Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on June 18, 2025
By Pritam Biswas and Niket Nishant
(Reuters) -Caris Life Sciences' shares jumped nearly 29% in their Nasdaq debut on Wednesday, fetching the cancer diagnostic firm a valuation of $7.66 billion and signaling a growing investor appetite for new listings in 2025.
The shares opened at $27 apiece, compared with their offer price of $21. The company sold 23.5 million shares to raise $494.1 million in the initial public offering.
"We were waiting on hitting some key milestones. We'll be paying off some of our debt with proceeds and strengthening our balance sheet so that we can make investments where we need to," the company's president David Spetzler said in an interview.
The U.S. IPO market activity has shown signs of a sustained revival, with a few fresh listings such as Circle and Chime getting overwhelming support from investors in the past couple of weeks, after a slow start to the year.
Insurance tech firm Slide also had a strong Nasdaq debut on Wednesday.
Notable healthcare IPOs in 2025 include Insight Partners-backed digital health platform Hinge Health and virtual healthcare provider Omada Health, shares of which jumped in their respective New York debuts.
"The IPO market needed to see some wins, and that's exactly what happened," said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs.
However, the revival has been mostly confined to sectors such as finance and technology, with the healthcare sector - typically one of the busiest in terms of IPO activity - lagging behind.
The finance and technology sectors have together contributed to nearly 70% of fresh flotations in 2025, compared to a mere 5% for the healthcare sector, as of June 17, 2025, according to Dealogic data.
"This one deal won't fix the issue that has plagued the biotech sector, the primary source of U.S. healthcare IPOs," Kennedy said.
Founded in 2008 by CEO David Halbert, Caris uses artificial intelligence to study the genetic code from a patient's DNA, RNA and proteins, and create personalized cancer treatment plans.
The company was valued at $7.83 billion in a 2021 funding round led by investment firm Sixth Street.
(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli, Maju Samuel and Vijay Kishore)
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