Web Doctor Babylon in Talks to List Via Ex-Groupon CEO SPAC

(Bloomberg) -- Babylon, the medical startup that connects patients and doctors via an app, is in talks to go public in a merger with blank-check company run by former Groupon Inc. executives, according to people familiar with the matter.

The U.K.-based health-care group could reach an agreement with Alkuri Global Acquisition Corp. in the coming weeks, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. Babylon could be valued at $3 billion to $4 billion in any deal, the people said.

Alkuri is starting to raise an additional private investment in public equity pool of around $300 million to help fund a deal and already has support from several investors, one of the people said.

Babylon has been working with advisers to explore a listing via a SPAC merger or traditional initial public offering over the last few months, Bloomberg News has previously reported. No final agreement has been reached and Babylon could opt for a different SPAC or seek an IPO, the people said.

Representatives for Babylon and Nashville-based Alkuri declined to comment.

Alkuri is led by Groupon’s ex-chief executive officer Rich Williams and former chief operating officer Steve Krenzer, who left those roles last year after turnaround plans for the online discount provider faltered. Prior to Groupon, Williams held senior roles at technology companies including Amazon.com Inc. Alkuri’s chairman is Sultan Almaadeed, a former executive at the Qatar Investment Authority.

The SPAC listed in February and changed its name in March to Alkuri from Ark Global Acquisition Corp. after confusion with high-profile fund manager Cathie Wood’s firm, ARK Investment Management LLC. The blank-check company is focused on “next-generation technology businesses led by visionary founders and teams leveraging data and artificial intelligence in the areas of consumer internet and marketplaces, healthtech, fintech and mobility.”

Failed Talks

Babylon was founded in 2013. Its app lets users schedule a video chat with a doctor, check symptoms or book time with specialists, such as therapists. The U.K.’s National Health Service lets patients choose Babylon’s “GP at Hand” mobile consultation service as their official primary care provider. Babylon can be used to seek advice and treatment for conditions ranging from hair loss to chronic kidney disease, according to its website.

The company previously explored a merger with a SPAC backed by financier Alec Gores before talks fell apart, the people said. The U.K. firm also attracted interest from Freedom Acquisition I Corp., the SPAC raised by former Credit Suisse Group AG CEO Tidjane Thiam, as well as a vehicle from Klaus Kleinfeld, the former head of Arconic, the people said.

Representatives for Freedom, Gores and Kleinfeld declined to comment.

A $550 million cash infusion led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in 2019 valued Babylon at about $2 billion. It put the company in a position to grow when the coronavirus pandemic hit last year, offering access to doctors from the safety of patients’ living rooms when many clinics were closed. It also gave people who suspected they had the virus a way to track their symptoms.

“The pressure on us to go public, just because the public markets are flying right now, as you can imagine is significant,” Babylon CEO Ali Parsa said in an interview earlier this year.

Company sales are expected increase fourfold and hit about $300 million in 2021, he said.

(Adds details on other SPAC approaches under ‘Failed Talks’ subhead)

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