Arcadia Biosciences prices IPO below range

The venture capital-backed agricultural biotechnology company priced its IPO at $8 a share, below its $13- $15 a share price range. It started trading on the Nasdaq on Friday.

Arcadia Biosciences, the venture capital-backed agricultural biotechnology company, priced its IPO at $8 a share, below its $13-$15 a share range. The IPO raised $65.6 million, below initial targets of around $100 million.

The company also sold 1 million more shares than initially planned – 8.2 million – and the bookrunners have the option to sell a further 1.23 million shares before the deal closes on May 20.

Arcadia Biosciences started trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker RKDA on Friday and ended the day 8.75% down at $7.3 a share.

The California-based agtech company aims to help farmers increase productivity and the efficiency of their inputs through identifying a range of traits in crops. These products use precise genetic screening, advanced breeding techniques and genetic engineering to improve water efficiency, drought tolerance, herbicide tolerance and more.

Arcadia was founded in 2002 and one of its first investors was the VC arm of German chemicals giant BASF, which invested in the company in 2005 after Arcadia acquired Anawah, a then portfolio company of BASF Venture Capital. Other VC investors include CMEA Ventures, Mandala Capital and Saints Capital, which all contributed to $101 million across five rounds.

Arcadia hired Thomas O’Neil from Sorbent Therapeutics as its chief financial officer in March to oversee the IPO process as well as manage further equity and debt financing, M&A activities, collaborations and investor relations.

Credit Suisse Securities and JP Morgan Securities were the joint lead book-running managers, and Piper Jaffray & Co was an additional book-running manager.