London-based lifestyle and experience-driven hospitality brand Selina is now officially a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq index, according to a news release Thursday. The company announced its intentions to go public in a business combination with BOA Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, in December 2021.
As a part of the business combination, Samba Merger Sub, Inc., a subsidiary of Selina, merged with and into BOA Acquisition Corp., with BOA becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Selina. The merger was approved by BOA stockholders on Oct. 21 and values the combined entity at $1.2 billion.
Rafael Museri, co-founder and chief executive officer at Selina, said in an interview with Hotel News Now in July that going public “forces the startup to become grown-up.”
“Today marks a major milestone for Selina, as we complete our goal of becoming a publicly traded company and embark on our next chapter of growth,” Museri said in the news release. “The completion of this transaction is further validation of our highly differentiated hospitality offering, we can scale the brand and our unique destinations to travelers and locals around the world like never before. We look forward to leveraging this capital to drive long-term profitable growth, introduce new offerings that facilitate meaningful connections, and enhance our technology to support our rapid global expansion.”
The news release describes Selina as a brand that "accommodates co-working, recreation, wellness and local experiences for millennial and Gen Z nomadic travelers."
Selina was co-founded by Museri and Daniel Rudasevski, chief growth officer, in 2014. The company has 163 properties open across six continents, with most in Central and South America.