Renaissance Capital expects an initial public offering surge in September; Biomedtracker data show financings for COVID-19 programs fell from Q1 to Q2; Revelation will merge with a special purpose acquisition corporation; Ascendis netted $379.3m in a follow-on offering; and Disc Medicine raised $90m in venture capital.

New VC deals include a $60m series C-1 round for DiCE Molecules a day before it filed paperwork to support a $100m IPO and a $100m financing for China’s IONOVA Life Science. Also, RenovoRx was the 84th company to go public in the US this year and ADC Therapeutics executed a $325m royalty deal. 

The most widely-read 2018 Start-Up Spotlight profiles pointed to a diversity of reader interest -- biosensors, catheters, and AI and big data.

Recent executive-level hires and director appointments at venture capital firms and biopharma and medtech start-ups.