London-headquartered BenevolentAI has begun trading on Amsterdam’s Euronext market in the latest blow for the UK’s IPO markets.
The company’s listing follows BenevolentAI’s $1.7bn merger with special purpose acquisition company Odyssey Acquisition S.A in December.
BenevolentAI uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to decode disease biology and generate novel drug candidates. Its in-house pipeline currently has over 20 drug programmes ranging from target discovery to clinical studies.
“At BenevolentAI, we set out to build a company that can bring about real transformation in drug R&D by leveraging AI and advanced technologies to improve drug efficacy, decrease failure rates and accelerate the development of new medicines. BenevolentAI is well on its way to achieving this mission,” said Joanna Shields, CEO, BenevolentAI.
Founded in 2013, Benevolent AI has a research facility in Cambridge, UK, and an office in New York, US. Across these two locations and its London head office, it employs over 300 people.
BenevolentAI follows in the footsteps in a long list of successful British tech firms that have opted to list outside of the UK including Babylon Health, which decided to IPO in the US via a SPAC deal.
That’s despite the government’s IPO reforms aimed at removing rules to make the UK a more appealing place to list a company post-Brexit.
Last year UK tech IPOs raised a record £6.6bn, double the amount in 2020, thanks to blockbuster listings by the likes of Deliveroo and Moonpig.
BenevolentAI will trade on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange under the ticker symbol “BAI”. The company also announced the addition of former Sanofi CEO Olivier Brandicourt and former Natixis Investment Managers CEO Jean Raby to its board.
“The completion of the business combination and BenevolentAI’s listing on Euronext Amsterdam marks the final step of Odyssey’s journey. Again, we would like to thank our shareholders as well as all those who contributed to this result,” said Michael Zaoui, former Chairman, Odyssey.
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