Genomics analytics platform developer Sophia Genetics has gone public ten years after it was co-founded by researchers from EMBL, Stanford and University of Geneva
Sophia Genetics, a Switzerland-based genomics analytics platform operator co-founded by researchers from EMBL, Stanford University and University of Geneva, has amassed $234m in an initial public offering.
Sophia priced 13 million shares at $18 per share, the midpoint of its initial $17 to $19m price range. The shares are currently priced at $19.48 at the time of publication, which suggests a market capitalisation of $1.2bn.
Sophia operates a cloud-based software-as-a-service platform used by medical professionals to extract insights from complex healthcare data.
Its founders are Lars Steinmetz, a senior scientist and group leader at EMBL and professor of genetics at Stanford, Pierre Hutter, the former chief scientific officer of Sophia and Jurgi Camblong, current Sophia CEO and University of Geneva alumnus.
The offering proceeds will support research and development activities for the company’s technology platform as well as finance sales and marketing initiatives. It will allow Sophia to secure regulatory approval for its products and foster new relationships within the healthcare sector.
Sophia has raised $250m of funding since it was founded in 2011. It raised $110m in its series F round in October 2020, which was led by aMoon and backed by Hitachi Ventures and Swisscom Ventures, the respective corporate venturing units for conglomerate Hitachi and telecommunications firm Swisscom.
Financial services firm Credit Suisse also took part in that round as did Pictet, Endeavour Vision, Generation Investment Management, Alychlo, Eurazeo Growth, Ace & Company and Famille C Invest.
The company amassed $107m between its 2019 series E and 2017 series D rounds, which featured investors including Generation Investment Management, Idinvest Partners, Balderton Capital, Alychlo, 360º Capital Partners and Invoke Capital.
Sophia collected $15m in a series C round led by Marc Coucke in 2015, following a $13.8m series B round including Swisscom in the previous year.
Alychlo, the family office for Marc Coucke and Sophia’s largest shareholder, had its stake diluted from 14.2% to 11% through the offering.
The company’s other major shareholders are Generation Investment Management and Balderton, which now own a 10.7% and 5.3% stake respectively.
JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Cowen and Credit Suisse were the underwriters for the offering, which took place on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. The IPO included a greenshoe option for the purchase of nearly 2 million additional shares.
