Scooter Startup Bird to Merge With SPAC at $2.3 Billion Value

Bird Rides Inc. will go public by merging with a blank-check company, securing a new source of capital after venture capitalists largely lost interest in money-losing scooter rental startups.

A special purpose acquisition company called Switchback II Corp. will take Bird public and provide as much as $428 million in funding to the business. The deal has an enterprise value of about $2.3 billion, the companies said in a statement Wednesday.

The transaction includes private funding from Fidelity Investments, which had previously backed Bird, as well as a credit facility from other firms.

A former Uber Technologies Inc. executive, ...