Kardigan Inc. raised $400 million in an upsized initial public offering on Tuesday, pricing 25 million shares at $16 apiece — the top of its $14–$16 range — and then watching its stock close 38% higher at roughly $22 on its first day of trading on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker KARD.
The offering was expanded from an original $320 million target, a sign of robust institutional demand for a company whose leadership team carries the fingerprints of one of cardiovascular biotech’s biggest exits. Kardigan was co-founded by Tassos Gianakakos, the former chief executive of MyoKardia, and Jay Edelberg, M.D., Ph.D., a veteran of MyoKardia, Sanofi, Bristol Myers Squibb, and GlaxoSmithKline. MyoKardia, which developed the heart drug Camzyos, was acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2020 for $13.1 billion.
Underwriters — J.P. Morgan, Jefferies, Leerink Partners, and TD Securities — hold a 30-day option to purchase up to 3.75 million additional shares.
Pipeline: three bets on under-treated cardiovascular disease
Proceeds are earmarked to advance three clinical-stage candidates. The lead program, danicamtiv, is a cardiac myosin activator in the Phase 2b/3 KINSHIP-DCM trial for genetic dilated cardiomyopathy, with topline data expected in the first half of 2027. Ataciguat, a soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) activator, is in Phase 2 for calcific aortic valve stenosis, a condition with no approved pharmacological therapy. Tonlamarsen, an antisense oligonucleotide targeting angiotensinogen, is in Phase 2 for acute severe hypertension following hospitalization.
At its debut close of approximately $22, Kardigan commands a market capitalization of nearly $2 billion. The IPO makes Kardigan the fourth biotech in 2026 to raise at least $400 million — the most in a single year since 2021 — and the 13th venture-backed biotech to go public this year, surpassing all of 2025’s total.
As with all pipeline-stage IPOs, Kardigan’s ability to reach the data readouts it has outlined will depend on execution against its clinical timelines and the financial runway the offering provides.