Berkeley Lights, a US-based digital cell technology provider backed by imaging technology producer Nikon and medical device maker Varian Medical Systems, raised over $178m in its initial public offering on Friday.
The company increased the number of shares in the offering from 7.4 million to 8.1 million and priced them at $22.00 each, well above the $16 to $18 range it had set. Its shares opened at $51.05 on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and closed at $65.45 giving it a market cap of about $4bn.
Founded in 2011, Berkeley Lights provides advanced automation technology, chips, reagent kits and software to help biotech companies develop antibody therapeutics, cell therapies and synthetic biology. It made an $8.4m net loss in Q1 2020 from $13.8m in revenue.
The IPO comes after almost $215m in funding including $95m in a late 2018 series E round led by a $30m investment by Nikon, that also featured Varian Medical.
Black Diamond Ventures, Atinum Investment, Shangbay Capital, KTB Network, Paxion Capital, Cota Capital and AJS BioTree Healthcare Fund filled out the round along with existing investors Sequoia Capital and Walden-Riverwood Ventures.
Nikon’s 8.1% stake was cut to 7.1% in the offering while Walden-Riverwood Ventures’ share was diluted to 22.2% and Sequoia’s to 13.1%.
Lead book-running managers JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Cowen, and co-manager William Blair have 30 days to buy more than 1.21 million additional shares, which will push the size of the offering to over $205m.
