Caltech spinout Talis Biomedical has raised more than $220m in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market.
Talis Biomedical, a US-based developer of molecular diagnostic tests for infectious diseases that was spun out of California Institute of Technology (Caltech), has priced its shares at $16 to raise more than $220m in its IPO.
The company issued 13.8 million shares and began trading on the Nasdaq Global Market on Friday, and shares surged nearly 74% on the first day of trading to close at $27.80. Talis is listed under the ticker symbol TLIS.
Founded in 2010, Talis Biomedical is working on rapid, low-cost molecular diagnostic tests that can be used at the point of care to detect infectious diseases such as covid-19.
It was spun out of the lab of Rustem Ismagilov, the Ethel Wilson Bowles and Robert Bowles professor of chemistry and chemical engineering and the director of the Jacobs Institute for Molecular Engineering for Medicine at Caltech.
Ismagilov was previously a researcher at University of Chicago and Talis also holds several licences from that institution.
The spinout has only revealed some of its funding history.
Talis raised $65m in combined series C and D funding in November and December 2019, with Baker Bros Advisors and ArrowMark Partners taking part in the series C. Baker Bros and Randal Scott backed the series D.
All three investors returned for a $100m series E round completed in July 2020, before they were joined by Kimberly Popovits for a $126m series F round raised over the fourth quarter of 2020.
Talis has allocated $55m of the IPO proceeds to the further development of its technology, another $50m to the recruitment and training of sales and marketing staff, and the remainder to general corporate purposes.
JP Morgan, BofA Securities and Piper Sandler & Co are acting as book-running managers for the offering, while BTIG is serving as co-manager. The underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to approximately 2 million additional shares.
