Table of Contents
On January 28, Cellares announced the closure of a $257 million Series D financing round, co-led by BlackRock and Eclipse, bringing total capital raised to $612 million. Previous funding rounds raised $18m in Series A (2019), $82m in Series B (2021), and $255m in Series C (2023), respectively. New investors include T. Rowe Price, Baillie Gifford, and Gates Frontier. The capital is allocated to the global buildout of automated manufacturing facilities in South San Francisco, Bridgewater (New Jersey), Leiden (Netherlands), and Kashiwa City (Japan).
The financing advances Cellares' Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO) model, which replaces manual cell therapy production with its automated Cell Shuttle and Cell Q quality control platforms. The company claims this approach can reduce per-patient costs by up to 50% and deliver approximately 10-fold higher throughput with a 90% reduction in facility footprint and labor compared to traditional contract manufacturers. The planned network targets capacity for 150,000 patient doses annually, a volume that would traditionally require roughly 7,000 employees versus Cellares' projected 700.
Cellares has secured a capacity reservation and supply agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb valued at up to $380 million, and reports agreements with five of the top eight pharmaceutical companies with cell therapy programs. Additional agreements are in place with Cabaletta Bio and Lyell. The Bridgewater facility has received a drug manufacturing license, and, as CEO Fabian Gerlinghaus previously underlined, “at this point, Bridgewater is officially a cGMP-compliant facility”. The Cell Shuttle platform holds FDA Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) designation, which can expedite regulatory review.
The company expects to support clinical manufacturing in the first half of 2026 and commence commercial-scale manufacturing in 2027. Fabian Gerlinghaus said the financing strengthens Cellares’ strategic momentum and optionality as it scales its automated manufacturing network.
You can read our previous interviews with Fabian Gerlinghaus, from November 2024 and January 2026. Click here for Fabian's video interview with Onyx from JPM Week 2025.
Comments