Roivant Sciences has raised $200 million to roll out another round of startups. The financing, which comes 15 months after Roivant raised $1.1 billion, is tied to a $7 billion valuation for the fast-growing biotech umbrella organization.
NovaQuest Capital Management, RTW Investments and other new investors, including a large U.S. insurance company, put up the lion’s share of the $200 million. Roivant also received money from all of its existing institutional shareholders. SoftBank, the Japanese telecommunications giant, took the lead on last year’s gargantuan $1.1 billion round.
Vivek Ramaswamy and the rest of the Roivant team have been busy since the previous investment, enabling them to grow the value of the business between the rounds. The $7 billion-valued Roivant of 2018 is a much bigger beast than the earlier iteration of the company that raised $1.1 billion.
In between the two rounds, Roivant more than doubled the number of startups in its roster, bringing the total up to 14. The number of therapies in development at these startups increased at a similar rate, jumping from 14 to 34. Roivant has taken on more staff to support development of these drugs, moving its headcount up from below 350 to more than 750.
Roivant has suffered some growing pains along the way. In June, Roivant laid off around 70 staff and reassigned close to 130 more as part of a reshuffle that shifted the balance of power between the central organization and its constellation of startups.
At the time, Roivant said it was making the changes from “a position of strength,” not because of financial difficulties. The raising of a further $200 million at a newly inflated valuation backs up that assertion.
The question now is whether Roivant will deliver the successes its investors want. The coming year will provide a preliminary answer to that question. Having seen its first phase 3 program at Axovant crash and burn, Roivant is now heading toward a series of other late-stage readouts. By the end of next year, Roivant expects to have top-line data from six phase 3 trials and a clutch of earlier-stage studies.