Real estate tech company Porch adds five new directors to board ahead of public stock listing

Seattle-based Porch today named five directors that will join the company’s board when it goes public later this year.

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Porch’s Seattle headquarters. (Porch Photo)

The real estate technology venture and home improvement marketplace announced plans in July to become publicly traded through a merger that values the Seattle company at $523 million. Porch will combine with PropTech Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.

The board members will join on Porch’s first day of public trading. They include:

• Javier Saade, founder and managing partner of Impact Master Holdings; venture partner at Fenway Summer Ventures; former associate administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
• Chris Terrill, former CEO of HomeAdvisor and Angie’s List; board member of Realogy Holdings Corp. and Infogroup.
• Regi Vengalil, CFO of Egencia (Expedia’s corporate travel division); former global head of corporate development and strategy at Expedia Group. He will serve as the chair of Porch’s M&A committee.
• Margaret Whelan, founder and CEO of Whelan Advisory. Her board experience includes time at PropTech Acquisition Corp, Mattamy Homes, John Burns Real Estate Consulting, Housing Innovation Alliance and TopBuild.
• Tom Hennessy, chairman, co-CEO, and president of PropTech Acquisition Corp; managing partner of Hennessy Capital Real Estate Strategies. He will serve as the chair of Porch’s compensation committee.

Dennie Haydon, Juan Sabater and Michael Baldwin will step down from the board as part of the transition.

The combined company, based in Seattle, will operate under the Porch name and trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “PRCH” after the expected completion of the deal in the fourth quarter. Porch co-founder Matt Ehrlichman will remain as CEO and chairman.

Los Angeles-based PropTech went public in November in a $172.5 million initial public offering. SPACs, or blank-check companies, have been surging in popularity as an alternative means for companies to go public, and lucrative transactions for Wall Street banks. SPACs have played a role in 35% of U.S. IPO filings so far this year, according to a recent report by Silicon Valley Bank. Axios reported Wednesday that around half of this year’s 42 announced SPAC deals are for companies that would have attempted an IPO in 2021.