(Reuters) - Proterra Inc on Tuesday agreed to go public through a merger with ArcLight Clean Transition Corp, in a deal valued at $1.6 billion, including debt, joining several electric vehicle makers that have listed in the last few months. The deal will provide the U.S. electric bus manufacturer with $648 million in cash and $415 million from investors including Daimler Trucks, Franklin Templeton, venture investor Chamath Palihapitiya, Fidelity Management and funds managed by BlackRock Inc. Shares of ArcLight nearly doubled to $23.4 in early trading and were last at $21.45. Reuters reported last year that Proterra was considering going public through a merger with a blank-check company or special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), citing people familiar with the matter. SPACs are shell companies which raise money through an IPO of its shares to take another company public within two years. Other electric vehicle makers, such as Fisker Inc and Nikola Corp, have also taken the SPAC merger route to go public instead of a traditional initial public offering (IPO). The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2021. Burlingame, California-based Proterra was founded by mechanical engineer Dale Hill in Golden, Colorado, in 2004 and has provided hundreds of public transport buses to U.S. cities since inception. ArcLight Clean Transition had raised $250 million through an IPO last year. Post merger, Proterra will be listed on the Nasdaq and will trade under the new symbol “PTRA”.