Money-raising machine Pacific Biosciences--a 2009 Fierce 15 winner--has decided to take its act public. The company has filed a $200 million IPO, the proceeds of which will help the company fund R&D of its products and SMRT technology (photo, click to enlarge), which uses nanofabrication, biochemistry, molecular biology, surface chemistry and optics to enable real-time analysis of biomolecules.
Just last month, PacBio closed a $109 million Series F, bringing its total haul to $370 million, and in June landed a PacBio gets $50 million investment from Gen-Probe. In addition to R&D expenses, PacBio will boost its sales and marketing in advance of commercial launch, increase its manufacturing operations, and for general corporate purposes. PacBio added in its filing that it may be in the market to acquire complementary technology or businesses that would boost its own operations, but that no acquisitions were planned at this time.
In the short term, PacBio will focus its technology on clinical, basic and agricultural research. It hopes to expand into molecular diagnostics, drug discovery and development, food safety, forensics, biosecurity and bio-fuels. "We believe that our SMRT platform represents a new paradigm in biological science...that has the potential to significantly impact a number of areas critical to humankind, including the diagnosis and treatment of disease as well as efforts to improve the world's food and energy supply," the company boasts in its SEC filing.
- find PacBio's SEC filing
- read the Forbes article for more