March 30 (Reuters) – Two blank-check firms backed by an affiliate of venture capital firm Corner Ventures are looking to raise a total of $625 million through U.S. initial public offerings, regulatory filings revealed on Tuesday.

The special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, Corner Growth Acquisition Corp 2 and Corner Growth Acquisition Corp 3, plan to sell 17.5 million units and 45 million units, respectively. The units, comprising shares and warrants, will be priced at $10 each.

California-based Corner Ventures, spun-off from venture capital firm DAG Ventures in 2018 by partners John Cadeddu, Marvin Tien, and Tom Goodrich, has invested in companies including Eventbrite Inc, Grubhub Inc and WeWork Companies Inc.

In December, a SPAC by the Corner Ventures raised $400 million through an initial public offering.

SPACs are shell companies that raise funds through an initial public offering to take a private firm public through a merger at a later date, allowing companies to sidestep the hassles associated with a traditional IPO to enter public markets.

In less than three months since the start of the year, SPACs have already raised more capital through IPOs than the entire haul of 2020, which was itself a record year, according to data from SPAC Research.

Cantor is the book-running manager for the latest offerings by Corner Ventures. (Reporting by Sohini Podder in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

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