Cellares Raises $257 Million Series D Led by BlackRock and Eclipse to Industrialize Global Cell Therapy Manufacturing with Breakthrough Automation

• New investors include T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Inc., Baillie Gifford, Duquesne Family Office, Intuitive Ventures, EDBI, and Gates Frontier

• Funding enables global commercial launch and unconstrained supply of cell therapies, expanding access to hundreds of thousands of patients annually

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cellares, the first Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO), today announced a $257 million Series D financing co‑led by investment funds managed by BlackRock and Eclipse, bringing the company’s total capital raised to $612 million.

The Series D adds a new group of leading global investors, including accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Inc., Baillie Gifford, Duquesne Family Office, Intuitive Ventures, EDBI, and Gates Frontier, alongside continued participation from existing backers DC Global Ventures, DFJ Growth, and Willett Advisors.

​“Cellares is building the high-tech, industrial backbone required for cell therapy to scale globally,” said Andrew Farris, Managing Director at BlackRock. “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.”

The round will fund the global buildout of automated IDMO Smart Factories across South San Francisco, CA; Bridgewater, NJ; Leiden, the Netherlands; and Kashiwa City, Japan, to enable commercial launch and unconstrained manufacturing of cell therapies for hundreds of thousands of patients annually.​

“For decades, cell therapy manufacturing has been constrained by artisanal, manual processes,” said Joe Fath, Partner and Head of Growth at Eclipse. “Cellares has shown that integrated and high-throughput automation can meet regulatory standards, support commercial programs, and scale globally to unlock life-saving cell therapies for hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide.”

Cellares expects to support clinical manufacturing in the first half of 2026, with commercial-scale manufacturing beginning in 2027.

“The barrier to curing more patients is no longer scientific — it is industrial,” said Fabian Gerlinghaus, Co-Founder and CEO of Cellares. “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.”

Cellares’ IDMO model replaces manual labor‑intensive contract manufacturing with the most advanced technologies for manufacturing and quality control — fully automated, GMP-compliant and ready for clinical and commercial use. The company’s Cell Shuttle™ system delivers end‑to‑end, closed‑system cell therapy production, while its Cell Q™ platform automates in‑process and release testing for thousands of patients per year. Together, these systems provide up to roughly 10‑fold higher throughput and lower per‑patient costs compared with conventional CDMO facilities of similar scale.​ Where conventional CDMOs need to build 10 facilities to achieve commercial-scale capacity, Cellares needs to build one facility. Where conventional CDMOs need to hire and train thousands of employees, Cellares needs to hire hundreds.

The platform has automated various cell therapy processes and modalities across biotechnology and pharmaceutical partners. Cellares entered into a $380 million global manufacturing agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb, reserving commercial‑scale capacity in the United States, Europe, and Japan. The Cell Shuttle™ has also received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) designation, which can enable expedited review of regulatory submissions that incorporate the platform.​

About Cellares

Cellares is an Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO) focused on the automated, large-scale manufacture of cell therapies. The company provides global biopharmaceutical partners with development and commercial manufacturing services designed to address the capacity, consistency, and cost limitations of traditional, labor-intensive production models.

Cellares operates fully automated manufacturing and quality control platforms — Cell Shuttle™ for end-to-end cell therapy manufacturing and Cell Q™ for automated in-process and release testing — across its network of IDMO Smart Factories. These cGMP-compliant systems enable higher process reproducibility, improved manufacturing success rates, and up to approximately 10x higher throughput compared to conventional CDMO approaches with similar footprint and headcount.

Headquartered in South San Francisco, California, Cellares operates a commercial-scale Smart Factory in Bridgewater, New Jersey, with additional facilities under construction in Europe and Japan. For more information, visit cellares.com and follow Cellares on LinkedIn.

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