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Drug discovery platform Exscientia sets terms for $275 million US IPO

September 27, 2021
EXAI

Exscientia, which provides an AI-driven platform for drug design, discovery, and development, announced terms for its IPO on Monday.

The Oxford, United Kingdom-based company plans to raise $275 million by offering 13.1 million ADSs at a price range of $20 to $22. The company plans to raise an additional $160 million in concurrent private placements to SoftBank and the Gates Foundation. At the midpoint of the proposed range, Exscientia would command a fully diluted market value of $2.6 billion.

Exscientia states that it is an artificial intelligence-driven pharmatech company that aims to discover, design, and develop the best possible drugs in the fastest and most effective manner. The company has built a complete end-to-end solution of AI and experimental technologies for target identification, drug candidate design, translational models, and patient selection. The company states that it has originated the first three AI-designed precision drug candidates to enter human clinical trials. Its most advanced internally developed candidate, EXS21546, began a Phase 1 trial in December 2020. The other two candidates, which are being developed by its collaboration partner Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, are also currently in Phase 1 trials. Exscientia has designed four additional candidates currently undergoing advanced profiling for submission of INDs; the company has more than 25 active projects in total.

Exscientia was founded in 2012 and booked $14 million in revenue for the 12 months ended June 30, 2021. It plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol EXAI. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, and Barclays are the joint bookrunners on the deal. It is expected to price during the week of September 27, 2021.