After raising nearly $170 million in venture capital financing earlier this year—and nearly $2 billion over the past decade—Caris Life Sciences now aims to add about $400 million more to its coffers by going public following 17 years in the business.
The planned Nasdaq IPO could bestow a valuation north of $5.2 billion to the oncology diagnostic developer—which most recently obtained an FDA green light last fall for its MI Cancer Seek test that offers genomic profiling as well as companion indications for a range of targeted therapies.
Along with its Caris Assure liquid biopsy test for treatment selection and its MI Profile tumor tissue sequencing platform, the Texas-based company said its global clinical case volume has been growing rapidly year-over-year—including at a rate of 26% in 2024 and 31% for the first quarter of 2025 alone, according to its filed prospectus.
Caris said it has profiled more than 849,000 unique cases, through 6.5 million tests and over 13 quadrillion datapoints, via partnerships with upwards of 100 biopharma companies and thousands of practicing oncologists.
That’s driven total revenues of $412.3 million for the 2024 calendar year, up from $306.1 million the year before, and $120.9 million for the initial three months of this year. Caris has seen negative cash flow since its inception, however, posting net losses of $257.1 million for 2024 and $102.6 million for the first quarter.
“We have utilized AI and machine learning algorithms across our dataset to identify approximately 915,000 unique pathogenic mutations, of which only approximately 17,000 were previously identified, with approximately 130 novel pathogenic mutations found on average in each person,” David Halbert, Caris’ founder and CEO, said in the prospectus.
“We can now identify a person’s circulating pathogenic mutations and enable the design of a customized individualized therapy to that specific set of mutations. So, it becomes an individualized, customized immunotherapy,” Halbert added.
“It is a very exciting time because technology has finally advanced to the point where it enables this big idea. This is not something that could have been thought of in 2008 or even 2018 because the technologies were not available.”
Caris plans to list 23.5 million shares on the Nasdaq under the ticker CAI, with the IPO price expected between $16 and $18 apiece. The company said investors affiliated with the firm Neuberger Berman have shown interest in purchasing up to $75 million of shares during the offering.
Previous backers have included Sixth Street Partners—which led a $830 million fundraising in 2021—as well as J.H. Whitney, Braidwell, Perceptive Advisors, Woodline, Ghisallo, Millennium Management and First Light Asset Management, among others.
After the offering, Halbert is expected to own about 41.7% of the company’s shares, with Sixth Street controlling 9.8% and J.H. Whitney 6.8%.