Guardant Health, a US-based developer of a liquid biopsy system for cancer detection backed by telecoms and internet conglomerate SoftBank, has filed for a $100m initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
Founded in 2013, Guardant is developing non-invasive cancer diagnostics tests for cancer that rely on blood tests, data analytics and large data sets to identify genomic alterations that cause cancerous tumours to grow, evolve, become resistant to treatment or recur.
Guardant has launched two tests to date – Guarant360 is aimed at advanced cancer and measures 73 cancer-related genes, while GuardantOmni measures 500 genes and is aimed at biopharmaceutical companies to accelerate clinical development.
The company has not said what it intends to do with the proceeds from the offering, noting only that the money will primarily support general corporate purposes.
The initial public offering will follow approximately $550m in funding, including $360m raised in 2017 from investors led by SoftBank through an unnamed subsidiary, though the filing revealed the corporate holds shares through both SoftBank Capital and the Vision Fund.
Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek, Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, OrbiMed, 8VC and funds and accounts managed by T. Rowe Price also contributed to the 2016 round.
SoftBank currently owns a 39.3% stake in Guardant, making it the company’s largest shareholder. Sequoia Capital owns 11%, followed by Khosla with 10.1% and Lightspeed with 5.4%.
Other investors in Guardant include Heritage Group and Pear VC, though neither holds 5% or more.
JP Morgan Securities and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith are acting as joint book?running managers of the offering and as representatives of the underwriters, which also include Cowen and Company, Leerink Partners and William Blair and Company.