Cellares adds USD $50m from Prime Radiant to Series D

Cellares has added USD $50 million from Prime Radiant Partners to its Series D financing, bringing the round to USD $327 million.

The new funding follows a recent expansion that included USD $20 million from ARK Invest and adds a new investor with roots in pharmaceutical manufacturing and healthcare private equity.

Prime Radiant is making the investment through a fund it advises, joining backers including BlackRock, Eclipse, T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Duquesne Family Office, Baillie Gifford, Intuitive Ventures, EDBI, Gates Frontier, DC Global Ventures, DFJ Growth and Willett Advisors.

Cellares is building automated manufacturing facilities for cell therapies, an area of drugmaking drawing growing industry attention as more treatments move from research into commercial use. The company describes itself as an Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organisation, or IDMO, with a model centred on automated production infrastructure for cell therapy developers.

The latest investment is intended to support the next stage of that factory network, including work on a European site in Leiden, the Netherlands. The facility is being built to serve drug sponsors in global markets using the same automated manufacturing infrastructure Cellares offers in the United States.

European expansion

Prime Radiant's background in European healthcare services was a factor in the deal. The firm has offices in New York, Milan and Munich, and its founders include executives with experience in drug production, outsourced pharmaceutical services and private equity.

That experience is central to how Prime Radiant is positioning its first disclosed investment. One founder, Peter Soelkner, previously served as Managing Director at Vetter Pharma, a contract drug manufacturer. The wider founding team includes Giovanni Fazio and Walid Gardezi.

"Cell therapy has moved from scientific promise to commercial reality, but the manufacturing infrastructure to support it at scale does not yet exist at the level the market will need," said Walid Gardezi, Co-Founder and Partner at Prime Radiant Partners.

"Cellares is building that infrastructure across the markets where these therapies will be delivered. Our roots in European pharma services give us a meaningful perspective on what it takes to operate in those markets, and we will be active partners in supporting Cellares' expansion in Europe," said Gardezi.

Cellares said the financing gives it backing through the start of commercial-scale operations and toward an initial public offering planned for 2027. It also ties the latest fundraising to the company's push to establish manufacturing sites in Europe and Japan alongside its existing New Jersey operation.

Commercial pipeline

Cellares now has active programmes spanning CAR T, TCR-T and progenitor T cell therapies. It named Bristol Myers Squibb, Cabaletta Bio, TScan Therapeutics and ProTgen among drug sponsors using its Cell Shuttle platform across development and commercial manufacturing.

Those relationships include a USD $380 million global manufacturing agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb, which reserves commercial-scale capacity in the United States, Europe and Japan. Cellares also pointed to a 10-year commercial supply agreement with Cabaletta Bio that followed the first delivery of GMP cell therapy doses to patients on its platform.

Cell therapy manufacturing has become a bottleneck for parts of the biotech sector because the production process is complex, labour-intensive and often difficult to standardise across sites. Companies in the field are trying to lower costs and expand output as more personalised and autologous treatments approach wider use.

Cellares says its automated platform can increase the number of batches produced compared with conventional contract development and manufacturing organizations with similar space and staffing levels. It also said the platform has received the US Food and Drug Administration's Advanced Manufacturing Technology designation.

For Cellares, the latest addition to the shareholder register also brings a partner that can help with operations on the ground in continental Europe. The company linked that regional expertise to the practical demands of setting up manufacturing services across several markets at the same time.

"A global cell therapy manufacturing network has to be built in all major markets at once," said Fabian Gerlinghaus, Co-Founder and CEO of Cellares.

"Prime Radiant's operational depth in pharma services across continental Europe makes them a strategic partner as we expand our manufacturing presence in Europe. The investors who have joined this Series D reflect the strength of the platform and the scale of what comes next," said Gerlinghaus.