Laguna Hills-based eye device startup Glaukos Corp. plans to use proceeds from a proposed initial offering to hire more workers, expand marketing programs, and fund further clinical studies.
Glaukos said last week that it would seek to raise $86.3 million through a stock sale.
Specific terms of the offering were not disclosed.
The company’s flagship device is the iStent, which is implanted in the eye to treat glaucoma, a major cause of blindness.
It had 126 workers as of March 31, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the IPO.
The iStent received Food and Drug Administration approval in 2012 and competes in a market that is expected to reach $6.6 billion in value by 2019, according to St. Louis-based industry tracker Market Scope.
Glaukos plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “GKOS.” The company did not set a price range or offering date in its filing.
Glaukos is not profitable—a situation that is typical of many early-stage device makers. It lost $14.1 million on revenue of $45.6 million last year.
Investors include Versant Ventures, a venture capital firm that is based in Menlo Park and has an office in Newport Beach. Bill Link, a Versant managing director, is also Glaukos’ chairman.
The company’s management team includes veterans of some of OC’s better-known drug and device makers.
Chief Executive Tom Burns once worked at Chiron Vision Inc., which Link founded and later sold to Bausch & Lomb Inc., the latter of which is now part of Canada-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.
Chris Calcaterra, Glaukos’ chief commercial officer, was previously a senior vice president at Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc., now known as Abbott Medical Optics, a unit of Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories.
