Volpara Health Technologies (ASX:AHT) has closed its initial public offer, raising $10 million from the issue of 20 million shares at 50 cents each, giving the company a market capitalisation of $61 million at the issue price.
The company will list on the ASX tomorrow.
Volpara provides digital health solutions for early detection of breast cancer. It offers a suite of multi-vendor breast imaging tools that enable personalised breast cancer screening based on measurements of volumetric breast density, compression and radiation dose. Its technology is currently installed in more than 30 countries and more than 9 million women have had their breast density assessed by VolparaDensity.
Rising global breast cancer incidence and mortality represent a significant health threat, with 1 in 8 women in developed countries likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer. Approximately 75 million women worldwide have mammograms every year. Mammography is the most effective tool available for screening women for breast cancer; however, it does not work equally well for all women.
According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (Boyd et al, 2007), 35 per cent of breast cancer goes undetected by mammography in women with dense breasts and density masks appearance of tumours.
Since both dense breast tissue and cancer appear white on a mammogram, it is like looking for a snowball in a snow storm, said the company
Volpara intends to use proceeds from the capital raise to expand its direct sales team and marketing in the US and Western Europe. It will also launch new Volpara SaaS products that provide ConstantQuality metrics to breast imaging practices, as well as drive innovation of new and novel 'big data' predictive healthcare and enterprise-wide analytics products that contribute to saving lives.
Volpara Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Highnam, PhD, said he was pleased with the interest investors had shown and the outcome of the capital raising.
“To list on the ASX is a significant milestone which enables Volpara to accelerate its growth globally, as well as expand its ability to apply industry-leading digital health solutions to support the paradigm shift to personalised breast cancer screening that is being driven by women demanding better information, better screening systems, better healthcare and better results,” he said.