Relay Therapeutics, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, filed for an initial public offering (IPO). The company’s preliminary target is $200 million and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker RLAY.
Relay Therapeutics was the No. 3 company in BioSpace’s NextGen Bio Class of 2018, Top 20 Life Science Startups to Watch in 2018. Relay was founded in February 2016, and focuses on developing therapeutics involving protein motion. For decades, the technology hasn’t been available or affordable to completely evaluate the movement of proteins, which in the body are in constant motion. Proteins move physiologically in the body. Visualizing the fourth dimension and motion can provide insight into how proteins are physiologically active in the body, which can be used to develop and design better drugs.
The company launched with a $57 million Series A financing led by Third Rock Ventures and joined by an affiliate of D.E. Shaw Research. On December 14, 2017, it closed on a Series B financing round worth $63 million. That round was led by BVF Partners, with new investors GV (formerly Google Ventures), Casdin Capital, EcoR1 Capital and Section 32. Third Rock and Alexandria Venture Investments participated.
To date, the company has raised $520 million in three rounds of private financing, with the Series C in December 2018 hitting a stunning $400 million.