Withdrawn
VELOCITY MERGER CORP.
- Registration2021-02-25 Filed S1
- Withdrawn2022-04-12 Merger Withdrawn
- Raised
- $250M
- CIK
- 1846764
- SPAC Ticker
- VEMCU
- Focus
- FinTech, Technology
SPAC Team
Leadership
Mitchell Caplan — Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Director . Mitchell Caplan, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services and technology industries. From 1990 to 2000, Mr. Caplan built Telebanc Financial Corporation (“Telebanc”), the industry's first and largest branchless bank, utilizing the internet to revolutionize the traditional banking model. As CEO and Vice Chairman of the Board, Mr. Caplan drove significant growth for Telebanc, both organically and inorganically, increasing assets from $50 million to $4 billion and ultimately leading the company through its initial public offering as well as its eventual sale to E*TRADE Financial Corporation (“E*TRADE”). At E*TRADE, Mr. Caplan initially served as Chief Banking Officer and then President from 2000 to 2003. During that time, he led the business’s successful turnaround, strategically aligning the business and meaningfully improving the firm’s profitability. In 2003, Mr. Caplan was appointed Chief Executive Officer and Director of E*TRADE, after which he proceeded to lead the company to record revenues and earnings for four years.
From 2008 to 2009, Mr. Caplan served as an executive advisor to Aquiline Capital Partners LLC (“Aquiline”), a private equity firm specializing in financial services investments. During his time advising Aquiline, Mr. Caplan worked closely with the investment team to build a business plan for a next-generation financial services platform focused on serving consumers with innovative technology. In 2010, Mr. Caplan became Chief Executive Officer of Jefferson National Financial Corporation (“Jeffnat”) and served on its board of directors. While at Jeffnat, Mr. Caplan oversaw the firm’s growth strategy through the development of a tech-enabled investment platform, which grew the firm’s annual sales from under $130 million to over $1 billion in seven years. The firm also won more than 50 industry awards, including the Direct Marketing Association’s (“DMA”) Financial Services Company of the Year. Jeffnat was ultimately acquired by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company in 2017.
In 2017, Mr. Caplan joined Tarsadia Investments, whose investments include majority and minority stakes in privately-held companies, public equities and debt instruments, and early-stage, venture-backed businesses, as well as ownership in various real estate assets and hospitality ventures. Mr. Caplan currently serves as President of Tarsadia Investments and Tarsadia Enterprises and is the chair of Tarsadia’s investment committee, overseeing both public and private verticals and the operations of Tarsadia. During his time at Tarsadia, Mr. Caplan has overseen investments in FinTech innovators such as Creditas, Nvoicepay, and TrueMotion, among others. Mr. Caplan serves on the boards of Lereta, a tech-enabled property tax service provider, and Envisics, an innovator in augmented reality holographic heads up displays for the automotive industry. Since 2017, Mr. Caplan has also served on the board of directors of Modern Bank N.A., a diversified commercial bank and PCS Retirement, an innovative tech enabled retirement solutions provider. He currently serves on the board of directors of Pioneer Merger Corp. Mr. Caplan earned a J.D. from Emory University Law School, an M.B.A. from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School and a B.A. in History from Brandeis University.
Mr. Caplan is well-qualified to serve on our Board of Directors due to his significant industry and investment experience.
Rishi Reddy — President and Director . Rishi Reddy serves as our President. Mr. Reddy is currently head of Venture and Growth equity investing at Tarsadia Investments, an investment practice he established at the firm. At Tarsadia Investments, Mr. Reddy is responsible for sourcing, underwriting, and managing the firm’s investments in high-growth technology companies across financial technology and healthcare technology. Mr. Reddy has led investments in Nvoicepay, TrueMotion, CUE Health, PhilRx, and Fathom Health. He currently serves on the boards of PhilRx, Fathom Health, and Envisics, and as a board observer of CUE Health. Prior to Tarsadia Investments, Mr. Reddy was the CEO and Founder of DigiPath Solutions, an innovator in the digital diagnostics space. He began his career as a technology investment banking analyst at Harris Williams & Co. Mr. Reddy received a B.S. in Management, summa cum laude, from Babson College, attended the London School of Economics and Political Science, and received an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Reddy is well-qualified to serve on our Board of Directors due to his significant industry and investment experience.
David Browne — Chief Financial Officer . David Browne serves as our Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Browne is currently Chief Financial Officer of Tarsadia Enterprises, where he is responsible for strategic financial management, planning and reporting across the firm’s investment strategies and operations. Prior to joining Tarsadia, Mr. Browne served as Chief Financial Officer of Sabal Capital Holdings, an institutionally-backed nonbank multifamily mortgage lender and private debt fund manager. At Sabal, Mr. Browne was responsible for financial planning and reporting for both the company’s lending and institutional fund management businesses. Before joining Sabal, Mr. Browne served as Chief Financial Officer of MMP Holdings, a leading, institutionally-backed Western U.S. franchising business operating more than 200 locations. Prior to that role, Mr. Browne was a partner with middle-market private equity firm Marwit Capital. Before joining Marwit, Mr. Browne worked with middle-market private equity firms The Compass Group and Aurora Capital Group. Mr. Browne began his career in the High Yield Finance group at Merrill Lynch in New York. Mr. Browne holds an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Josh Lane — Secretary . Josh Lane serves as our Secretary. Mr. Lane is currently General Counsel of Tarsadia. Mr. Lane joined Tarsadia Investments as its General Counsel in 2014. Prior to joining Tarsadia, Mr. Lane was a partner with the law firm of K&L Gates where his practice focused on advising publicly traded and privately held companies in wide-ranging and complex business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions and finance transactions of all types. He also has extensive experience advising companies with respect to their corporate governance matters, SEC, stock exchange and other regulatory compliance matters, and risk management and dispute resolution activities. Mr. Lane holds a B.A., magna cum laude, in English Literature from the University of California, Irvine and a J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Jonathan Christodoro — Director . Jonathan Christodoro has agreed to serve as a member of our board of directors. Mr. Christodoro has served as the Chief Investment Officer and President at Patriot Global Management, LP since 2018. Prior to that, Mr. Christodoro previously served as a Managing Director of Icahn Capital, LP, the entity through which Carl Icahn manages investment funds. Prior to joining Icahn Capital, Mr. Christodoro served in various investment and research roles. Mr. Christodoro began his career as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley, where he focused on merger and acquisition transactions across a variety of industries. Mr. Christodoro currently serves as a director on the boards of PayPal, Xerox, and SandRidge Energy and is the Chairman of Pioneer Merger Corp. He was previously a board member of eBay, Lyft, Hologic, Herbalife, Talisman Energy, Enzon Pharmaceuticals, American Railcar Industries, and Cheniere Energy. Mr. Christodoro received an M.P.H. from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, an M.B.A., magna cum laude, with honors distinction in research, from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Applied Economics and Management, from Cornell University. He also served in the United States Marine Corps.
Mr. Christodoro is well-qualified to serve on our Board of Directors due to his significant industry and investment experience.
Soraya Darabi — Director . Soraya Darabi has agreed to serve as a member of our board of directors. Ms. Darabi is a General Partner and founder of TMV, an early-stage venture firm investing primarily in healthcare- and technology-focused startups. Ms. Darabi is also the host of “Business Schooled,” a podcast by Synchrony, for which she travels the United States interviewing persevering founders who have made it past their startup days. Ms. Darabi began her career as Manager of Digital Partnerships & Social Media at The New York Times, where she positioned the global news leader on social networks such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, partnered with startups large and small and established award-winning campaigns. She went on to co-found the application Foodspotting, named by Apple and Wired Magazine as an “App of the Year,” and later acquired by OpenTable and then Priceline. For her work at The Times and startups, Ms. Darabi has been featured on the cover of Fast Company Magazine’s “100 Most Creative People in Business” issue. Ms. Darabi writes for a range of publications and has appeared on television for commentary on technology and convergence. Ms. Darabi was named an Inc. Magazine “30 Under 30” (2012) and Fortune Magazine “40 Under 40: Women to Watch” (2015). Ms. Darabi served as a member of the first digital advisory board of General Electric. She is a World Economic Forum “Young Global Leader” and a six-time mentor to TechStars New York, named three times as a “Mentor of the Year.” Ms. Darabi graduated with honors from Georgetown University and completed the Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century module at Harvard Kennedy School. She is currently on the board of directors for the non-profit Yamba Malawi.
Ms. Darabi is well-qualified to serve on our Board of Directors due to her extensive industry experience.
Laurence Greenberg — Director . Laurence Greenberg has agreed to serve as a member of our board of directors. Mr. Greenberg is a seasoned entrepreneur and executive with more than 25 years of experience in financial services. He previously served as President of JeffNat, and under his leadership, the firm became widely recognized for launching Monument Advisor, the first no-commission variable annuity with a flat-insurance fee, and for building a large distribution footprint among registered investment and fee-based advisors.
Previously, Mr. Greenberg served as Chief Operating Officer of Telebanc, now E*TRADE, where he oversaw all marketing and operations and was instrumental in building a national digital bank, driving growth of the bank’s assets from $427 million in 1994 to $4 billion by 2000, when the bank was sold to E*TRADE. Mr. Greenberg also served as First Vice President of Consumer Banking at Merrill Lynch, where he helped lead the firm’s effort to build retail banking services for Merrill Lynch’s brokerage customers. As a thought leader and authority on retirement investing, Mr. Greenberg has authored numerous articles on the subject and has been quoted in the press by Reuters, as well as by a wide range of financial publications including Financial Planning and Financial Advisor. Additionally, Mr. Greenberg currently serves on the board of directors for Modern Bank, a commercial bank focused on middle-market lending. Mr. Greenberg received a B.A. in Economics from Johns Hopkins University.
Mr. Greenberg is well-qualified to serve on our Board of Directors due to his significant industry experience.
Steve Lockshin — Director . Steve Lockshin has agreed to serve as a member of our board of directors. Mr. Lockshin is a founder and principal of AdvicePeriod and former chairman of Convergent Wealth Advisors. Mr. Lockshin founded Lydian Wealth Management in 1994 and helped pioneer the independent advisory industry, building one of the largest independent registered investment advisors in the nation by assets under management. Lydian Wealth Management was acquired by City National Bank in 2007 and renamed Convergent Wealth Advisors in the transaction. Mr. Lockshin is also the founder of Vanilla, a tech-enabled platform to automate estate planning for advisors and lawyers.
Mr. Lockshin is widely known for his contemporary approach to wealth advisory as well as his estate-planning knowledge and is a frequent speaker on both topics. He memorialized his concerns about conflicts of interest in the industry in his guide for consumers, Get Wise to Your Advisor (John Wiley & Sons: 2013). Mr. Lockshin has received many industry accolades, including being ranked #1 by Barron’s in both the state (California) and national rankings in numerous periods and was named WealthManagement.com’s Thought Leader of the Year in 2019. Mr. Lockshin is a champion for the fiduciary standard and consumer education in financial services. In 2012, in an attempt to unify the industry by providing a simple set of standards for consumers, Mr. Lockshin helped launch Advizent. In 1995, as part of the development of Convergent Wealth Advisors, Mr. Lockshin founded CMS Reporting. CMS Reporting is now known as Fortigent. Fortigent was acquired by LPL Financial Holdings, Inc. in 2012.
Mr. Lockshin is well-qualified to serve on our Board of Directors due to his extensive industry experience.
Chitavan Patel — Director . Chitavan Patel has agreed to serve as a member of our board of directors. Ms. Patel is currently the Vice President of Strategy, Planning & Analysis at Netflix. Since joining Netflix in January 2011, Ms. Patel has served in various leadership positions at Netflix, including serving as the Director of Content Strategy, Planning & Analysis from April 2018 to January 2020 and as the Director of Content Acquisition from November 2013 to April 2018. Prior to joining Netflix, Ms. Patel was the Director of Finance and Strategic Planning at Universal Music Group from December 2009 to January 2011. She also held various finance positions at Home Box Office from November 2005 to November 2009 and was a senior financial analyst at Sony BMG Entertainment from July 2002 to November 2005. Ms. Patel received a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania..
Ms. Patel is well-qualified to serve on our Board of Directors due to her extensive industry experience.