Tailwind Acquisition Corp files for $300 Million Blank-Check IPO

(Bloomberg) -- Casper Sleep Inc.’s chief executive officer Philip Krim has filed to raise $300 million for a blank-check company after seeing shares of the mattress company he founded tumble 30% since its February debut.

Tailwind Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday to sell 30 million units at $10 each. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. is the sole underwriter for the initial public offering, the filing shows.

Casper Sleep CEO Philip Krim is the chairman of Los Angeles-based Tailwind Acquisition, which intends to focus on finding targets in consumer internet, digital media and marketing technology sectors, according to the filings. Venture capitalist Chris Hollod is the CEO of the blank-check firm.

SPAC deals, which rely on the sponsor’s dealmaking expertise, have become charisma-driven investments on Wall Street this year amid pandemic concerns and market volatility. Bill Ackman and Michael Klein are among the big-name financiers who have drawn in big checks with the promise that a good deal will emerge down the line.

Seventy-four SPACS account for more than $28 billion of the $72 billion raised in IPOs on U.S. exchanges this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While the vast majority of those firms are still jockeying for deals, Boston-based sports-betting company DraftKings Inc. went public in April through a $3.3 billion SPAC deal. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. went public through a deal in October.

Casper Sleep, a bed-in-a-box retailer, went public in a $100 million IPO after slashing the target for the listing by more than a third. Its $1.1 billion valuation in an earlier private funding round fell to $476 million in the IPO and has since shrunk to $338 million.