VC-backed GenSight Biologics raises €40m in IPO

The flotation, which consists entirely of new shares, gave the company a market cap of €149m and valued shares in GenSight at 800 cents apiece.

BPI France acquired an additional €14.5m stake in the company as part of the IPO.

The placement includes an overallotment option of 737,937 shares that, if fully exercised, would increase the amount raised to around €46m.

Previous funding
Novartis, Abingworth, Versant and Index co-led a €32m series-A for GenSight in April 2013.

The following year, in March 2014, BPI France injected €3m into the company, before investing in its €18.5m Sight Again project the following January. Undertaken alongside Pixium Vision and Fondation Voir et Entendre, Sight Again is a five-year project intended to restore vision to patients suffering from retinitis pigmentosa.

Novartis, Abingworth, Versant and Index then took part in a $36m series-B round for GenSight in July 2015.

Company
GenSight was founded in 2011 and is headquartered at the Vision Institute in Paris. The biotech specialises in the development of therapies targeting mitochondrial and neurodegenerative eye and central nervous system conditions.

People
BPI France – Thibaut Roulon (investment director).
GenSight Biologics – Bernard Gilly (co-founder, CEO).

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Exits
• PIPEs
• France
• Healthcare
• France
• Index Ventures
• IPO
• BPI France
• Abingworth Management