SPAC is the acronym for a Special Purpose Acquisition Company. In simple terms, a SPAC is essentially a shell company that raises money in the public markets via a stock listing. Since there is no actual business at its formation, the investors in a SPAC are trusting that the sponsors will find a real business worth teaming up with. Once a target company is identified, the SPAC and the target company merge, and voilà, the private company has become a public company without all the fuss of convincing investors in the value and business model of the acquired company. SPACs have been around for a long time, but of late there has been tremendous growth in the use of SPACs; according to one source the total value of SPACs jumped 400% from 2019 to 2020 and the number of deals to date in 2021 is easily on pace to exceed last year.