Cellares Grows Series D to $327 Million with $50 Million Prime Radiant Partners Investment
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--( BUSINESS WIRE)--Cellares, the first Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO), today announced that Prime Radiant Fund SLP SICAV-RAIF, a fund advised by Prime Radiant Partners, has made a $50 million growth equity investment in the company’s Series D financing, bringing the total Series D to $327 million. Prime Radiant joins a distinguished list of investors including ARK Invest, investment funds managed by BlackRock, Eclipse, T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Inc., Duquesne Family Office, Baillie Gifford, Intuitive Ventures, EDBI, Gates Frontier, DC Global Ventures, DFJ Growth, and Willett Advisors.
“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.”
“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.”
The investment supports the next phase of Cellares’ global Smart Factory buildout. Cellares’ global manufacturing facility, under construction in Leiden, the Netherlands, is designed to serve drug sponsors across global markets with the same automated manufacturing infrastructure available in the United States and will be GMP-ready in 2027. Prime Radiant’s experience in European healthcare services, anchored by offices in Milan and Munich, positions it to support Cellares’ expansion as demand for automated cell therapy manufacturing grows across the region.
The Series D extension reflects the growing commercial breadth of Cellares’ manufacturing platform. Cellares now operates active programs spanning CAR T, TCR-T, and progenitor T cell therapies, with drug sponsors including Bristol Myers Squibb, Cabaletta Bio, TScan Therapeutics, and ProTgen engaged with the Cell Shuttle ® platform across development and commercial manufacturing stages. Anchoring that pipeline are Cellares' $380 million global manufacturing agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb, which reserves commercial-scale capacity in the United States, Europe, and Japan, and a 10-year commercial supply agreement with Cabaletta Bio signed in April 2026 following the first successful delivery of GMP cell therapy doses to patients on the Cell Shuttle.
About Prime Radiant Partners
Prime Radiant Fund SLP SICAV-RAIF is a Luxembourg based alternative investment fund advised by Prime Radiant Partners, an advisory firm specializing in middle-market high-growth, innovation-driven private equity investments within the healthcare and life sciences sectors across North America and Europe. Prime Radiant Partners’ leaders have more than 70 years of combined experience as investors, operating executives, and strategic partners who bring differentiated sector expertise, a data-driven investment process, and relentless focus on operational excellence. Prime Radiant has offices in New York, Milan, and Munich. For more information, visit: https://www.primeradiantpartners.com.
About Cellares
Cellares is the first Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO), providing global cell therapy development and manufacturing services through an Industry 4.0 approach to the mass manufacture of the living drugs of the 21st century. The company enables drug sponsors to develop, scale, and commercialize cell therapies with the capacity, reliability, and economics required to meet total patient demand.
Cellares' fully automated platforms — Cell Shuttle ® for end-to-end cell therapy manufacturing and Cell Q™ for automated in-process and release quality control — are deployed across its network of IDMO Smart Factories worldwide. These technologies deliver industry-leading manufacturing economics, higher process success rates, and the ability to produce up to 10× more cell therapy batches than conventional CDMOs with comparable footprint and headcount, resulting in the lowest cost of manufacturing in the industry. The Cell Shuttle is the first cell therapy manufacturing platform to receive the FDA's Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) designation, and has demonstrated a 100% automation success rate across more than a dozen automated processes.
Cellares has achieved key clinical validation milestones, including a successful IND Amendment enabling active clinical manufacturing on the Cell Shuttle platform, and the successful dosing of first patients in a partner clinical trial — marking the platform's transition from development-stage technology to clinically validated manufacturing infrastructure. These milestones span multiple therapeutic areas and cell therapy modalities, including both oncology and autoimmune indications.
Headquartered in South San Francisco, California, Cellares operates its first commercial-scale IDMO Smart Factory in Bridgewater, New Jersey, with additional facilities under construction in Europe and Japan. Through its global manufacturing network, Cellares is purpose-built to support both clinical and commercial programs and to expand access to life-saving cell therapies worldwide. For more information, visit www.cellares.com and follow Cellares on LinkedIn.