Exscientia, a UK-based drug discovery technology developer that counts several corporates among its investors, closed its initial public offering at just over $350m yesterday.
The company floated in an upsized IPO last week, issuing more than 13.8 million shares priced at the top of its $20 to $22 range. Telecommunications and internet group SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation added $160m in a private placement.
Joint book-running managers Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities and Barclays Capital subsequently took up the option to acquire a further 2.08 million additional shares, Exscientia’s shares having closed at $25.26 on Monday.
Founded in 2012, Exscientia utilises artificial intelligence in a precision oncology platform it is using to develop cancer immunotherapy treatments. It is also working on prospective treatments for inflammatory diseases.
The offering was preceded by over $368m in funding, the most recent being a $225m series D round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in April this year and backed by pharmaceutical firms Novo and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) and Pivotal BioVenture Partners, a vehicle for property developer Nan Fung.
GT Healthcare Capital, Marshall Wace, Laurion Capital, Hongkou and Mubadala Investment Company also participated in the April round along with funds managed by BlackRock.
Novo and BMS were both existing investors, the latter initially through Celgene (now a subsidiary). Exscientia’s earlier backers include drug discovery firm Evotec, Frontier IP and limited partners of GT Healthcare.
Now the offering has closed, SoftBank’s $125m investment in the private placement gives it a 15.2% stake in the company, up from 13.7%. Evotec holds 11.2% of its shares, Novo 10.5%, BlackRock 5.2%, BMS/Celgene 4.4% and GT Healthcare 4.1%.