Explainer-Why Trump's $1 billion capital raise was so popular

FILE PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump speaks to his supporters during the Save America Rally at the Sarasota Fairgrounds in Sarasota, Florida, U.S. July 3, 2021. REUTERS/Octavio Jones

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump's new venture inked the second-largest ever private placement with convertible stock for a merger with a blank-check acquisition firm, according to SPAC Research, thanks to its unusually favorable terms and despite not having yet launched its social media app.

None of the 36 investors that participated this month in the $1 billion capital raise, many of them hedge funds and family offices, have revealed their identities. Many of them fretted about publicly associating with Trump, who was banned from Facebook and Twitter for encouraging the protests that preceded the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, sources have told Reuters.