Digital mortgage lender Better.com’s proposal to combine with Aurora Acquisition Corp. via a SPAC (special purpose acquisition) has been approved by shareholders, the company confirmed today.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Better.com will combine with Aurora, or go public, “on or about August 22, 2023.”  

“At least 65% of the outstanding ordinary shares of the company entitled to vote at this meeting have voted in favor of (the) proposal,” Arnaud Massenet, CEO of Aurora Acquisition Corp, said in a shareholder’s meeting on Friday, as reported by HousingWire.

Upon the closing of the transaction, the combined entity will see an infusion of at least $550 million in new capital from SoftBank, according to Aurora’s filing with the SEC in July. It could also receive another $200 million. If Novator, an investment firm that sponsors Aurora, exercises its $100 million option, then SoftBank is required to match. In late November 2021, we reported that Aurora Acquisition Corp. and SoftBank decided to amend the terms of their financing agreement to immediately provide Better with half of the $1.5 billion they had committed instead of waiting until the deal closed. In late July, Aurora had said in an SEC filing that shareholders would be asked to vote on a proposal that if the SPAC merger did take place, with Aurora surviving the merger, Aurora would change its name to “Better Home & Finance Holding Company.”

Last year, Better.com declared that it intended to move forward with its planned public debut, despite the lackluster performance of blank-check combinations in previous quarters. Better.com itself had seen its fair share of turbulence since it announced its plans to merge with a SPAC, including multiple botched layoffs (more on those here and here) and changing market conditions that impacted parts of its business, including a surge in mortgage interest rates. In one layoffs meeting, CEO Vishal Garg famously was recorded saying the company had “probably pissed away $200 million.“