Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg
The genetic testing company Invitae Corp. plans to raise approximately $ 1.2 billion from investors, including SoftBank Group Corp., with an announcement scheduled for Monday, Dow Jones reported.
The investment will be in the form of convertible debt and is intended to help Invitae expand the use of its platform, the publication said. Shares of the San Francisco-based company tripled in the past 12 months and closed at $ 39.19 in US trading Thursday, pushing its market valuation to $ 7.7 billion.
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has expanded his investments in listed companies in recent months, including in Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc. The Japanese billionaire had previously established a $ 100 billion Vision Fund to invest in private startups, betting it on companies such as Didi Chuxing and DoorDash Inc.
Bloomberg News first reported in February that SoftBank planned to expand its investments in biotechnology and healthcare. As of December 31, the company’s public holdings are included Pacific Biosciences of California Inc., 4D Molecular Therapeutics Inc. and AbCellera Biologics Inc.