SOPHiA GENETICS goes public at NASDAQ raising USD 234 million
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Lausanne-based SOPHiA GENETICS SA, the creator of a global data pooling and knowledge sharing platform that advances data-driven medicine, announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 13,000,000 ordinary shares at a price of $18 per share. The gross proceeds from the offering, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated fees and offering expenses payable by SOPHiA GENETICS SA, are approximately USD 234 million. We interviewed Co-founder and CEO Jurgi Camblong about the use of these funds and his entrepreneurial journey.
In addition, SOPHiA GENETICS SA has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,950,000 additional ordinary shares. The ordinary shares began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on July 23, 2021, under the symbol “SOPH.” The offering closed on July 27, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. By Monday evening, its share prices had dropped slightly, trading at $17 each.SOPHiA GENETICS, NASDAQ ($SOPH) is valued at USD 1.14 billion and one of the largest European Unicorns to go public. J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Cowen, and Credit Suisse acted as joint book-running managers for the offering.
The proceeds from the offering will be used for working capital and facilitate corporate activities such as research & development, expanding the selling and marketing efforts, and establishing new, maintaining, and growing existing relationships with collaborators and customers across the healthcare system. The capital will also allow the company to obtain regulatory clearances or approvals to offer our products as IVD products for diagnostic use.
As the global leader in Data-Driven Medicine, SOPHiA GENETICS helps healthcare professionals better diagnose and treat cancers and hereditary disorders thanks to complex genomics and radiomics analysis powered by SOPHiA AI. The company achieves its mission of contributing to a more sustainable global healthcare system by providing equal benefits to all users, uniting experts in a gold standard health-tech platform, and motiving expert knowledge sharing to enter a new era in healthcare, where the data used to help a patient today will benefit those of tomorrow. Adopted by more than 995 hospitals in 82 countries, SOPHiA has already supported the diagnosis of more than 770,000 patients worldwide.Last October, SOPHiA GENETICS announced the closing of a Series F USD 110 million financing round led by aMoon. It enabled the company to enter into the next stage of its expansion, with a focus on supporting the growing clinical and biopharma demand for data-driven medicine worldwide.
SOPHiA GENETICS' Co-founder and CEO Dr. Jurgi Camblong is a visionary entrepreneur who is pioneering the data-driven medicine movement around the world. He is a molecular biologist, published in Cell, Science and Nature, has a PhD in life sciences from the University of Geneva, and an EMBA in management of technology from EPFL/HEC Lausanne. In 2011, he founded SOPHiA GENETICS with Dr. Pierre Hutter and Prof. Lars Steinmetz. He has since successfully led the development of the company, listed among the 50 Smartest Companies by MIT Technology Review. Jurgi has been a member of the Advisory Council on Digital Transformation to the Swiss government and was personally recognized by EY as Emergent Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017.Jurgi, how will this USD 234 million fundraising from your IPO help achieve your vision?
It will enable SOPHiA GENETICS to fuel our growth to increase the availability of our platform beyond the current 780 hospital, laboratory, and biopharma institutions that are using it globally.
You were one of the TOP 100 Swiss startups for four consecutive years (2012-2016), and one of the 25 most promising scale-ups in Switzerland. How did it help you lay the foundation for your growth and today's achievement?
Being one of the Top 100 Swiss startups has been a great foundation on which to build a global company with a vision to enable healthcare professionals to leverage their expertise and work together around the world - unlocking the promise of data-driven medicine at scale.
What difference does it make to be based in Switzerland, especially for a biotech startup?
Access to great talent, easy access to global markets, and the ability to attract investment from global investors.
When, and what, was your inspiration to found Sophia Genetics?Data is the next frontier for medicine, but not every hospital, research organization, or healthcare provider has access to the tools or expertise to leverage this data. SOPHiA GENETICS puts every organization on the path towards data-driven medicine.
What is your next milestone now that you became one of the largest European Unicorns to go public at NASDAQ ($SOPH), valued at $1.14 billion?
To continue our growth; we recently agreed to an LOI with GE Healthcare to work on a partnership that brings together our global platform and insights-sharing network with GE Healthcare’s extensive medical imaging and monitoring capabilities and Edison platform-enabled data aggregation for the benefit of patients all over the world.
How do you see the impact of your innovation on tomorrow’s world?
We want to deliver the technology that helps clinicians ensure that patients will be able to receive equal access to better diagnoses and treatments through secure data pooling and knowledge sharing. We help researchers and healthcare professionals work together to build collective intelligence by breaking down data silos and leveraging artificial intelligence from data.
What is your advice for the potential biotech entrepreneurs launching companies in Switzerland today?
Being one of the top biotech companies in Switzerland is just the first step. The pandemic has shown us that medicine and healthcare are now global – think big, think global, and think about how you could play your part in supporting discoveries, treatment decisions, and drug development efforts to win the war on disease.
Sophia Genetics SA: Democratizing Data-Driven Medicine
As the global leader in Data-Driven Medicine, SOPHiA GENETICS helps healthcare professionals better diagnose and treat cancers and hereditary disorders thanks to complex genomics and radiomics analysi... Read more
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