Molecular diagnostics firm Quanterix is launching an IPO. The move comes more than a year after the company locked down funding to spur growth.
Lexington, Massachusetts-based Quanterix will offer 3.34 million shares at a price of between $14 and $16 per share. The company will list on the NASDAQ Global Market under the ticker “QTRX.”
Quanterix plans to use funds from the IPO to expand operations and to pursue regulatory signoffs for its tests, the company said in a recent SEC filing. The firm brought in $12 million in revenue in 2015 and $17.5 million in revenue in 2016, setting the stage for more growth in the years to come.
A large part of the company’s success comes from its blood biomarker testing product, Simoa. Quanterix has billed its technology as more sensitive than traditional testing, as it only requires a single target molecule to generate a signal. The device has 30 assays for biomarkers covering areas such as cardiac care, oncology and neurosciences.
Quanterix will use funds from an IPO to “improve and update” its Simoa technology and to develop additional tests, including those for nucleic acid detection, it said in its filing. The company will also focus on getting signoffs for other instruments outside of the life sciences market.
The firm’s IPO comes after a large fundraising round last year. In March 2016, Quanterix brought in $46 million in series D funding from new and existing investors, adding to $54 million from previous fundraising.
At the time, Quanterix said it would consider an IPO but it did not discuss any immediate plans to go public. The company planned to focus on launching new products and developing 60 new assays to expand its global reach, it said at the time.
“While the company has not defined a specific timetable for an IPO, it is under consideration based on the company’s rapid growth,” a Quanterix spokesperson said in March 2016.