Silicon photonics company Rockley Photonics, Ltd. has announced plans to go public through an agreement to combine with SC Health Corp. (NYSE: SCPE), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company. The transaction, expected to close in the second quarter of this year, subject to approval by SC Health's shareholders and other customary closing conditions, including any applicable regulatory approvals, would provide a pro forma value for the combined company of $1.2 billion. Rockley now will focus most of its attention on building devices for the consumer healthcare and medical markets.
If approved, the deal will see Rockley shares traded on the NYSE under the symbol RKLY. The transaction is expected to deliver as much as $323 million to the combined company, a figure that includes up to $173 million in cash held in SC Health’s trust account. The combined company also will benefit from a $150 million PIPE at $10.00 per share, with participation from such institutional investors as Senvest Management LLC and UBS O’Connor as well as participation from Medtronic.
While Rockley has tried its hand at applying its expertise to data communications and machine vision applications such as LiDAR, the company is now touting itself as a provider of “clinic-on-the-wrist technology.” Rockley has developed silicon photonics based sensor technology that it says can enable continuous, non-invasive monitoring of such biomarkers as lactate, glucose, hydration, blood pressure, and core body temperature. Rockley is discussing providing this technology, as well as co-packaged hardware devices, biosensing algorithms, firmware, and data analytics, to consumer electronics and wearables companies.
“Our partnership with SC Health positions us to accelerate our time-to-market for our compelling health and wellness solutions,” commented Dr. Andrew Rickman, Rockley’s founder and CEO, who will perform CEO and chairman duties in the combined company. “Our proven sensor technology, world-class partners, and a relentless focus on execution will enable Rockley to deliver life-changing benefits to an enormous number of people. We believe that bringing laboratory diagnostics to the wrist will transform patient monitoring, healthcare delivery, and overall consumer health and wellbeing.”
While the spotlight will be on healthcare and medical applications, Rockley won’t completely mothball its work in optical communications. For example, the company will continue to support its optical transceiver joint venture with Hengtong (see “Rockley Photonics, Hengtong Optic-Electric form joint venture for optical transceiver module manufacturing”). Rockley also sees data communications as among “other potential avenues for growth,” according to information provided by the company’s PR firm.
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