AbCellera, a Canada-based antibody therapy developer based on University of British Columbia research and also backed by University of Minnesota, closed its initial public offering at approximately $556m yesterday.
Founded in 2012, AbCellera analyses the human immune system to locate and identify antibodies that could be made into drug treatments. It is collaborating with pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly on a possible antibody-based treatment for covid-19.
The company issued a little over 24.1 million shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market priced at $20 each last Friday to raise $483m. The amount of shares had been increased from 23 million and the range for the offering had been set between $17 and $18.
The first day of trading involved AbCellera’s shares opening at $61 and closing at $58.90 to give it a valuation of almost $15.7bn. Its shares are trading at $48.44 at time of publication.
Joint book-running managers Credit Suisse, Stifel, Berenberg, SVB Leerink and BMO Capital Markets subsequently took up the option to buy more than 6.2 million additional shares at the IPO price.
The offering followed $116m in funding including $105m in series B financing from University of Minnesota, Eli Lilly, OrbiMed, DCVC Bio, Viking Global Investors, Founders Fund, Presight Capital, Baker Brothers, Harvard Management Private Equity Corporation and Thiel Capital in May 2020.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.

AbCellera, a Canada-based antibody therapy developer backed by pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, closed its initial public offering at approximately $556m on Wednesday.

Founded in 2012, AbCellera analyses the human immune system to locate and identify antibodies that could be made into drug treatments. It is collaborating with Eli Lilly on a possible antibody-based treatment for covid-19.

The company issued a little over 24.1 million shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market priced at $20 each last Friday to raise $483m. The amount of shares had been increased from 23 million and the range for the offering had been set between $17 and $18.

The first day of trading involved AbCellera’s shares opening at $61.00 and closing at $58.90 to give it a valuation of almost $15.7bn. Its shares are trading at $48.89 at time of publication.

Joint book-running managers Credit Suisse, Stifel, Berenberg, SVB Leerink and BMO Capital Markets subsequently took up the option to buy more than 6.2 million additional shares at the IPO price.

The offering followed $116m in funding including $105m in series B financing from Eli Lilly, OrbiMed, DCVC Bio, Viking Global Investors, Founders Fund, University of Minnesota, Presight Capital, Baker Brothers, Harvard Management Private Equity Corporation and Thiel Capital in May 2020.