It’s clear now that modern reverse mergers between SPACs and low-revenue, high-growth companies are faring about the same as the IPO market: not well. That’s largely due to the volatile public markets. PitchBook’s VC-backed IPO and deSPAC indexes have each posted losses of more than 45% YTD. But interest from shareholders has also waned as they seek to de-risk their portfolios, and that sentiment led only 35 new SPAC vehicles to list on public exchanges during the third quarter.

In the latest analyst note by PitchBook Research, the Q3 2022 SPAC Market Update, Cameron Stanfill posits that the dropping activity levels in Q3 may have sounded the death knell of the SPAC renaissance.