Definitive Agreement
CXApp (Inpixon subsidiary)
KINS Technology Group, Inc.
- Registration2020-09-30 Filed S1
- IPO2020-12-16 IPO, search begins
- Definitive Agreement2022-09-25 Agreement for merger
- CompletedNot yet completed
- Raised
- $200M
- CIK
- 1820875
- SPAC Ticker
- KINZU
- Merger
- CXApp (Inpixon subsidiary)
- Focus
- Technology
SPAC Team
Leadership
Mr. Khurram Sheikh has served as our Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since our inception and Chief Financial Officer since August 2020. Mr. Sheikh has been at the forefront of innovation in the technology, mobile, semiconductor, telecom and media industries for the past 25 years with CEO and CTO roles at leading technology companies. Since March 2020, Mr. Sheikh has been the Founder, Executive Chairman & CEO of Aijaad, a boutique strategic advisory firm where he advises both large private equity firms as well as boards of public companies on the future of 5G, IoT, Edge Computing and AI technologies and is actively involved in M&A, technology strategy and market development. From 2016 to early 2020, Mr. Sheikh was the CEO of kwikbit, a private company building a “network as a service” solution using gigabit radios, edge compute, virtualization, and artificial intelligence. Prior to kwikbit, in 2014, Mr. Sheikh was appointed as the Chief Strategy and Technology Officer for Silicon Image (SIMG) and the President/CEO of its millimeter wave/5G subsidiary SiBEAM. SIMG was acquired by Lattice Semiconductor (Nasdaq:LSCC) in 2015 for $600 million after which Mr. Sheikh was appointed the Chief Strategy and Technology Officer of the combined company responsible for corporate strategy, roadmap, M&A and technology development and was there until 2016. From 2007 onwards, he was the CTO for Powerwave Technologies, a large wireless infrastructure vendor. Powerwave filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2013, and in April 2013 Mr. Sheikh was appointed as the CEO of Powerwave to help with the sale of the company. Later that year, Mr. Sheikh successfully facilitated the sale of approximately 1,400 patents owned by Powerwave to private equity firm Gores Group. From 2005 to 2007, Mr. Sheikh was Vice President, Wireless Strategy and Development at Time Warner Cable leading the cable company’s entry into the wireless space. From 1996 to 2005, Mr. Sheikh held senior technology roles at Sprint including CTO Mobile Broadband responsible for deploying the world’s first 4G system and acquisition of multi-billion dollar spectrum assets at 2.5GHz. Mr. Sheikh holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering with highest honors from the University of Engineering & Technology in Pakistan, as well as a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Mr. Sheikh is well qualified to serve as Chairman of our board because of his extensive experience advising boards of directors of public and private companies and his extensive professional experience.
Mr. Eric Zimits has served as our Chief Corporate Development Officer since August 2020. Since 2016, Mr. Zimits has served as a Strategic Advisor to Netzyn, Inc., a company that has developed a distributed cloud platform that streams native applications and operating systems to any user device. In addition to his current role at Netzyn, he serves as advisor to early stage companies including Image Algorithmics and Nivasa. Prior to Netzyn, Mr. Zimits served as a Managing Director of Granite Ventures from 2000 until 2016. At Granite, he focused on investing in early-stage communications, security, and software companies including RF Magic (NYSE: MXL), Speakeasy (acquired by Best Buy), Mojo Networks (acquired by Arista), Percello (acquired by Broadcom), and Localmind (acquired by Airbnb). From 1996 to 2000, Mr. Zimits was Managing Director and head of the Communications Research Group at Hambrecht & Quist, and later ChaseH&Q after the acquisition of H&Q. At H&Q, he initiated and supported numerous venture investments including InterNAP, Sierra Wireless, Amber Networks, and Paragon Software. From 1992 to 1996, Mr. Zimits was a General Partner at Volpe, Welty & Company. Before that, he held analyst positions at Rauscher Pierce Refsnes and Morgan Keegan & Company. Mr. Zimits received a Bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in biomedical engineering and an M.B.A. from Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business.
Mr. Hassan Ahmed has served as a member of our Board of Directors since August 2020. Mr. Ahmed most recently served as the Chairman and CEO of Affirmed Networks, which pioneered virtualization technologies for mobile, especially 5G, networks, from inception until the company was sold to Microsoft in March 2020. Before that, he was chief technology officer of Cascade Communications, which Ascend Communications acquired in 1997. Prior to Cascade, Mr. Ahmed served as CEO and Chairman of Sonus Networks. Mr. Ahmed currently serves on the board of Ciena Corp. (NYSE: CIEN) and Vesper. Mr. Ahmed holds Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Engineering from Carleton University and a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Mr. Ahmed is well qualified to serve on our board because of his extensive experience advising boards of directors of public and private companies and his extensive professional experience.
Ms. Di-Ann Eisnor has served as a member of our Board of Directors since August 2020. Since November 2019, Ms. Eisnor has served as Co-Founder and CEO of Core, a venture-backed construction labor marketplace. Before that, from February 2019 until October 2019, she was an executive of The We Company, a part of the We Work Companies, where she was responsible for development of their cities platform. Prior to that, Ms. Eisnor served as Director of Urban Systems at Google, from June 2018 until February 2019. Previously, Ms. Eisnor was with Waze, Inc., a crowd-sourced navigation and real-time traffic application owned by Alphabet, Inc., for 10 years, most recently serving as the VP Platform and Director of Growth. Prior to joining Waze, Ms. Eisnor was co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Platial Inc., a collaborative, user-generated cartographic website. Ms. Eisnor currently serves on the board of Saia Inc. (Nasdaq: SAIA) and Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. She is a venture partner at Obvious Ventures and is co-founder with Lupe Fiasco of Neighborhood Start Fund, a neighborhood-based micro-fund in underserved urban neighborhoods. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Studio Art and Business Administration from New York University. She is a 2014 Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Ms. Eisnor is well qualified to serve on our board because of her extensive experience advising boards of directors of public and private companies and her extensive professional experience.
Mr. Camillo Martino has served as a member of our Board of Directors since August 2020. Mr. Martino was a senior global semiconductor company executive and now serves as a board member and executive advisor to many global technology companies. Prior to his current board roles, Mr. Martino was a chief executive officer and C-suite executive of a number of high technology companies worldwide. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of MagnaChip Semiconductor (NYSE: MX) and has served on this Board since August 2016. Since 2018, he has also served on the Board of Directors at Sensera (ASX: SE1), which is focused on IoT platform solutions. Mr. Martino also serves on the Board of Directors at multiple privately-held companies, including VVDN Technologies (fastest growing ODM based in India with a focus on Wireless, Networking & IoT) and KeraCel (multi-material, multi-method 3D printing). Mr. Martino’s prior board service includes serving on the boards of Cypress Semiconductor from June 2017 through the sale of the company to Infineon in April 2020 and Moschip Technologies (BOM: 532407) from April 2017 to May 2019. As an operating executive, Mr. Martino served as Chief Executive Officer of Silicon Image, Inc. (where he also served as a director) from 2010 until the completion of its sale to Lattice Semiconductor Corporation (Nasdaq: LSCC) in March 2015, Chief Operating Officer of SAI Technology Inc. from January 2008 to December 2009 (where he also served as director from 2006 to 2010), and Chief Executive Officer of Cornice Inc. from 2005 to 2007 (where he also served as a director). From August 2001 to July 2005, Mr. Martino served as the executive vice president and chief operating officer at Zoran Corporation, a global SoC semiconductor company. Prior to that, Mr. Martino held multiple positions with National Semiconductor Corporation for a total of nearly 14 years. Mr. Martino holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Melbourne and a Graduate Diploma (in Digital Communications) from Monash University in Australia. Mr. Martino is well qualified to serve on our board because of his extensive experience advising boards of directors of public and private companies and his extensive professional experience.
Mr. Atif Rafiq has served as a member of our Board of Directors since August 2020. Since May 2019, Mr. Rafiq has served as President of Commercial & Growth at MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM), a global hospitality and entertainment company. Previously, from January 2017 until May 2019, he was the Chief Digital Officer and Global CIO for Volvo, the Swedish luxury automaker. Before Volvo, from 2013 to 2017, Mr. Rafiq served as Senior Vice President and Global Chief Digital Officer at McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD). Before McDonald’s Mr. Rafiq held roles at Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), Yahoo and AOL. Mr. Rafiq was also the Founder and CEO of a Silicon Valley start-up, Covigna, which he led from inception to exit. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics-Economics from Wesleyan University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Chicago. Mr. Rafiq is well qualified to serve on our board because of his extensive professional experience in the technology sector.
Mr. Allen Salmasi has served as a member of our Board of Directors since August 2020. Since March 2014, Mr. Salmasi has served as CEO of Veea Inc., a provider of comprehensive full stack solutions for edge computing and communications. Since February 2013, he has also served as Chairman and CEO of NLabs Inc., a New York based family office investment firm. Prior to founding Veea in 2014, Mr. Salmasi was the Chairman, CEO and President of NextWave Wireless Inc. until its acquisition by AT&T (NYSE: ATT) in 2013. Prior to NextWave, he served as the President of Wireless Division, Chief Strategy Officer and a member of the Board of Directors at Qualcomm. Prior to Qualcomm, Mr. Salmasi was the CEO and President of Omninet Corporation. Mr. Salmasi began his career as a research engineer at NASA JPL, and holds Bachelor’s degrees and Master’s degree with honors in Electrical Engineering, Business Management and Economics from Purdue University and a Master’s Degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Southern California. Mr. Salmasi is well qualified to serve on our board because of his experience advising boards of directors of public and private companies and his extensive professional experience.