We found the 44 biotechnology companies that published information about their IPO, founding date and valuation in the period January 1 – October 31, 2018.
The averages look like this:
| Ave Yrs to IPO | Avg Valuation at IPO | Time-Value Correlation |
| 8.2 | $494,223,935.16 | -39% |
One conclusion is that the longer a company takes to reach an IPO the lower its valuation at IPO time. If we split the cohort into two pieces and group the fastest to IPO with the slowest to IPO we see a few other interesting things.
| Ave Yrs to IPO (Fastest) | Avg Valuation at IPO | Time-Value Correlation |
| 3.8 | $603,441,194.77 | 5% |
and
| Ave Yrs to IPO (Slowest) | Avg Valuation at IPO | Time-Value Correlation |
| 12.5 | $385,006,675.55 | -58% |
There is no real correlation for the fastest to IPO group. The slowest to IPO group is highly negatively correlated to time to IPO. So the longer they take the lower the IPO value becomes. Based on this fastest to the market group, and if things continue, there would be 2 companies every month being founded that will eventually IPO in about 4 years. Let’s explore how these companies got to the IPO:
- majority received seed round from a parent and spun out
- majority received a Series A from one or two well-known VCs
- 12% of 4-year-old biotechnology companies receive a Series A
- 27% of 4-year-old biotechnology companies receiving a Series A are acquired or IPO
- “clinical stage” and “cancer/oncology” where the most common company descriptions
- from seed valuation to IPO these companies grew in value by 13.4 x on average (based on only the complete company histories we had access to) that’s a CAGR of about 90%.
The full list is below:
| Company | Categories | Years to IPO | Valuation |
| BioXcel Therapeutics | Biotechnology | 1.2 | $167,000,000.00 |
| Allogene Therapeutics | Biotechnology, Health Diagnostics, Pharmaceutical | 1.8 | $2,074,000,000.00 |
| Equillium | Biopharma, Biotechnology, Life Science | 1.8 | $234,000,000.00 |
| resTORbio | Biopharma, Clinical Trials, Medical | 2.1 | $410,000,000.00 |
| Evelo Biosciences | Biotechnology, Medical, Therapeutics | 3.4 | $509,000,000.00 |
| MeiraGTx | Biotechnology, Health Care, Therapeutics | 3.4 | $407,000,000.00 |
| Aptinyx | Biopharma, Biotechnology, Medical | 3.5 | $520,000,000.00 |
| Magenta Therapeutics | Biotechnology, Medical, Therapeutics | 3.5 | $515,000,000.00 |
| Avrobio | Biotechnology, Genetics, Health Care | 3.5 | $440,000,000.00 |
| Forty Seven | Biotechnology, Clinical Trials, Health Care | 3.5 | $479,000,000.00 |
| Gritstone Oncology | Biotechnology, Health Care, Natural Resources, Therapeutics | 3.7 | $432,428,295.00 |
| Orchard Therapeutics | Biotechnology, Genetics, Health Care, Health Diagnostics | 3.8 | $1,176,000,000.00 |
| Eyenovia | Biotechnology, Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical | 4.1 | $99,000,000.00 |
| Solid Biosciences | Biotechnology, Genetics, Manufacturing, Medical | 4.1 | $546,000,000.00 |
| UNUM Therapeutics | Biotechnology, Health Care, Therapeutics | 4.2 | $355,000,000.00 |
| Autolus Limited | Biopharma, Medical, Pharmaceutical | 4.5 | $657,000,000.00 |
| LogicBio Therapeutics | Biotechnology, Genetics | 4.8 | $219,377,990.00 |
| Eidos Therapeutics | Biopharma, Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical | 4.9 | $608,000,000.00 |
| Tricida | Biotechnology, Health Care, Pharmaceutical | 5.5 | $763,000,000.00 |
| Rubius Therapeutics | Biotechnology, Health Care, Therapeutics | 5.5 | $1,778,000,000.00 |
| Arvinas | Biotechnology, Health Care, Pharmaceutical, Therapeutics | 5.7 | $514,500,000.00 |
| Twist Bioscience | Biotechnology, Chemical, Health Care | 5.8 | $372,400,000.00 |
| Evolus | Biotechnology | 6.1 | $283,000,000.00 |
| Allakos | Biotechnology, Health Care, Therapeutics | 6.6 | $728,000,000.00 |
| Guardant Health | Biotechnology, Health Care, Health Diagnostics | 6.8 | $1,587,000,000.00 |
| Translate Bio | Biotechnology, Genetics, Medical, Therapeutics | 7.5 | $582,000,000.00 |
| ASLAN Pharmaceuticals | Biotechnology, Medical, Pharmaceutical | 8.3 | $1,120,000,000.00 |
| Genprex, Inc. | Biopharma, Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical | 9.2 | $65,000,000.00 |
| UNITY Biotechnology | Biotechnology, Health Care, Medical | 9.3 | $712,000,000.00 |
| Kodiak Sciences | Biotechnology, Health Care, Therapeutics | 9.8 | $365,000,000.00 |
| Crinetics Pharmaceuticals | Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical, Therapeutics | 10.5 | $391,000,000.00 |
| Principia Biopharma | Biopharma, Biotechnology, Life Science | 10.7 | $386,000,000.00 |
| Inspire Medical Systems | Biotechnology, Health Care, Medical Device, Therapeutics | 11.3 | $323,000,000.00 |
| Adial Pharmaceuticals | Biotechnology, Health Care, Pharmaceutical | 11.6 | $32,690,000.00 |
| Xeris Pharmaceuticals | Biotechnology, Health Care, Pharmaceutical | 13.5 | $296,000,000.00 |
| Liquidia Technologies | Biopharma, Nanotechnology, Therapeutics | 14.6 | $166,000,000.00 |
| Neuronetics | Biotechnology, Medical Device, Therapeutics | 15.5 | $284,000,000.00 |
| Aridis Pharmaceuticals | Biotechnology, Content Discovery, Health Care, Pharmaceutical | 15.6 | $102,573,796.00 |
| BioNano Genomics | Biotechnology, Genetics, Health Diagnostics, Medical | 15.6 | $58,182,478.00 |
| Sutro Biopharma | Biotechnology, Information Technology, Medical | 15.7 | $342,000,000.00 |
| PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals | Biotechnology, Medical, Medical Device, Pharmaceutical | 16.8 | $119,000,000.00 |
| Vaccinex | Biotechnology, Clinical Trials, Health Care | 17.6 | $137,700,588.00 |
| Gamida Cell | Biotechnology, Medical Device, Therapeutics | 20.8 | $165,000,000.00 |
| Sol-Gel Technologies | Biotechnology | 21.1 | $225,000,000.00 |