Finch Therapeutics, a US-based microbiome therapeutics developer backed by quantitative trading firm Susquehanna International Group (SIG) and medical services provider SymBiosis, floated on Friday in a $128m initial public offering.
The company issued 7.5 million shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, upsized from 6.3 million. They were priced at the top of the IPO’s $15 to $17 range and opened at $20.45 on their first day of trading, closing at $21.32.
Founded in 2014, Finch is developing drugs to treat health conditions caused by the disruption of the microbiome in the human body.
The funding will be used to fund a phase 3 clinical trial for CP101, a drug candidate intended to treat the bacteria-related illness Clostridioides difficile, and FIN-211, a candidate being developed to address the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder.
The company had raised over $184m of funding prior to the offering. Flight Partners Management led a $5.6m series A round in 2017 that included Anna Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation and Neil and Anna Rasmussen.
Finch then collected $36m of series B funding from investors including Avenir Growth Capital, Morgan Noble, Willett Advisors and Shumway Capital the following year.
SymBiosis and SIG took part in a $53m series C round for the company in August 2019 together with Trans-Pacific Technology Fund, OCV Partners, Avenir Growth Capital, Shumway Capital, Morgan Noble and Willett Advisors.
All the series C round investors except Morgan Noble participated in Finch’s $90m series D round in September 2020, which also featured Baupost Group, Humboldt Fund, MSD Capital, MSD Partners, Octave Group and OMX Ventures.
Crestovo Investor, a vehicle owned by Shumway Capital senior partner Chris Shumway, owned a 30% stake in Finch that was cut to 25.4% in the offering, followed by Nicholas Haft, managing director of OMX Ventures (6.6% post-IPO), and Thomas Layton Walton, owner of Symbiosis (6.2%).
BofA Securities, Jefferies and Evercore Group are joint book-running managers for the offering. They have a 30-day option to buy up to 1.1 million additional shares at the IPO price, potentially lifting it to more than $146m in size.