Kaijin, an unlisted drug developer, is expected to draw 100 billion won ($72 million) in its pre-IPO fundraising round. The company nearly doubled the size of the round from its original plan as demand grew. Analysts say the surge reflects a widening divide in the biotech venture market, as capital flows to a handful of companies that have proven their commercial viability through global licensing deals.
Kaijin is raising about 96 billion won in the pre-IPO round, according to industry sources on the 25th. The company had initially planned to raise 50 billion won but nearly doubled the target as demand from domestic institutional investors increased. Its pre-money valuation is put at about 276 billion won.
Kaijin is a drug development firm founded in the United States in 2022 by CEO Shin Min-jae, formerly of HanAll Biopharma, and is preparing for a listing on the KOSDAQ. The company recently selected Mirae Asset Securities as the underwriter for its listing.
The round is the largest among unlisted drug developers in the past five years, since GI Innovation raised 160.3 billion won through a pre-IPO round in 2021. Last year, companies including Pinetree Therapeutics, NexI, Illimis Therapeutics and AimedBio secured large-scale investments of more than 50 billion won each. The largest of those was Pinetree Therapeutics' 67 billion won, which Kaijin's round is expected to far exceed once completed.
The large fundraising is attributed to Kaijin's string of licensing deals. The company has signed three licensing agreements to date, with cumulative deal value reaching about 2.5 trillion won. Late last year it out-licensed KG006, a next-generation neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) inhibitor, to Celltrion, and more recently transferred exclusive development and commercialization rights to KG006 in Japan to Japan's Taisho Pharmaceutical.
A higher bar for technology-based listing reviews has also played a role, as investment concentrates on companies that have completed external validation through licensing deals to improve their chances of going public. The qualitative review guidelines for technology-based listings released by the Korea Exchange (KRX) last year include licensing track records as a factor in assessing the value of a drug pipeline. Kanaph Therapeutics, IMBiologics and Ingenia Therapeutics — drug developers that listed this year — all have licensing histories.
Kaijin's cumulative investment to date stands at $36 million (about 55 billion won). Investors include not only domestic institutional investors but also Korean pharmaceutical and biotech firms such as Celltrion, Daewoong Pharmaceutical and HanAll Biopharma. The pre-IPO round is about 1.7 times the size of the company's total prior funding.
