← Back to the club

Romeo Power

EV batteriesUSA
New to Unitard
🤝 Acquired
Peak $1.3 BillionToday
~-89%
from peak
  1. 🦄
    Became a unicorn
    2020
  2. 📈
    Peak valuation
    $1.3 Billion ’21
  3. 💔
    Became a Unitard
    2022
  4. 💸
    Last valuation
    ~$143M
Current status
Acquired by Nikola for ~$144M all-stock (Oct 2022) and delisted from the NYSE.

The rise & fall

6 moments · 2016–2022

The key moments.

2016
Founded to power commercial EVs
A California startup building lithium-ion battery packs for electric trucks and fleets.
Wikipedia
Dec 2020
SPAC debut at ~$1.3B
Merges with RMG Acquisition Corp and lists on the NYSE at a ~$1.3B pro-forma value.
SEC filing
2021
The peak: riding the EV-stock mania$1.3B
Early-2021 EV euphoria carries the newly public battery maker even higher before gravity returns.
CNBC
2021–22
Production stumbles, customers bail
Pack production problems and customer losses deepen a cash crunch that crushes the stock.
Electrek
Aug 2022
Nikola steps in with emergency financing
With cash running out, Nikola keeps Romeo alive — and announces an all-stock takeover.
CNBC
Oct 2022
Acquired by Nikola for ~$144M$144M
All stock, roughly a ninth of the SPAC-era value; Romeo delists from the NYSE less than two years after arriving.
SEC filing

How it happened

Romeo Power designed and built lithium-ion battery packs for commercial electric vehicles, and went public via a SPAC merger with RMG Acquisition Corp in December 2020 at a pro-forma value of roughly $1.3B, riding the early-2021 EV-stock mania even higher. Production problems, customer losses and a deepening cash crunch crushed the stock.

After Nikola provided emergency financing, it acquired Romeo in an all-stock deal worth about $144M, announced in August 2022 and completed that October, delisting Romeo from the NYSE for a fraction of its peak.

Source: CNBC / Electrek / SEC (~$1.3B pro-forma value via RMG Acquisition Corp SPAC, Dec 2020; cash crunch; Nikola all-stock acquisition ~$144M, announced Aug / closed Oct 2022)

Founders & leadership

  • Susan Brennan
    President & CEO (Aug 2021-2022)
    Now Executive in Residence at EnerTech CapitalLinkedIn ↗
  • Michael Patterson
    founder & CEO (previously founded InAuth, Smobile Systems and FedCel)
    Now Chief Executive Officer at Battle Motors (Crane Carrier)LinkedIn ↗
  • Porter Harris
    co-founder & CTO (four years as an energy storage engineer at SpaceX, then chief battery architect at Faraday Future)
    Now Aeonix StudioLinkedIn ↗

Current roles as self-reported on LinkedIn, retrieved 2026-08-21. See our methodology.

More from the club

Same sector · EV batteries
Northvolt$12B
Same fate · distressed acquisition
Lacework$8.3BLivingSocial$6BBerkeley Lights (PhenomeX)$5BGraphcore$2.77BMarkforged$2.1B
🦄