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Matterport CEO on going public via SPAC

RJ Pittman, CEO of Matterport, joined Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the company going public via SPAC in a $2.9B deal.

Video Transcript

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ADAM SHAPIRO: Almost 40 minutes to the closing bell. Welcome back to Yahoo Finance Live. There's another SPAC deal in the works. This is a big one. It was $3 billion. Let's bring in the CEO of Matterport, RJ Pittman, to talk about the deal that's going to put several hundreds of millions of dollars into Matterport, about $640 million, when it links up with Gore Holdings VI, Inc. So congratulations. Thank you for joining us. What's Matterport going to look like after all of this?

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RJ PITTMAN: Well, I think it's going to look like the same company that we have been for the last 10 years, transforming the built world, digitizing buildings and creating amazing 3D digital twins of properties all over the world.

SEANA SMITH: RJ, this is going to unlock access to capital here. I guess, how does this impact your plans and to scale your business, at least in the medium to longer term?

RJ PITTMAN: Yeah, sure. I mean Matterport today is in 150 countries. We are Matterporting everything from homes to high rises, hospitals to hotels, and everything in between. And the business has been accelerating for the last few years. It's really exciting to see. With this transaction, we're really able to scale our growth. And that's exactly what this is all about. We've got a fantastic business model. We're working across all different types of buildings in all different countries around the world.

And this now gives us the resources really to scale. Because you've got 4 billion buildings out there in the built world, and that's our market. And so, you know, this is one where scalability is really going to make the difference, I think, in getting to the market share that we are squarely focused on headed towards.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Help us understand that market. Is it mostly residential? I think it's probably commercial. And I know there's going to be a lot of commercial in midtown Manhattan that you might be calling on you.

RJ PITTMAN: Yeah. I mean, let's remember, this is the largest asset class in the world, $230 trillion category of which residential real estate-- look, it's $160 trillion of that asset class. This is three times the sum total of all global equities combined, just to put that in perspective. And so, residential real estate, 3D digital twins for that category has been where Matterport has really established itself as a category leader.

But for the past several years, we've been expanding into manufacturing, industrial, as I mentioned, travel and hospitality, and for sure, commercial real estate as well, where there are literally billions of square feet of space to be Matterported, and we're well on our way.

SEANA SMITH: RJ, what, I guess, direct impact has COVID had on your business? And how much more demand have you seen over the last 11 months or so as a result of it?

RJ PITTMAN: Well, we're a company that is setting out to transform this huge category through digitization. And I think one of the things that COVID has brought forward for many companies across many industries is that power of digitization, remote access to, whether it's communications or doing business, we see this not as just a solution for COVID, but perhaps a way to be more efficient in business when we're on the other side of COVID. No doubt that this was a tailwind for us.

Matterport has helped keep the real estate business moving forward in a really important way with our technology across all of those industries we've talked about, including in the design, build, and construction category as well. Everything was really affected by COVID.

But now that our technology is in the hands of an even greater, broader audience, for us, it's just an opportunity to continue with what we've always been doing, but now we're going to do it at an accelerated pace. And I think COVID has awoken the world to these kinds of technologies that we should be using every day.

ADAM SHAPIRO: What kind of data can you share with us about when someone looks at a digital twin-- I think I've got the definition of that correctly-- the sales get closed without going to actually physically see your property, and the sales that go in conjunction with the digital twin. Do you share that data?

RJ PITTMAN: Well, here's a few things that I can say. You know, first of all, why do customers like Redfin, for example, standardize on Matterport's digital twin for looking at homes, buying homes online? Well, because it is a dimensionally accurate, you know, perfect digital twin in high fidelity, 4K, HDR imagery.

We're the only company on the planet that can give you a true accurate model or a twin of any space, frankly, with more information in it than if you were actually in the space yourself. You can take out our little digital measuring tool. You can measure the size of a wall, see if your artwork's going to fit on it or if your couch is going to fit in the living room. It's that precise, on the one hand.

And now what does that do for customers? Well, you know, these online platforms like Redfin or, you know, nightly rental property platforms like Vacasa, Homeaway, VRBO, are seeing 300% increase in engagement if you have that Matterport digital twin attached to your online listing--

ADAM SHAPIRO: We hear you.

RJ PITTMAN: Sorry?

ADAM SHAPIRO: We hear you. No, no, finish up.

RJ PITTMAN: Yeah, I was going to say, homes sell faster, you know, 20% faster, and in many cases, for a higher price, 10% to 12% higher price. And we move occupancy in the nightly rental category by 14% to 18%, which is just extraordinary for the world we're in today.

ADAM SHAPIRO: I don't think anybody minds moving a sale price about 20% greater. All the best to you, RJ Pittman. Congratulations on the SPAC.