UPDATED 10:00 EDT / JULY 22 2021

EMERGING TECH

‘Digital twin’ developer Matterport goes public through SPAC transaction

Matterport Inc., a maker of three-dimensional cameras and spatial data software, went public today on the Nasdaq exchange in a $640 million transaction with special-purpose acquisition company Gores Holdings VI Inc.

A SPAC is essentially a publicly held shell company that is formed for the purpose of acquiring another company and taking it public. The business has no operations but sells shares to investors who want to buy into the acquired firm. SPACs have been growing in popularity as a faster and less risky alternative to conventional initial public offerings with $114.8 billion raised so far in 2021, up from just $10 billion in 2017.

“Gores Group is by far and away the best SPAC investment company and they have a phenomenal technology investor partnership with industry expertise around property technology and our category,” said Matterport Chief Executive RJ Pittman. “This is better than anything we could have done through a traditional IPO or funding.”

From cameras to twins

Matterport’s Pittman: A digital twin is a virtual “system of record that you can use to manage properties and assets within the properties virtually.” Photo: Matterport

Matterport was founded 10 years ago as a maker of 3D cameras of the type commonly used for real estate walk-throughs. Pittman, whose pedigree includes senior positions at Google LLC, Apple Inc. and eBay Inc., joined in 2018 to lead the transition into spatial data and “digital twins,” which are computerized duplicates of physical assets that can be used for such purposes as building design, space planning and facilities maintenance.

The company’s Cortex AI deep learning neural network can create digital twins through 2D to 3D reconstruction, image processing, automatic color correction, object recognition, room labeling and other functions. Its software can stitch together thousands of 3D images into a single visual representation of a building (pictured). Objects and surfaces are dimensionally accurate, meaning that measurements in the digital twin correspond to those in real life.

“The power of digital twins goes beyond touring the space; it’s a digital system of record that you can use to manage properties and assets within the properties virtually,” Pittman said in an interview with SiliconANGLE. The company says it has “Matterported,” or recorded, more than 5 million spaces and more than 15 billion square feet of floor space.

“I can take a home I digitized and tell you how many windows it has, how many south-facing windows and the surface area of all south-facing window glazing as a ratio to the total square footage of the property,” Pittman said. “From that, I can calculate energy efficiency.”

Vast unscanned world

Matterport thinks the time is right for international expansion. It estimates there are 4 billion buildings in the world representing $230 trillion of total property value, most of which is waiting to be digitized.

“The first stage in our evolution was to create technology for digitizing the physical world. The next 10 years is about turning insights into building optimization and Matterport into a Looker or Tableau for visual digital twins,” said Pittman, referring to the data visualization firms Tableau Software Inc. and Google’s Looker subsidiary.

Matterport thinks it has only scratched the surface of potential applications. For example, companies with large franchise operations or retail store networks can use digital twins to “check-in” on local operations to be sure the layout is optimal and merchandise is being displayed properly without requiring a person to visit the store.

Builders can take 3D snapshots at different points in a construction project to create a multi-layered digital twin that can be peeled back to see what’s inside a finished building. Home goods suppliers can furnish empty spaces virtually and ship finished products to the customers that exactly fit the dimensions of a room.

“We have had several quarters of cash flow positive operations,” Pittman said. “We have proven out the software-as-a-service model. We want to collapse time and try to achieve escape velocity in the next few years.”

Matterport will receive approximately $603 million total cash, net of fees and expenses paid in connection with the closing of the business combination. That includes about $308 million from Gores Holdings VI and $295 million from the financing completed in connection with the announcement of the business combination. The stock will trade under the symbol MTTR.

Image: Matterport

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