Skip to main content
spacbrain
← Sponsor Score ranking

Cohen Circle (Betsy Cohen)

#26 of 117
54/100Mixed recordhigh confidence

54/100 from 26 resolved vehicles (12 closed, 14 failed), 84% of the raw 55 after small-sample shrink. Confidence: high.

Vehicles
31
19 in the live DB · 12 SEC-verified priors · computed by SpacBrain from cited rows, as of 2026-09-10
Resolved
26
12 closed · 13 liquidated · 1 terminated
Best priced exit
+73.8%
PWP vs the $10.00 baseline
Worst priced exit
-95.3%
FLD vs the $10.00 baseline

Sponsor DNA

what has happened before, with its sample size
  • Completion rate46%n=26 resolved vehiclesderived

    Of the 26 vehicles this sponsor has taken to a final outcome, 12 closed a business combination.

  • Liquidation rate50%n=26 resolved vehiclesderived

    13 of those 26 returned the trust to holders and wound up without a deal.

  • Median post-close return+21.7%n=6 priced completed deSPACsderived

    A holder who stayed through one of this sponsor's completed deals has ended up a median +21.7% against the $10.00 trust baseline they could have taken in cash, across the 6 vehicles we can price. Measured at the last close we hold, not at a fixed anniversary.

  • Median redemption—n=1 redemption event with a stated ratederived

    1 redemption event with a stated rate on record; this median is published from 3. Two points have no middle — a median over them is their mean, and moves with either one. Extraction covers part of the universe, so a low count is our coverage as much as the sponsor’s history.

  • Deals terminated2terminated dealscounted

    2 announced combinations have been terminated on this sponsor's record — 1 on a live vehicle, 1 on a vehicle that then wound up.

  • Extension votes on record1extension votecounted

    1 extension vote — occasions this sponsor needed more time and asked holders for it.

5 of 6 statistics carry a figure for this sponsor. A rate is published from 3 resolved vehicles and a median from 3 observations: two points have no middle, and a rate over two can only be 0, 50 or 100. Counts have no threshold — a count is an observation, not an estimate.

Everything marked derived is arithmetic we did to rows we hold, not a figure any filing states.

What this panel will not tell you, and why (6)›
  • Median day-one move on announcement

    PriceBar holds 2026-05-11 → 2026-08-17 only. Of 83 dated announcements across the whole universe, 16 fall on a day we hold a bar for a scored sponsor’s vehicle, spread over 14 sponsors — one sponsor reaches three observations. A bar that does not exist is not a 0% move.

  • Pre-vote move

    Only 12 deals carry a vote date at all, and exactly 1 of them falls inside the PriceBar window. One observation is an anecdote with a decimal point.

  • Median time from IPO to announcement

    42 IPO→announcement pairs exist, but only six sponsors have two and one has three. Enough for a statistic about the asset class; not for one about a sponsor, which is what this panel claims to be.

  • Median time from signing to close

    Exactly 1 deal in the entire database is CLOSED and carries an announcement date. There is no 2nd observation anywhere to take a median over.

  • 12-month post-deSPAC return

    `SponsorPriorVehicle.postCloseReturnPct` is measured at the LAST close we hold, whenever that is — not on a 12-month anniversary. We hold no price history for the resulting companies, so the anniversary price does not exist. The median post-close return above is the honest version of this number and says what it is measured against.

  • Sponsor capital at risk

    Nothing stores it. The only sponsor-economics column we hold is `Deal.promotePct` (founder shares as a percentage of post-IPO shares, on 34 deals under a scored sponsor), and that measures the equity the sponsor got nearly free — the opposite of the dollars it put in. Deriving at-risk capital from a promote percentage would be an invention with a citation stapled to it.

Score breakdown

every component, what it measured, and what it could not
  • Deal completion20% weightn=2646/100

    12/26 resolved vehicles closed a deal (46%); 13 liquidated, 1 terminated. Not gated: measured post-close quality is 53/100, at or above the money-back mark, so the full completion credit is earned.

  • Liquidation / termination drag16% weightn=3154/100

    13 liquidations and 1 termination across 31 vehicles raised → 46% attrition (terminations 1.25×, stale shells 0.75×).

  • Post-close outcome quality40% weightn=653/100

    6 priced deSPACs vs trust value (prior vehicles against the $10.00 IPO baseline, in-DB vehicles against the trust they filed): median +22%, 5/6 still worth at least half of trust, 1 at under a tenth of it. Worst: FLD -95%. Best: PWP +74%. 6 other completion(s) not priced (6 no stored price) — left OUT of the ratio, not guessed.

  • Redemption behaviour10% weightn=136/100

    Median 92% of public shares redeemed across 1 filed event (lower is better) — n=1, small sample, pulled toward neutral.

  • Extension reliance8% weightn=198/100

    1 extension vote across 19 in-DB vehicles (0.1 per vehicle; 3+ scores zero).

  • Live fleet vs trust6% weightn=580/100

    4/5 live vehicles trading at or above the trust value they filed.

  • Measured weak recordflat penaltyn=6100/100

    Median post-close return +22% across 6 measured prior vehicles — above the -80% weak-record threshold.

How the number is built: weighted mean of the six components above = 55, then pulled 16% of the way back to the neutral 50 for small sample size (26 resolved vehicles) = 54.

How the Sponsor Score worksoutcome-first weighting

The score answers one question: did this sponsor make money for the people who held through the merger? Not “did they get a deal signed”. Those are different questions, and most sponsor rankings quietly answer the second one.

So post-close outcome quality carries 40% — the realised return of every prior vehicle we can price from a primary filing, measured against the $10.00 trust baseline. Deal completion carries 20%, and it is gated: closing deals that ended below trust value only earns part of the completion credit, because closing is a precondition for a return, not a return. Liquidation and termination drag takes 16%, redemption behaviour 10%, extension reliance 8%, and what the tape says about the live fleet just 6% — a quote is an opinion, not evidence.

A component with no data is never guessed. It is held at the neutral 50 across its full weight and labelled “not measurable”. Dropping it and re-weighting the rest would quietly reward a sponsor for having no verifiable record — exactly backwards. The consequence: a sponsor with no post-close evidence at all cannot read above 71, and cannot be labelled a strong operator no matter how many deals it closed.

Experience never inflates the score. There is no “years in business” component. A first-time sponsor sits at exactly 50 and reads “unproven” with low confidence — new is not bad. Sample size only pulls a score toward or away from that neutral 50, so nobody is called great or terrible on one vehicle.

Every input is a row already in the database, sourced from SEC primary filings: prior vehicles verified on EDGAR, redemption results read out of 8-Ks, prices from public feeds. The arithmetic is deterministic — no model, no LLM, no judgement call. Research tooling, not investment advice.

Prior vehicles

12 SEC-verified — what happened to holders who stayed in
VehicleOutcomeBecamevs $10.00TodaySource
FinTech Acquisition Corp IIPO 2014CompletedCardConnect+50.0%Acquired$15.00 · Jul 6, 20170001193125-17-223123 opens on sec.gov in a new tab
FinTech Acquisition Corp IIIPO 2016CompletedInt'l Money ExpressIMXI+45.9%Trading$14.59 · Aug 14, 20260001140361-25-040538 opens on sec.gov in a new tab
FinTech Acquisition Corp IIIIPO 2018CompletedPaya Holdings-2.5%Acquired$9.75 · Feb 22, 20230001213900-20-028076 opens on sec.gov in a new tab
FinTech Acquisition Corp IVIPO 2020CompletedPerella Weinberg PartnersPWP+73.8%Trading$17.38 · Aug 14, 20260001193125-21-175488 opens on sec.gov in a new tab
FTAC Olympus Acquisition CorpIPO 2020CompletedPayoneerPAYO-28.7%Trading$7.13 · Aug 14, 20260001213900-21-030256 opens on sec.gov in a new tab
FTAC Emerald Acquisition CorpIPO 2021CompletedFold HoldingsFLD-95.3%Trading$0.47 · Aug 14, 20260001193125-26-344543 opens on sec.gov in a new tab
FinTech Acquisition Corp VIPO 2020Liquidated———0001213900-22-081060 opens on sec.gov in a new tab
FinTech Acquisition Corp VIIPO 2021Liquidated———0001213900-23-001716 opens on sec.gov in a new tab
FTAC Athena Acquisition CorpIPO 2021Liquidated———0001213900-23-017838 opens on sec.gov in a new tab
FTAC Hera Acquisition CorpIPO 2021Liquidated———0001213900-23-021789 opens on sec.gov in a new tab
FTAC Parnassus Acquisition CorpIPO 2021Liquidated———0001213900-23-023314 opens on sec.gov in a new tab
FTAC Zeus Acquisition CorpIPO 2021Liquidated———0001213900-23-074959 opens on sec.gov in a new tab

6 of 12 prior vehicles carry an honest post-close price, split-adjusted against the $10.00 trust baseline a holder gave up at the merger. Cash buyouts are read from the per-share consideration stated in the DEFM14A / SC 14D-9; a buyout no filing prices stays unpriced and stays out of the score. “Listing ended” means the quote stopped with no buyer — scored as a total loss because that is what the evidence says, but never printed as a percentage we cannot source.

Current fleet

the vehicles running today

Research profile

synthesized from SEC filings + sourced research

Cohen Circle — Betsy & Daniel Cohen's franchise (FinTech Acquisition + FTAC series), among the most prolific SPAC sponsors ever. Prior-vehicle track record (SEC-verified via formerNames): COMPLETED — FinTech Acquisition Corp I → CardConnect (2016); FinTech II → Intermex/Int'l Money Express (IMXI); FinTech III → Paya Holdings (2020; acquired by Nuvei 2023); FinTech IV → Perella Weinberg Partners (PWP, still listed); FTAC Olympus → Payoneer (PAYO, 2021, still listed); FTAC Emerald → Fold Holdings (FLD, 2025). LIQUIDATED (25-NSE + 15-12G, mostly 2022-23): FinTech V, FinTech VI, FTAC Athena, FTAC Hera, FTAC Parnassus, FTAC Zeus. Net: 6 completed deSPACs, 6 liquidations. Strong completer in open markets (Payoneer/PWP/IMXI listed), but a wave of liquidations when the SPAC market closed. Mixed. Sources: SEC EDGAR submissions API (formerNames) + full-text search, efts.sec.gov.

— research profile — Cohen Circle is a Philadelphia-based investment firm founded by Betsy Z. Cohen and her son Daniel Cohen, focused on fintech, technology, and impact investing. Betsy Cohen, now 84, is a lawyer, banker, and serial entrepreneur who founded three banks over her career, most notably The Bancorp (NASDAQ: TBBK), where she served as CEO for 15 years until retiring in 2014 and which hosted roughly 1,600 non-bank fintech companies on its platform. Before that, she founded Jefferson Bank in 1974 at age 32, becoming the first female bank CEO in Pennsylvania, and eventually sold it to Hudson United Bank in 1999. She also co-founded a Philadelphia law firm, clerked for the Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and taught banking and antitrust law at Rutgers Law School. Daniel Cohen, her son and co-founder of both Cohen Circle and The Bancorp, brings over 20 years of operating and investing experience. Amanda Abrams serves as Chief Executive Officer of Cohen Circle LLC. The firm, formerly known as FinTech Masala, has raised over $5 billion in capital since 2015 and has made venture investments in companies including Ocrolus, Maxwell, Curve, H2O.AI, Greenwood, and BillGO.

Her first SPAC, FinTech Acquisition Corp., was sponsored in January 2015 and completed a merger with CardConnect Corp. (NASDAQ: CCN) in July 2016. FinTech Acquisition Corp. II merged with Intermex Holdings II (NASDAQ: IMXI) in July 2018. FinTech Acquisition Corp. III merged with Paya (NASDAQ: PAYA) in August 2020. FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: FTOC) announced a merger with Payoneer in February 2021 at an implied enterprise value of approximately $3.3 billion. FinTech Acquisition Corp. IV merged with Perella Weinberg Partners (NASDAQ: PWP) at an implied equity value of roughly $975 million. FinTech Acquisition Corp. V announced a merger with eToro in March 2021 at an initial valuation of about $10.4 billion, later devalued to $8.8 billion in December 2021, and ultimately mutually terminated due to market conditions. Additional vehicles included FTAC Athena Acquisition Corp., FTAC Hera Acquisition Corp., and FTAC Parnassus Acquisition Corp., all brought to market in early 2021.

The firm's most recent activity centers on two new Cohen Circle-branded vehicles. Cohen Circle Acquisition Corp. I (CCIR) announced a business combination agreement with JSC Kyivstar, Ukraine's largest communications operator with over 23 million mobile subscribers, in March 2025, with the…

1 sentence withheld from the text above. It stated a vehicle count (as many as nine to eleven SPAC vehicles) that does not reconcile with the record we counted: 31 vehicles — 19 in the live database and 12 SEC-verified prior vehicles. Neither side has been corrected here, and the stored research is unchanged; a count we cannot reconcile is not a count we will publish.

Data provenance & audit trail1 internal entry

Written by SpacBrain’s data agents whenever a figure is captured, corrected or flagged, and kept verbatim so every number on this page can be traced back to the filing that states it. This is a running log, not the current record: an early entry may be superseded by a later correction — the panels above always hold the current values.

Cohen Circle (Betsy Cohen) — sponsor record
NOTE-SEAL2026-08-15

Raw SEC identifiers lifted out of the public prose above (the sentences are unchanged); verbatim, each shown with the words it followed: "…mes): COMPLETED — FinTech Acquisition Corp I (CIK 0001614818)" · "…0001614818) → CardConnect (2016); FinTech II (CIK 0001683695)" · "…rmex/Int'l Money Express (IMXI); FinTech III (CIK 0001729756)" · "…s (2020; acquired by Nuvei 2023); FinTech IV (CIK 0001777835)" · "…g Partners (PWP, still listed); FTAC Olympus (CIK 0001816090)" · "…eer (PAYO, 2021, still listed); FTAC Emerald (CIK 0001889123)" · "…(25-NSE + 15-12G, mostly 2022-23): FinTech V (CIK 0001829328)" · "…-23): FinTech V (CIK 0001829328), FinTech VI (CIK 0001844336)" · "…8), FinTech VI (CIK 0001844336), FTAC Athena (CIK 0001832696)" · "…36), FTAC Athena (CIK 0001832696), FTAC Hera (CIK 0001842912)" · "…, FTAC Hera (CIK 0001842912), FTAC Parnassus (CIK 0001839972)" · "…, FTAC Parnassus (CIK 0001839972), FTAC Zeus (CIK 0001844270)"

The Sponsor Score is a deterministic research heuristic over primary-sourced rows — never a recommendation, and never a prediction. It cannot tell you whether this sponsor’s next deal will work; it tells you, precisely and with its own uncertainty attached, what the last ones did.