Athena Technology Acquisition, a female-led special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) with Stacey Abrams on the board, made its public debut on Friday, raising $250 million in capital.
The SPAC, however, has no set plans to acquire a female-led company.
"Although we're not looking just for an all women-led company, we also hope that it creates the opportunity for those that would have never considered a SPAC as an alternative," Phyllis Newhouse, CEO of Athena Technology Acquisition, told Cheddar.
Rather, the company hopes to lead by example.
"Women founders seeing an all-women-led SPAC would have a sense of comfort in knowing that this is an opportunity or an alternative for them as well," Newhouse said.
As for the criteria it will be using to make its acquisition, Newhouse said the SPAC is looking into fintech, direct-to-consumer, and cybersecurity companies in particular.
Newhouse had previously founded the cybersecurity firm Xtreme Solutions after retiring from a 22-year career in the military.
The SPAC has 20 women in leadership and advising roles, including Abrams.
"When I reached out to Stacey about the SPAC, she was obviously very interested and understanding of how the economics work and why so many women were not involved, especially women of color, and we had a very good conversation around how we can create change," Newhouse said. "So she immediately said 'you know what, I want to be an investor.'"
Serving as chairman of the SPAC is Isabelle Freidheim, the co-founder of Starwood VC and Magnifi, a personal finance search engine.
Newhouse said the all-women group is working together to tap their networks to find the right fit for an acquisition.
"If you want to get something done, call up a couple of your girlfriends and say 'okay, who do you know, who do you know?' and trust me within 15 minutes, you'll have more people on the list," she said.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
