FiscalNote Holdings, Inc., an AI-driven enterprise SaaS company that delivers legal and regulatory data and insights, and Duddell Street Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, announced that they have entered into a definitive business combination agreement that will result in FiscalNote becoming a publicly listed company with a pro forma market capitalization of approximately $1.3 billion.
Upon closing, the combined company will operate under the FiscalNote name and trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “NOTE”.
With global CEOs and organizations facing increasing regulatory pressure, FiscalNote provides insights and data on government activity and impact by leveraging proprietary artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other advanced technologies embedded in its workflow software to collect and analyze global legislative, regulatory, and geopolitical data for clients around the world.
“When we founded FiscalNote in 2013, we set out to build a category creating technology company that would change the way organizations understand and act on the legal, policy, and regulatory issues that mattered most to them,” said FiscalNote co-founder and CEO, Tim Hwang.
“Legal and geopolitical issues have become even more inextricably linked to markets, and it is crucial that organizations have access to key information about the actions of regulators and policymakers to proactively navigate and manage the volume and velocity of regulatory change that will impact them. We look forward to this transaction accelerating our efforts in both U.S. and global markets to build additional data feeds and software to provide further transparency to the regulated sectors of the future, especially as wide-ranging and complex regulatory issues emerge in areas such as cryptocurrencies, the gig economy, cannabis, autonomous and electric vehicles, online sports betting, ESG, and other sectors that are changing the landscape for how companies around the world operate.”
FiscalNote has more than 3,000 subscription customers across a diverse range of blue-chip global enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses, non-profits, and the public sector, including 3M, AstraZeneca, Blackstone, FedEx, Lyft, Microsoft, Nestlé, Netflix, Tesla, Uber, the White House, the United States Congress, the United States Supreme Court, and major US federal agencies.
FiscalNote’s cloud-based automated technology enables its data and information to be sold on a subscription basis to multiple customers, supporting high profit margins over time.
The addressable market of legal and regulatory information solutions is driven by strong structural tailwinds, including the proliferation of regulatory complexity, demand for workflow efficiency and automation, need for aggregation and standardization, and the democratization of analytical capabilities in law.
“FiscalNote is a category creator led by a visionary and experienced leadership team poised to scale with multiple organic and inorganic growth vectors. Access to public markets will lower the company’s cost of capital and accelerate its ability to drive innovation, as well as execute strategically attractive and value accretive M&A.” said Manoj Jain, CEO of Duddell Street Acquisition Corp., and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Maso Capital. “We believe this merger is highly compelling and asymmetric, driven by a clear path to profitability with an anticipated 15-20% organic revenue growth rate, 80% gross margins, and 90% recurring revenue model. With a strong track record of value creation through acquisitions and M&A integration, we are confident FiscalNote will be further positioned to disrupt, consolidate, and provide transformative technology applications to the LegalTech sector. In today’s digitized world, insights drawn from data collection, aggregation, and analysis are significant and strategically valuable.”
FiscalNote is one of the largest technology companies headquartered in Washington, D.C. with operations in eight countries and approximately 650 employees globally.