The successful IPO of Caris Life Sciences makes its founder David Dean Halbert worth an estimated $3.3 billion.
David Dean Halbert acquired an early-stage life sciences company called Molecular Profiling Institute in 2008 to develop a blood-based platform for early disease detection. Today, that firm, greatly expanded and renamed Caris Life Sciences, went public on Nasdaq, raising about $494 million. At 3:45 pm ET, the company had a market valuation of $7.4 billion, making Halbert worth at least $3.3 billion by Forbes calculations. He owns nearly 44% of the company.
Caris Life Sciences, a cancer diagnostics company based in Irving, Texas, uses gene sequencing, AI and machine learning to detect and monitor disease. The company had revenue of $412 million last year and posted a net loss of $282 million.
Halbert, who is 68 and has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Abilene Christian University, has a long history in healthcare investing and startups. Back in 1987, he founded a pharmacy benefit manager called AdvancePCS that he sold to CareMark for $7.5 billion in 2004. He subsequently started an investment firm, called Caris Capital, where he bought and sold $1.2 billion worth of assets.
But even based on that background, Caris Life Sciences was a big deal. In May 2021, it raised $830 million in growth capital led by Sixth Street – one of the largest capital raises in precision medicine – at a valuation of $7.8 billion.
While today’s IPO represents a slightly lower valuation for the company, it is also one of the largest life sciences companies to go public in a tough market this year. Shares of Caris were priced at $21 before the offering, opened at $27 and were trading at $26.50 a share as of 3:45 pm ET.
Halbert was not immediately available for comment.
MORE FROM FORBES
