the transaction Tuesday. The agreement includes $100 million in new capital committed in a private placement of common stock and warrants.
Archimedes II, a special purpose acquisition company, currently holds approximately $242 million in cash in trust. The deal will result in a total equity value of about $1.595 billion if no redemptions are sought by shareholders.
The transaction follows Forge Nano’s fundraising round that garnered $82.2 million in commitments. The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year.
Forge Nano, started in 2013, has spent years developing and testing its process, scaling the business and building market acceptance, said Paul Lichty, co-founder and CEO.
“We’re at a point where we have more customer demand and interest than we have production capabilities,” Lichty said.
Going public and gaining access to capital will allow Forge Nano to grow to meet the demand, he added.
The company is building a lithium ion battery factory in Morrisville, N.C., where it will employ about 200 people. Approximately 130 people work at Forge Nano’s battery factory in Thornton.
Forge Nano’s patented Atomic Armor platform applies a coating at an atomic level to produce more robust batteries and mitigate production loss in chips used for artificial intelligence, according to a statement by the company.
“It’s the ability to make things while controlling individual atoms so you have the highest level of control,” Lichty said. “You can actually design your materials to do more of what you want and less of what you don’t want.”
Lichty said the company’s founders invented the technology that turned into Forge Nano’s product. They acquired the patent in 2010 from the University of Colorado, where Lichty was a student.
“In 2011, we started building systems in my garage on the weekends,” Lichty said.
They started full-time around 2013. The process the team worked with, called atomic layer deposition, had been around for decades.
“We just found a way to do it very fast and very cheap,” Lichty said.
Forge Nano has defense and commercial customers. Its technology is applied to other devices besides chips and batteries.
When the combined business is complete the company will operate as Forge Nano Inc. and its common stock will trade on the Nasdaq as NANO and the warrants as NANOW. The management team will remain the same.
