1RT Acquisition Corp.

1RT Acquisition Corp.

1RT Acquisition Corp. took shape in early 2021 when Scott Prince, former head of EMEA M&A at Houlihan Lokey, and Duncan Murdoch, a veteran of the same firm, registered a blank-check company with the SEC. The vehicle priced its IPO in September 2021, raising $225 million with an explicit focus on enterprise software and adjacent technology sectors, per SEC filings. The firm set its sights on a target with an enterprise value between $750 million and $1.5 billion, specifically seeking companies with recurring revenue models and high customer retention. The mandate covered enterprise software broadly — including AI, automation, and data analytics — with a geographic preference for North America and Europe. No definitive business combination was announced during the SPAC's active window. Prince and Murdoch brought two decades of cross-border M&A experience from Houlihan Lokey, where they advised on software transactions. The SPAC's independent directors included executives with operating backgrounds at firms like Check Point Software and Palo Alto Networks, per SEC filings. In November 2022, the firm extended its deadline to March 2023 for completing the initial business combination, signaling that the search for a qualifying target remained underway. As a single-purpose acquisition vehicle with no permanent capital base, 1RT Acquisition Corp. lacked the structural flexibility of a traditional private equity fund — the team had one shot at deploying the raised capital before the clock expired. The vehicle ultimately did not complete a transaction within its operational window, making it a structural footnote in the late-cycle SPAC wave of 2021.