VC-backed Oxford Immunotec raises $64m in IPO

The company settled on a price of $12 per share for its IPO, slightly below the initial $13-15 price range. The company's shares started trading at $14 each and closed on $15.4 at the end of the first day of trading.

There is an over-allotment option of 804,000 additional shares.

JP Morgan and Piper Jaffray were appointed as joint bookrunners for the flotation. Oxford Immunotec's shares started trading on Friday 22 November on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "OXFD".

Clarus Ventures is the company's biggest shareholder, according to a US Securities & Exchange Commission S-1 filing regarding the flotation. Following the IPO, Clarus's stake has been diluted from 24.3% to 16.2%, while New Leaf Venture Partners' (NLVP) 13% stake has been diluted to 8.6% and DFJ Esprit's shareholding reduced from 10.1% to 6.7%.

Oxford Immunotec's smaller venture capital backers include: Imperial Innovations and Invesco, both of which have seen their stakes diluted from 7.9% to 5.2%; Wellington Partners, which now has a stake of 5.1% (down from 7.7% pre-IPO); and Quester (now owned by Spark Ventures), which has had its stake diluted from 5.8% to 3.9%.

Previous funding
Oxford Immunotec first received funding in November 2003 from Quester (now Spark). The firm committed £2.5m to the company.

The business then secured a further £7m in July 2005 from co-leads DFJ Esprit and Spark, alongside Top Technology Ventures. DFJ Esprit supplied £2.75m while Spark provided £2.25m, according to unquote" data.

DFJ Esprit then took part in a $40m funding round for Oxford Immunotec alongside Clarus and Wellington, both of which led the investor syndicate. DFJ Esprit supplied $2.6m to the round to maintain its 16% stake in the business.

In April 2010, an international syndicate of investors injected $26m into the company. The syndicate comprised existing backers DFJ Esprit, Clarus, Wellington and Spark as well as Kaiser Permanente Ventures, National Technology Enterprises Company and lead investor NLVP.

The company's most recent funding round took place in June last year and pulled in $28m. All existing investors plus Imperial Innovations and Invesco backed the company, with the two new investors leading the round and supplying $9.5m each. Imperial Innovations took a 7% stake in the business.

Company
Founded in 2002, Oxford Immunotec is headquartered in Abingdon with US headquarters located in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and an additional office in Kawasaki, Japan. The company employs 151 staff and recorded a $20.7m turnover in 2012, as well as a loss before tax of $12.1m.

Oxford Immunotec develops diagnostic blood tests for tuberculosis (TB). The company's product, T-Spot, is a cellular blood test for the detection of TB. It works by measuring a person's immune response to an infection and identifies if a human body is producing specific cells, called effector T cells, which are produced to fight an infection. The diagnostic platform is designed to detect both latent and active TB infection.

People
Peter Wrighton-Smith is the CEO of Oxford Immunotec. The company's board of directors includes Nigel Pitchford, who was a partner at DFJ Esprit until 2011 and is now a director at Imperial Innovations; Michael Steinmetz, a managing director at Clarus; and NLVP managing director Vijay Lathi.

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