US-based mass spectrometer producer 908 Devices floated on Friday in a $130m initial public offering representing an exit for petroleum provider Saudi Aramco and oilfield services provider Schlumberger.
The company priced 6.5 million shares at $20.00 each, above the IPO’s $18 to $19 range. Its shares opened at $45.51 on the Nasdaq Global Market and were priced at $54.88 for pre-trading this morning, giving it a market capitalisation of almost $1.44bn.
908 Devices manufactures handheld and desktop systems that can perform biochemical analyses on materials. It more than doubled revenue year on year to $21.2m in the first nine months of 2020, while reducing its net loss from $13m to $2.7m.
Approximately $25m of the IPO proceeds have been earmarked for the growth of the company’s commercial operations while $20m will go to research and development.
The offering follows $70m in funding, $7m of which came from Schlumberger, University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC) and existing backers Arch Venture Partners and Razor’s Edge Ventures in a 2013 series B round.
Saudi Aramco led 90 Devices’ $11.6m series C round in 2015 through its Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (SAEV) unit, investing with all four participants in the previous round.
The company closed a $20m series D round led by Tao Capital Partners led and backed by SAEV, Schlumberger, Cormorant Asset Management, Arch Venture Partners, Razor’s Edge Ventures and Casdin Capital two years later.
Schlumberger and Saudi Aramco then joined Northpond Ventures, Sans Capital Ventures and all the investors in the series D round for a $17.5m series E in April 2019.
SAEV’s 6.4% stake was diluted to 4.8% in the offering. Arch Venture Partners remains 908 Devices’ largest shareholder, with a 20.7% stake post-IPO, while Razor’s Edge Ventures holds 7.4% and UTEC 4.6%.
Lead book-running managers Cowen and SVB Leerink and book-running managers William Blair and Stifel have the 30-day option to acquire up to 975,000 more shares at the IPO price, potentially boosting the size of the offering to almost $150m.
Image courtesy of 908 Devices.
