Illumination Acquisition Corp. I (ILLUU) Stock Analysis
Illumination Acquisition Corp. I
▾ What's in the 41/100 risk score? (higher = riskier)
Contributions (weight × component score) sum to the total. This near-term score now includes fundamental health (leverage, FCF trend). See the Financial Health section for the full balance-sheet read.
How to read ILLUU (pre-profit growth)
This company is reinvesting instead of generating profit, so a standard DCF cannot price it. The useful question is whether the growth the market is paying for is achievable — and whether the company can fund itself until then.
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Reverse-DCF — the growth the price demands ↓
It shows exactly how fast the business must grow to justify today's price. Compare that to what comparable companies have actually achieved.
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Cash runway ↓
Can it reach profitability before it has to raise money and dilute shareholders?
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Interactive calculator ↓
Set your own growth + margin assumptions and see what the business would be worth if you are right.
It files little or nothing with the SEC — so our cash-flow models, financial statements, and U.S. insider data (Form 4) don't apply. What's still real: the live U.S. price and short positioning. Here's what we could pull from other sources:
Illumination Acquisition Corp I - Unit (1 Ordinary share & 1/3 Warr)
📑 Read the real filings: latest SEC 10-Q ↗
Identity, share count and tier from FINRA + OTC Markets; not a substitute for the home-market financial statements. Thin U.S. disclosure + OTC trading is itself a risk factor.
How to read a company this small
This is a SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) or blank-check entity. There's no operating business yet — it's a pool of cash looking for a target to merge with.
- Cash in trust per share — typically $10.00 at IPO, slowly accrues interest
- Sponsor reputation and track record
- Time remaining to find a target (usually 18-24 months)
- Announced target (if any) and the proposed deal structure
- Warrant terms — usually 1/2 to 1/4 warrant per share at $11.50 strike
All operating metrics — there are no operations. Revenue, FCF, EBITDA are all near zero or sponsor expenses.
SEC filings for the S-1 prospectus. Recent 8-K filings for target announcements. SPACInsider for sponsor track records.
Classified as SPAC / Blank-Check Company (confidence 95%). Disagree? An admin can override via the post edit screen.
How does ILLUU stack up against its closest peers?
We take the 8 same-industry companies most similar to ILLUU (similar size) and check what investors are paying for each dollar of their revenue (or profits). If ILLUU is much more expensive on the same yardstick, that's a red flag — unless you have a specific reason it deserves a premium.
▾ What's "EV / Sales" in plain English?
EV (Enterprise Value) = market cap + total debt − cash. It's "what you'd pay to buy the entire company outright" — you pay the market cap to shareholders and take over their debt, but you keep their cash. EV is fairer than market cap alone because it includes the debt the new owner inherits.
EV / Sales = EV ÷ annual revenue. So "2.5×" means investors pay $2.50 of enterprise value per $1 of yearly sales. Higher = market is paying more per dollar of sales (usually because they expect future growth or fat margins).
p25 / median / p75 are the 25th, 50th (middle), and 75th percentile of the peers' multiples. Half the peers fall between p25 and p75. The median (p50) is the typical peer — that's the benchmark we compare to.
Bold middle number = median peer. Half the peers trade above it, half below. Computed over 8 same-industry peers; implausible multiples excluded.
⚠️ Important caveat: peer multiples only work if the peers are genuinely comparable. Always check the peer list below — if the auto-picker grabbed micro-caps or unrelated businesses, the comparison is noise. A medical-device giant priced against tiny biotech startups won't produce a useful signal.
▾ View peer list (8)
| Ticker | Company | Industry | Mcap | EV/Sales | EV/GP | EV/EBIT | FCF Yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TACO | Berto Acquisition Corp. | SPACs | $393M | — | — | — | — |
| SSAC | SPACSphere Acquisition Corp. | SPACs | $182M | — | — | — | — |
| SOUL | Soulpower Acquisition Corp. | SPACs | $174M | — | — | — | — |
| TAVI | Tavia Acquisition Corp. | SPACs | $169M | — | — | — | — |
| WENC | West Enclave Merger Corp. | SPACs | $160M | — | — | — | — |
| LKSP | Lake Superior Acquisition Corp | SPACs | $159M | — | — | — | — |
| TRAD | APEX Tech Acquisition Inc. | SPACs | $142M | — | — | — | — |
| XFLH | XFLH Capital Corp | SPACs | $138M | — | — | — | — |
Quality & solvency checks
Cheap stocks can be cheap for a reason. These screens warn when a low valuation comes paired with structural fragility.
Why it matters: Cheap-looking stocks (low P/E or P/B) often have low Z-scores because the market knows the company is dying. Z-score warns you before you fall into a value trap.
Reference: > 3.0 = safe zone · 1.81–3.0 = grey zone · < 1.81 = distress zone
Full explanation →
The Z-score needs working capital, retained earnings, EBIT, sales and total assets from the latest balance sheet, and at least one of those isn't reported in machine-readable form here — common for foreign private issuers. We leave it blank rather than compute a distress verdict from an estimated input. It doesn't affect the reported figures in the financial tables below.
Why it matters: High score = fundamentals improving. Low score = deteriorating. Especially powerful for filtering cheap stocks: cheap + high F-score historically outperforms; cheap + low F-score is often a value trap.
Reference: 7–9 = strong · 4–6 = mediocre · 0–3 = weak
Full explanation →
The F-score compares two consecutive years of income, cash-flow and balance-sheet data. We have 0 years of income data for this filer, but no machine-readable cash-flow statement or balance sheet — so several of the nine checks have no input at all. We show nothing rather than score a partial year against itself. The reported figures in the financial tables below are unaffected.
A standard discounted cash flowDCF — Discounted Cash Flow — sums up all future cash a business will produce, adjusted for the fact that future dollars are worth less than dollars today.
Why it matters: It is the most fundamentally honest valuation method when applicable — but only works for companies with predictable, positive cash flow.
Reference: Best for: mature, profitable businesses. Fails for: pre-profit growth, banks, REITs.
Full explanation → (DCF) valuation is not meaningful for Illumination Acquisition Corp. I (ILLUU) because the model projects negative free cash flowFree Cash Flow (FCF) — Operating cash flow minus capital spending: cash left after a company covers operating costs, taxes and interest and reinvests in the business — but BEFORE repaying debt principal or paying dividends. The cash actually available to investors.
Why it matters: A company can show big profits on paper while burning through cash. FCF is what actually fills the bank account.
Reference: Healthy mature businesses convert 8–15% of revenue into FCF · Growth companies often negative
Full explanation →, indicating it is not yet generating profits. To value ILLUU, one would need clear projections for future revenue growth and a path to profitability, which are currently speculative. Investors are likely betting on the company's ability to successfully complete an acquisition and generate future value. The biggest risk to our assumptions is that the model implies no positive equity value, suggesting the current valuation is highly speculative.
As of 2 days ago
Anatomy of a share
What you're buying per share. Bars are at the same scale so you can see the relative size of revenue, costs, cash flow, and debt — not just read them in a table.
What you actually need to decide
Every stock price is a disagreement. Here's the single thing that must go right for the bulls, the single thing that breaks the thesis, and the concrete signposts to watch so you can update your view as real results arrive.
- Announcement of a definitive agreement for a business combination
- Shareholder vote on a proposed merger
- Completion of a de-SPAC transaction
Management & Leadership
John Lipman serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Principal Executive Officer, as certified in recent SEC filings. Steven Neil Kaplan is the Chief Financial Officer. Other key officers include John Demarais as COO.
Chief Executive Officer
CFO — Chief Financial Officer
What They Make
Illumination Acquisition Corp. I is a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with one or more businesses. The company's direct payers are investors who purchase its shares, anticipating a future business combination.
End Markets
Revenue Drivers
Why Is It Priced Like This?
Why Customers Pay
The income statement and balance sheet are also too incomplete here to substitute another lens honestly, so this page carries price, momentum and disclosure facts only.
The market is pricing ILLUU based on the expectation of a successful future business combination, rather than current cash flow, as the company is a SPAC with negative free cash flowFree Cash Flow (FCF) — Operating cash flow minus capital spending: cash left after a company covers operating costs, taxes and interest and reinvests in the business — but BEFORE repaying debt principal or paying dividends. The cash actually available to investors.
Why it matters: A company can show big profits on paper while burning through cash. FCF is what actually fills the bank account.
Reference: Healthy mature businesses convert 8–15% of revenue into FCF · Growth companies often negative
Full explanation →. The market may be assigning value to the potential for a high-growth target acquisition, which is not in the model, or the market may be assigning value to the management team's ability to identify and execute a value-creating merger, which is not in the model. The current share price of $10.27 is close to the typical trust value for SPACs, reflecting the pre-deal stage and the speculative nature of future operations.
Business Model & Valuation
How They Make Money
The company funds itself primarily through equity raises from its initial public offering and private placements, as it is in a pre-revenue, pre-acquisition stage and does not generate operating cash flow or pay dividends.
Growth / Revenue DCF
No cash flow statement data available - using revenue/margin growth model as fallback.
Show advanced inputs
| Revenue Growth | 15.0% |
What this model does NOT do: this is a consolidated owner-earnings FCF model. Standalone segment assumptions: none. It does not project net interest income and fee-income lines independently; their combined effect is embedded in the historical revenue and cash-flow trend the model extrapolates. The calculator above can only approximate a segment's impact through the single consolidated growth rate — it cannot model any one line separately. For a true segment-level view, build a separate model from the company's segment disclosures.
Maturity & Competitive Position
Moat Signals
Geography & Markets
Illumination Acquisition Corp. I is a US-headquartered SPAC. Geographic mix data for its future operations is not available as it has not yet completed a business combination.
Geographic Risks
Market Signals
These are timing signals, not value signals — they describe the stock's recent price behavior, not what the business is worth. Use them for the "the thesis looks good, but is now the moment?" question. Each tile below explains what it's saying.
Why it matters: Short-term contrarian indicator. Extreme readings often precede mean reversion, though not always.
Reference: 30–70 normal · >70 overbought · <30 oversold
Full explanation → (14)98.5OverboughtBought up hard recently — stretched; pullbacks are common from here.
Why it matters: When the fast line crosses above the slow line, short-term momentum is turning up; below, turning down. A timing cue, not a value signal.
Reference: Line above signal = bullish momentum · below = bearish
Full explanation →BearishLine below signalThe fast trend is below the slow trend — short-term momentum is currently downward.
Technicals describe price, not the business. A great company can have a "bearish" tape (a buying chance) and a weak one a "bullish" tape (a trap). Pair these with the valuation and health sections above.
QUALITY
Data Quality & Risk Flags (5 notes — click to expand/collapse)
Guardrail Notes (5)
- FCF negative: revenue/margin growth model projects future cash flows from revenue trajectory.
- INVARIANT: weighted IV is non-positive. Model may not be appropriate.
- Model implies no positive equity value under these assumptions. Valuation is speculative/low-confidence.
- Illiquidity discount 7% applied (small/micro-cap — harder to exit, demand a margin).
- Extreme valuation gap (P/IV withheld — see the note above): result may be dominated by model assumptions, share count issues, or sector-specific dynamics. Treat as low confidence.
FINANCIALS
Financial Statements (5-year tables — click to expand)
From Illumination Acquisition Corp. I's SEC filings (EDGAR).