This is the second blank-check company or SPAC led by Joanna Coles, the former chief content officer for Hearst and the former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, and Jonathan Ledecky, a co-owner of the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders.

In December 2020, Northern Star I entered into a definitive agreement for a business combination with BarkBox, Inc., a company that serves over 1 million dogs per month through its BarkBox and Super Chewer subscriptions and broad retail distribution of proprietary products.

From the Northern Star Investment Corp. II prospectus: 

We intend to focus our efforts identifying businesses primarily in the beauty, wellness, self-care, fashion, e-commerce, subscription and digital-media space. We intend to concentrate on companies founded with vision and run by smart, diverse teams who value diversity across the company in all aspects of decision-making. We intend to focus on companies which have powerful relationships with their customers, which understand how their consumer live and what they need, and how to communicate with them effectively.

(Note: Northern Star Investment Corp. II priced its upsized IPO: 35 million units, up from 30 million units in the prospectus, were priced at $10 each to raise $350 million.)