GV is in line for an exit as the cancer therapy developer set terms for an offering that will raise more than $185m if it floats at the top of its range.
Kronos Bio, a US-based cancer therapy developer backed by internet and technology group Alphabet, set the terms on Monday for an initial public offering that could raise up to $185m.
The company intends to issue just over 10.29 million shares priced at $16 to $18 each, having initially filed to raise up to $100m last month. If it floats at the top of its range its valuation will stand at about $940m.
Spun out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2017, Kronos is working on precision cancer treatments and plans to allocate $80m to $90m of the IPO proceeds to a phase 2/3 clinical trial for its lead product candidate, entospletinib, $29m of which will go to a milestone payment for drug producer Gilead.
Another $20m to $30m will support a phase 1/2 trial of a candidate dubbed KB-0742 that is being developed to treat advanced solid tumours. The rest will go to recruitment and the development of additional drug programmes as well as preclinical development of more candidates.
Omega Funds and Vida Ventures are the only external investors that own stakes in Kronos sized at 5% or more, having co-led the company’s $105m series A round, which also featured Alphabet subsidiary GV, in July 2019.
The round included Nextech, Perceptive Advisors, Invus, Polaris Partners and Kronos board members including president and CEO Norbert Bischofberger. It followed $18m from Omega Funds, Vida Ventures, BellCo Capital, Bischofberger and John Martin the previous year.
The company’s most recent funding consisted of $155m in convertible note financing in August this year from Fidelity, Commodore Capital, EcoR1 Capital, Surveyor Capital, Woodline Partners, Perceptive Advisors, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, funds affiliated with Casdin Partners, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price, and all its existing investors.
Omega Funds is set to buy 410,000 shares in the IPO but its 10% stake will be diluted to 6.6%. Vida Ventures is set to come out with a 4.6% stake, having bought nearly 300,000 additional shares.
Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, Cowen and Company and Piper Sandler have been appointed underwriters for the offering, which is set to take place on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
