Caris Life Sciences IPO: shares of Moderna's cancer diagnostics partner become available
Shares of Caris Life Sciences, a company that uses artificial intelligence to study DNA and create personalized cancer treatment plans, have become available to investors on the Freedom customer trading system. The securities are listed under the ticker CAI.US. They will appear on the Nasdaq in a few hours.
Details
Caris Life Sciences raised $494 million in its IPO, selling 23.5 million shares at $21 per paper - above its updated price range of $19-20. The company originally intended to float in the $16-18 range, but raised and narrowed the benchmark on Monday. Insiders bought back $75 million worth of shares - a 15% stake in the deal. Including the new price, Caris' fully diluted capitalization was $6.1 billion - 17% above the original plan, reported by Renaissance Capital.
The offering was organized by BofA Securities, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citi, TD Cowen, Evercore ISI and Guggenheim Securities.
What's interesting about the company
Caris applies artificial intelligence to analyze a patient's genetic material - DNA, RNA and proteins - to develop customized cancer treatment regimens. Right now, Caris' primary revenue is generated by its MI Profile product, a molecular profiling solution based on tissue samples. In early 2024, the company launched Caris Assure, a similar product, but based on blood tests, designed for therapy selection. To date, Caris has conducted more than 6.5 million tests on 849,000 cases and collaborates with more than 100 biopharmaceutical companies, including Moderna and AbbVie.
Since its founding in 2008, Caris has identified approximately 915,000 unique pathogenic mutations - of which only 17,000 were previously known, confirms Caris founder and CEO David Halbert. «We can now identify circulating pathogenic mutations in a patient and tailor treatment to a specific set of mutations,» announced Halbert. - In our opinion, this will open the way to preventing chronic diseases at preclinical stages.»
In 2021, Caris raised $830 million at a company valuation of $7.8 billion in a funding round led by investment firm Sixth Street. The company's shareholders also include J.H. Whitney, one of the oldest private equity firms in the US. In April 2025, Caris conducted another $168 million funding round.
What does Freedom think of the stock
Freedom Broker analyst Alem Bektemirov gave a Buy recommendation on shares of Caris Life Sciences with a target price of $26.4 per share - 32% above the upper boundary of the placement corridor. Thanks to the accelerating adoption of MI Profile and Caris Assure diagnostic platforms, the company's annual revenue will grow 13-fold over the next 10 years, from $412 million in 2024 to $5.4 billion in 2034, Bektemirov forecasts.
What other analysts are saying
Caris Life Sciences' listing is not just another medtech IPO, but a rare combination of AI solutions, proven liquid biopsy technology and the backing of top investors, notes AInvest, an online platform specializing in stock predictions and equity analysis. In 2023 the national health insurance program in the United States, Medicare expanded coverage of liquid biopsy tests, and spending on cancer drugs is projected to reach $200 billion by 2027. All of this provides sustained demand for Caris solutions. Competitors Guardant and Natera may try to copy Caris' AI models, but the company's massive data set gives it a serious advantage, confirms AInvest.
Context
Caris is one of a handful of IPOs in the medtech sector, which has begun to show signs of recovery from a three-year slump, noted MedTech Dive. The listing plans were also announced by medical products provider Medline. One of the world's largest medical device developers, Medtronic plans to spin off its diabetes division into a separate company, possibly followed by a stock offering.
Diabetic solutions developer Beta Bionics raised about $212 million in its first quarter 2025 IPO in New York, while wearable heart device maker Kestra Medical raised $202 million when it went public on Nasdaq in March. Beta Bionics shares trading on June 17 in New York closed 7 percent above the placement price, with Kestra Medical securities down 11 percent from their pricing at the IPO.
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