With Cellares preparing to begin commercial-stage production in 2027, the California-based cell therapy contract manufacturer has taken a major step toward that goal, raising $257 million in a series D round.
The round, which brings the company’s total capital funding to $612 million, will support Cellares’ construction of new facilities in the Netherlands and Japan, which will join its commercial-ready site in Bridgewater, New Jersey, and its original factory in South San Francisco.
Earlier this month, Cellares said it had signed a long-term lease for 105,000 square feet of lab and office space in the Dutch city of Leiden. In addition to conducting commercial operations at the facility, the site will also serve as Cellares’ headquarters in Europe.
The series D round, led by Eclipse and new investor BlackRock, includes other new investors T. Rowe Price, Baillie Gifford, Gates Frontier, Duquesne Family Office, Intuitive Ventures and EDBI. Existing investors that also participated in the round are DC Global Ventures, DFJ Growth and Willett Advisors.
“Cellares is building the high-tech, industrial backbone required for cell therapy to scale globally,” Andrew Farris, managing director at BlackRock, said in a release. “Validated and cutting-edge automation, regulatory recognition, and growing commercial demand make Cellares a category‑defining platform in a rapidly growing global market projected to reach tens of billions of dollars per year over the coming decade.”
Cellares, which dubs itself as the world’s first integrated development and manufacturing organization, has drawn investment with its innovative factory-in-a-box Cell Shuttle system. The compact, automated units are the size of a truck and are designed to perform end-to-end cell therapy manufacturing.
In 2024, Bristol Myers Squibb inked a $380 million deal with Cellares, reserving commercial-scale capacity at the company’s sites in the U.S., Europe and Japan. The partnership will facilitate the production of CAR-T blood cancer treatments Breyanzi and Abecma as well as other potential BMS cell therapies.
Cellares debuted in 2019 with an $18 million series A, followed by an $82 million round in 2021 and a $255 million series C boost in 2023.
“The barrier to curing more patients is no longer scientific—it is industrial,” Fabian Gerlinghaus, co-founder and CEO of Cellares, said in a statement. “With FDA validation, global commercial demand, and the capital to scale, we are building the high-tech infrastructure required to deliver cures and life-changing treatments worldwide. This financing puts Cellares on a clear, disciplined path toward becoming a public company.”