Celcuity could become third Minnesota company to go public this year

Celcuity LLC, a Plymouth biotechnology company, could become the third Minnesota company to go public in 2017.

The last year more than two ­Minnesota companies went public was in 2007.

Celcuity on Wednesday registered an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission that could raise $15 million.

The company is developing diagnostic tests that use a patient's ­living tumor cells to find new cancer subtypes. The idea is to better match targeted cancer therapies to patients.

Celcuity has yet to record any revenue and recorded a net loss of $2.2 million in 2016. Through the first six months of 2017, it has a net loss of $1.5 million.

The company was cofounded in 2012 by Brian Sullivan, a veteran of previous Minnesota medical technology companies, and Lance Laing, the company's chief science officer and a drug researcher who has 17 patents and 24 patents pending to his credit.

It has raised about $17.9 million from multiple venture capital and equity sources, according to SEC filings.

The number of shares and the pricing for the offering have yet to be established, but the company said it expects to use the proceeds for additional research and development, clinical trials, operational processes and working capital.

The number of IPOs nationally has begun to pick up after several slow years in which cheap debt and access to private equity dollars have made becoming public less ­attractive.

This year, though, there have been 91 IPOs with more than a $50 million market cap. Those IPOs have raised $22.2 billion. That's a 54.2 percent increase in the number of pricings and a 135.8 percent increase in proceeds raised compared with the same period a year ago, according to Renaissance Capital, an IPO research firm and manager of IPO-focused investment products.

The other two Minnesota companies to go public were ASV Holdings Inc., a maker of compact track loaders and skid steer loaders based in Grand Rapids, and Calyxt, a gene-editing company based in New Brighton.

Minneapolis-based Craig-Hallum Capital Group is underwriting the offering for Celcuity.

Patrick Kennedy • 612-673-7926