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Thayer Ventures Acquisition Corp II
Chris Hemmeter's Thayer Ventures Acquisition Corp II raised $300M in 2021 to acquire a travel and hospitality technology company.
Thayer Ventures Acquisition Corp II
Thayer Ventures Acquisition Corp II is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) formed by Chris Hemmeter, a managing partner at Thayer Ventures, the venture capital firm focused on travel and transportation technology. The SPAC priced its IPO in March 2021, raising $300 million to search for a target at the intersection of technology and hospitality. Unlike the firm's core venture funds, which back early-stage startups, this blank-check vehicle was designed to acquire a more mature, private company and accelerate its path to the public markets. The SPAC's stated mission was to identify a business with a disruptive platform in travel, lodging, or transportation technology. The Thayer Ventures franchise had previously invested in companies like Sonder, a next-generation hospitality brand, and Hipmunk, the consumer travel search engine, through its dedicated venture capital funds. Geographic focus was global, with a particular emphasis on North American and European markets where technology adoption in hospitality was accelerating post-pandemic. The SPAC structure gave the sponsor team two years to locate a target, negotiate a merger, and secure shareholder approval — a timeline that placed the deadline in early 2023. Hemmeter led the sponsor team alongside fellow Thayer Ventures partners. The SPAC was a natural extension of the firm's thesis that the $4.5 trillion global travel industry was under-digitized. The previous Thayer Ventures SPAC had completed a merger with Sonder, taking the short-term rental company public in January 2022. That experience informed the playbook for the second vehicle. The SPAC market broadly cooled through 2022 as rising interest rates and regulatory scrutiny compressed valuations and timelines, creating a challenging environment for de-SPAC mergers. Thayer Ventures Acquisition Corp II distinguishes itself by pairing a generalist SPAC structure with a specialist sponsor's domain expertise. Most SPACs are run by generalist financiers or former operators without a concentrated investment thesis. Hemmeter's team brought a dedicated travel and hospitality technology lens, a proprietary deal-sourcing network, and the operational pattern recognition from Thayer's venture portfolio. That specialist angle was the key structural differentiator from the hundreds of other SPACs raising capital during the same window.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
—
Corporate office
—
Principals
Chris Hemmeter
CEO and Director
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
What is the relationship between Thayer Ventures Acquisition Corp II and the Thayer Ventures VC funds?
Thayer Ventures Acquisition Corp II is a SPAC formed by the managing partners of Thayer Ventures, the venture capital firm. The SPAC operates independently but shares leadership and investment thesis under Chris Hemmeter. Thayer Ventures' core funds make minority investments in early-stage travel and transportation technology startups. The SPAC was designed to acquire a single, more mature company and take it public through a merger. This provides Thayer Ventures with a complementary vehicle to participate in later-stage growth within its core sector.
What type of company was Thayer Ventures Acquisition Corp II targeting?
The SPAC sought a technology-enabled company in the travel, hospitality, or transportation sectors with a disruptive platform. Public filings indicated a preference for businesses that could benefit from secular shifts in consumer behavior and enterprise digitization. The target was expected to have a defensible market position and a path to scaled profitability. The search was not limited by geography, though the firm's prior deal flow concentrated in North America and Europe.
How does the SPAC structure affect target company selection?
A SPAC like Thayer Ventures Acquisition Corp II raises capital in a public offering, places the proceeds in a trust, and then has a defined window — typically 18 to 24 months — to locate a private company to merge with. The target company becomes public through the merger, bypassing a traditional IPO process. For Thayer Ventures, the structure allowed the sponsors to offer a fast-track to public markets for a company that fit their specialist travel and hospitality technology thesis. Failure to complete a merger by the deadline results in the trust being liquidated and capital returned to shareholders.
Who makes the investment decisions at the SPAC?
Chris Hemmeter, as CEO and Director, leads the sponsor team's investment decisions. He is a managing partner at Thayer Ventures and sits at the center of the firm's deal-sourcing and diligence process. The SPAC's board of directors, which includes experienced operators and investors in the travel and technology sectors, provides governance and approval for any proposed business combination.
What happened to Thayer Ventures' first SPAC?
Thayer Ventures' first SPAC, Thayer Ventures Acquisition Corporation, completed a business combination with Sonder Holdings in January 2022. Sonder, which operates short-term apartment rentals styled after boutique hotels, began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker SOND. The merger was a direct application of the firm's investment thesis that the hospitality sector was ripe for a tech-driven, asset-light disruption. Performance post-merger faced the same headwinds that affected many de-SPAC transactions in a rising-rate environment.
Which sectors does Thayer Ventures explicitly avoid?
Thayer Ventures, and by extension its SPACs, concentrates exclusively on technology applied to travel, hospitality, and transportation. The firm explicitly avoids sectors outside these verticals, such as healthcare, general enterprise SaaS, or consumer packaged goods. This deliberate focus is designed to generate proprietary deal flow and provide portfolio companies with industry-specific operating expertise. Deals that do not fit the travel and transportation technology thesis are screened out early.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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