Montreal founded Sonder will be hitting the stock market in the near future. The listing will be done through a SPAC, which has become a very common way of taking a company public in the last year or so. Sonder will combine operations with Gores Metropoulos II, a company already listed on the NASDAQ.

SPAC’s (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies) are typically small companies which are publicly listed, and which exist for the express purpose of taking larger companies public through merger or acquisition. These transactions have become very popular because for the company going public, it is much easier and less costly to simply merge with a SPAC than it would be to go through the arduous IPO process.

According to a statement release by Sonder this morning the company is expected to have an enterprise value of $2.2 billion (3.6x Sonder’s projected 2022 revenue) and over $700 million of net cash at closing. Sonder expects to reach about $4 billion of revenue by 2025, driven by significantly increasing its number of locations, the recovery of the global travel market industry and through the addition of new revenue streams. The statement estimates the total value of the global lodging market at over $800 billion and growing.

Existing Sonder stockholders will retain 74% ownership in the company. Additional investors have committed to purchase shares of common stock of GM II in a private placement worth $200 million and led by an affiliate of The Gores Group, which controls Gores Metropoulos II. This includes participation from top-tier institutional investors, including Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Atreides Management, LP, entities affiliated with Moore Capital Management, Principal Global Investors, LLC, and Senator Investment Group. Additional transaction details can be found here.

The merger has already been approved both by GM II’s Board of Directors and Sonder’s Board of Directors, is expected to close in the second half of this year, subject to approval by GM II’s stockholders and other customary closing conditions. After closing Sonder’s management team will stay on, with Francis Davidson continuing to serve as CEO and Sanjay Banker as President and CFO.