Hims CEO Andrew Dudum. Photo credit: Christopher Michel on Flickr, under Creative Commons license

Hims, the personal care startup, is seeking a public listing via a merger with a blank-check acquisition company, as first reported by Reuters. According to Reuters, Hims is eyeing a valuation of more than $1 billion from a possible public listing through a reverse merger with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), the abbreviation referring to public entities with no operations that are taken public primarily to absorb the operations of another company. Public listings via SPACs have seemingly become popular as of late, with the likes of Nikola Corp, Virgin Galactic, and DraftKings having gone public through them and others such as Velodyne and Fisker further aiming to do so. According to Reuters, Hims has hired investment bank LionTree Advisors to negotiate a potential sale with a SPAC.

As a private company, San Francisco-based Hims has raised roughly $200 million in funding, with its most recent financing round having valued the company at about $1 billion. Investors in Hims include the likes of 8VC, Founders Fund, Redpoint Ventures, Maverick Capital, Forerunner Ventures, DCM Ventures, and SV Angel.

Hims was founded in 2017 by entrepreneur Andrew Dudum, who is also the co-founder of Atomic, a venture capital fund backed by famed investors Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel.