May Mobility, an autonomous ridehail operator, is merging with ACP Holdings Acquisition Corp. in a transaction that values the company at $1.4 billion, according to the announcement posted Wednesday. The deal is expected to generate up to $337 million in gross proceeds for the company, subject to shareholder redemptions.
May Mobility currently operates robotaxi services in Japan and the United States under asset-light partnerships with local operators and fleet owners. The structure lets the company deploy its autonomous driving stack without owning vehicles outright. The $337 million gross proceeds, if fully realized after redemptions, would fund expansion and technology development as the company competes with well-capitalized rivals including Waymo, Cruise and others pursuing autonomous ride-hail permits across multiple jurisdictions.
May Mobility was founded in 2018 and has been operating commercial services in Osaka since 2022. The company expanded into U.S. operations in partnership with ride-hailing platforms and has announced plans for service expansion in additional markets. Prior to the SPAC announcement, the company had raised funding from investors including SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
The merger with ACP Holdings, a blank-check company sponsored by Atlas Credit Partners, makes May Mobility the first U.S. publicly listed pure-play autonomous ride-hail technology company, the announcement states. The transaction is expected to close in late 2026 or early 2027, pending shareholder approval and customary closing conditions.
SPAC mergers have been a common path to public markets for autonomous vehicle and mobility companies over the past three years, though the pace slowed following regulatory scrutiny and retail investor losses in earlier blank-check deals. May Mobility's valuation at $1.4 billion places it significantly below pre-Series C valuations seen in private markets for autonomous vehicle startups in 2021 and 2022, when Cruise was valued at $23 billion and Waymo's parent Alphabet held stakes exceeding $20 billion in book value.
The amount of gross proceeds May Mobility secures will depend on redemption rates among ACP Holdings shareholders at closing. SPAC deals have faced redemption pressures in 2025 and 2026 as institutional investors and retail shareholders have grown more cautious about blank-check structures and the post-merger performance of merged entities.
