PBC, said the satellite-imaging company made the right call to go public by combining with a special-purpose acquisition company—better known as a SPAC.
For Planet Labs, which captures imagery of Earth using a fleet of satellites, going public through the SPAC route allowed it to raise the funds it needed to invest in growth, Ms. Johnson said. The company reported raising more than $590 million in gross proceeds from its SPAC deal, and shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange at the end of 2021.
WSJ’s CFO Journal talked to Ms. Johnson about Planet Labs’ past year as a public company, investing and finding efficiencies as the economy slows. Her answers have been edited for length and clarity.: At midyear, we said we’d grown the software team by more than 50% and we’d grown the sales and marketing team by more than 70%. We are definitely not continuing at that same pace because it’s important for us to get on a path to profitability.