What happened
The stock market was having a strong day on Friday, but not compared with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings II's (IPOB). Best known for being the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that plans to take real estate tech company Opendoor public, it was up by 15% as of 12:30 p.m. EDT.
So what
There isn't any company-specific news out today that is propelling the SPAC higher. However, there is a ton of activity elsewhere in the SPAC world that could be creating investor interest.
Image source: Getty Images.
Specifically, venture capital investor Chamath Palihapitiya is launching three more of these so-called blank check companies, all of which just had successful IPOs.
- Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings IV raised $400 million in its IPO.
- Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings V raised $700 million in its IPO.
- Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings VI raised $1 billion in its IPO.
Why do investors care so much? Well, recall that Palihapitiya's first SPAC was the company that took Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic public last year. Palihapitiya's second SPAC is the Opendoor go-public vehicle, and the third -- called Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings III -- plans to take Clover Health public early next year.
Now what
Real estate tech is already a high-interest business right now. Just look at the recent returns of Zillow or Redfin, and you'll see what I'm talking about. This hot growth industry in the midst of SPAC-Mania 2020 seems to be fueling today's big gains.
