US-based immunotherapeutics developer Atreca has raised approximately $125m in an initial public offering that achieved an exit for pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
The offering consisted of 7.35 million class A shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market priced at $17.00 each, in the middle of the IPO’s range. The underwriters have a 30-day option to buy 1.1 million extra shares to boost the offering to $144m.
Atreca is developing antibody-based immunotherapeutics to treat solid tumours, and $45m of the IPO proceeds will go to advancing its lead drug candidate, a monoclonal antibody called ATRC-101 that will target various forms of cancer, through phase 1b clinical trials.
The company plans to put a further $65m into developing additional drug candidates through its platform. The offering came in the wake of $226m in equity funding since it was founded in 2010.
GSK participated in Atreca’s $56m series A round in 2015, which was led by an unnamed healthcare fund, and which also featured venture capital firm Mission Bay Capital and Bill and the Melinda Gates Foundation.
The series A was followed by a $35m series B round in 2017 that was co-led by investment manager Wellington Management and hedge fund Baker Brothers’ Life Sciences fund, and which included hedge fund sponsor Cormorant Asset Management and unnamed new and existing backers.
Baker Brothers Life Sciences led Atreca’s $125m series C round in September 2018, investing with Wellington Management, Cormorant Asset Management, Boxer Capital, Aisling Capital, EcoR1 Capital, Redmile Group, Samsara BioCapital and funds managed by Tekla Capital Management.
Baker Brothers continues to hold all of Atreca’s approximately 3.93 million class B shares and owned 3.53 million class A shares prior to the offering, constituting 22.8% of the class A shares that were diluted to 16.9% in the IPO.
Existing shareholders agreed to buy $63m of stock in the offering, meaning Wellington Management owns 14.1% of the class A shares, up from 12.5%, while Boxer Capital holds 8.5%, up from 6.9%. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation holds 6.7%, down from 9%.
Cowen, Evercore ISI, and Stifel are the joint book-running managers for the IPO while Canaccord Genuity is a lead manager and Arcadia Securities is a co-manager. Atreca’s shares closed at $18.05 on their first day of trading on Thursday, and $17.07 on Friday.
