RA Capital’s new healthcare SPAC prices $75 million Nasdaq IPO

A fresh healthcare vehicle reaches Nasdaq

Research Alliance Corporation IV priced 7.5 million Class A ordinary shares at $10 each, raising $75 million in an initial public offering announced July 13, 2026.endpoints The blank-check company said the shares would trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker RACD beginning Monday, with the offering expected to close July 14, subject to customary conditions.sg

The company is sponsored by an affiliate of RA Capital Management and is led by Chief Executive Officer Matthew Hammond and Chief Business Officer and Chief Operating Officer Henry Stusnick.endpoints Its mandate allows a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition or similar transaction across sectors, but management said it intends to focus on healthcare and healthcare-related businesses.investing

Institutional demand anchors a modest raise

Leerink Partners is the sole bookrunning manager for the deal, giving the offering a specialist life-sciences underwriter rather than a broad-market syndicate.endpoints The financing drew a long roster of institutional investors, including Adage Capital Partners, Braidwell, BVF Partners, Deep Track Capital, Janus Henderson Investors, Perceptive Advisors and Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners.investing

The size is modest by the standards of the 2020-2021 SPAC boom, but the investor list points to continuing appetite for sponsor-led vehicles in areas where public biotech issuance remains selective. SPACInsider said the deal brings total U.S. SPAC IPO count for 2026 to 126, and described the company as the latest healthcare-focused blank-check entrant to begin trading on Nasdaq.stocktitan

The market test shifts to finding a target

The pricing follows a renewed effort by experienced biotech backers to use blank-check structures after returns from the earlier SPAC wave disappointed. BioPharma Dive reported in March that RA Capital had formed Research Alliance III to pursue a Chinese biotechnology or healthcare target, while noting that SPACs had fallen out of favor after 2021 before re-emerging as the biotech IPO window stayed constrained.spacinsider

RA Capital’s record gives investors both a reason to look and a benchmark to judge. Its first Research Alliance SPAC merged with Point Biopharma, which was later sold to Eli Lilly, while Research Alliance II priced in 2021 and later moved to liquidate.spacinsider For the newly public vehicle, the hard part now is not the listing but converting a $75 million cash pool into a healthcare merger investors will support.endpoints