Bolt Biotherapeutics, a US-based cancer drug developer that counts pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Novo and real estate developer Nan Fung as investors, went public on Friday raising $230m.
The company issued 11.5 million shares priced at $20 each in the initial public offering, increased from 8.8 million, while the share price was above the IPO’s $16 to $18 range. Its shares surged more than 60% to close at $32.15 on its first day of trading, giving it a market cap above $1bn.
Founded in 2015, Bolt is working on antibody drug conjugates aimed at cancer, and its lead product candidate, BDC-1001, is targeting solid tumours expressing the HER2 protein.
The company will use $100m of the IPO proceeds to complete an ongoing phase 1/2 trial for BDC-1001 as well as initiating and completing another phase 1/2 trial and up to three phase 2 studies.
Another $20m has been allocated to investigational new drug-enabling studies, chemistry, manufacturing and control activities and the launch of clinical development for a second drug candidate. Money will also go towards research and development for additional programmes.
Bolt most recently closed a $93.5m series C round last month that was first announced in July 2020 and which featured Novo, Pfizer and Pivotal BioVenture Partners, the healthcare investment firm formed by Nan Fung’s Life Sciences subsidiary.
Sofinnova Ventures, RA Capital, Citadel, Springs Capital, Samsara BioCapital and Vivo Capital also took part in the series C round.
Pivotal BioVenture Partners led the company’s $54m series B round in early 2019, with commitments from Novo and Vivo Capital, both of which were also part of a $6m series A round in 2018. Bolt had $10.5m from undisclosed investors over 2015 and 2016.
Novo bought $8m in stock in the offering and came out with a 13% stake, down from 17.9%. Pivotal BioVenture Partners invested $5m in the offering and its share was reduced from 7.1% to 5.5%.
Vivo Capital invested $7m and owns 11.2% post-IPO, Sofinnova Ventures invested $9m and has an 8% stake, Citadel put in $14m and holds 7%, RA Capital bought $12m and has 6.9%, while Rock Springs invested $12m and holds 6.4%.
Joint bookrunners Morgan Stanley, SVB Leerink, Stifel Nicolaus and Guggenheim Securities have the 30-day option to buy approximately 1.73 million extra shares, potentially lifting the size of the offering to more than $264m.
The original version of this story appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.
