In one of the rare stock launches of a German biotechnology company, industrial biotech firm Brain has announced plans to raise a double-digit sum through an initial public offering (ipo) on the Frankfurt stock exchange.

The company based at Zwingenberg near Darmstadt said the money would be spent on commercializing its product pipeline and for research and development as well as financing future acquisitions.

Brain’s CEO, Jürgen Eck, said the planned ipo “will bring the expansion of our company an important step forward.”

Over the past few years, Eck said, the company has “built up an excellent reputation” within the research community, political bodies and the relevant industry players and realized successful collaboration projects.

“We have also made good progress with our industrialization strategy, the CEO added, “thanks to successfully integrated acquisitions and the expansion of our product pipeline. Now we are ready to increase our independence on the financing side, in order to properly benefit from the tailwinds in our industry.”

Brain’s business model is based on the twin pillars of BioScience and BioIndustrial. The first includes R&D collaboration with industrial partners including large industrial players such as BASF, Bayer, Clariant, DSM, Evonik, Fuchs Europe, Henkel, Nutrinova, RWE, Südzucker and Symrise.

The company’s Bioindustrial arm focuses on development and marketing of its own products or active ingredients, in particular enzymes, foodstuffs, wound care biosubstitutes for chemical ingredients. The products are particularly in demand from the cosmetics and personal care sectors.