Industrial-Scale Cell Therapy Automation Gains Traction with New Cellares Funding

Cellares’ Jan. 28, 2026 announcement of a $257 million Series D financing led by BlackRock and Eclipse marks a significant juncture for efforts to industrialize cell therapy manufacturing using advanced automation and an integrated development and manufacturing organization (IDMO) model. The funding, which brings the company’s total capital raised to $612 million, is intended to accelerate deployment of automated IDMO smart factories across North America, Europe, and Asia, with the aim of supporting large-scale clinical and commercial production of cell therapies at throughput levels that could serve hundreds of thousands of patients annually (1).

Why does this funding matter to cell therapy manufacturing?

Cellares’ Series D round was co-led by investment funds managed by BlackRock and Eclipse, with participation from a broad constellation of institutional investors. “Cellares is building the high-tech, industrial backbone required for cell therapy to scale globally,” said BlackRock’s managing director, Andrew Farris, in a company press release (1). Farris cited automation, regulatory recognition, and commercial demand as key drivers.

The impact on the biopharmaceutical industry lies in addressing one of the most persistent bottlenecks in cell and gene therapy: manufacturing scale. Traditional contract development and manufacturing organizations depend on manual, labor-intensive processes that constrain throughput, introduce variability, and inflate costs. Cellares’ IDMO model employs fully automated platforms—including its Cell Shuttle system for end-to-end manufacturing and its Cell Q platform for high-throughput quality control—to reduce manual intervention, improve reproducibility, and achieve up to roughly 10-fold higher throughput than conventional approaches (1).

This shift from artisanal to industrial manufacturing is consistent with broader industry calls for Industry 4.0 solutions to the manufacturing bottleneck, which emphasize integration, automation, and replicability across geographies and production scales. An analysis of the IDMO model highlights the need for “fully closed and automated end-to-end manufacturing platforms” and standardized smart factories to enable global scale and to meet total patient demand for cell therapies (2).

How has Cellares’ strategy evolved over the past few years?

Cellares’ current fundraising and expansion represent an evolution from its initial market entry as a novel IDMO. In mid-2023, the company secured $255 million in Series C funding to launch its first commercial-scale IDMO Smart Factory in Bridgewater, NJ—a facility designed to integrate robotics, purpose-built hardware, and interconnected software capable of producing tens of thousands of batches per year (3).

Partnerships with biopharmaceutical sponsors have been central to that strategy. In 2023, global pharma company Bristol Myers Squibb joined Cellares’ Technology Adoption Partnership (TAP) program to evaluate transfer of chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) manufacturing processes onto the automated Cell Shuttle platform (4). Under an expanded agreement, the engagement included a second proof-of-concept tech transfer for a CAR-T therapy, reflecting industry interest in automation for scalable production (5).

These collaborations preceded a $380 million global manufacturing agreement between Cellares and Bristol Myers Squibb in 2024, under which multiple automated systems were allocated for commercial-scale CAR-T production across facilities in the United States, Europe, and Japan. This agreement has been view as not just a contract manufacturing deal but a strategic alignment aimed at meeting rising global demand for complex cell therapies and overcoming traditional manufacturing limits (6).

What are the industry implications of automated smart factories?

The deployment of IDMO smart factories represents a tangible application of automation and smart manufacturing principles in a field where manufacturing has historically lagged behind clinical advances. Fully automated systems have the potential to reduce cost of goods, standardize quality, and accelerate technology transfer between facilities—outcomes that could enable broader adoption of advanced cell therapies.

Commercial operations are expected to ramp up in 2027, following clinical manufacturing support in the first half of 2026, as noted in the Series D announcement. If realized, the anticipated increase in capacity could influence how sponsors plan manufacturing strategies, allocate resources, and structure partnerships with infrastructure providers (1).

As cell therapy portfolios expand beyond hematological cancers into solid tumors and other indications, scalable manufacturing solutions will be critical to realizing clinical impact and commercial viability. Cellares’ financing milestone, in the context of evolving IDMO adoption and strategic industry partnerships, underscores the urgency and complexity of industrializing production for living drugs in the era of personalized medicine.

References

1. Cellares. Cellares Raises $257 Million Series D Led by BlackRock and Eclipse to Industrialize Global Cell Therapy Manufacturing with Breakthrough Automation. Press Release. Jan. 28, 2026.
2. Tomtishen, J. Ushering in Industry 4.0 with the IDMO Model to Solve the CGT Manufacturing Bottleneck. Pharmaceutical Technology®/Pharmaceutical Technology® Europe/BioPharm International®, Trends in Manufacturing eBook, May 2025.
3. Cellares. Cellares Raises $255M Series C to Launch First Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO) and Pioneering Smart Factory to Meet Global Demand for Life-Saving Cell Therapies. Press Release. Aug. 23, 2023.
4. Cellares. Cellares Announces Bristol Myers Squibb has Joined Technology Adoption Partnership Program to Evaluate Automated Manufacturing of CAR-T Cell Therapy on the Cell Shuttle Platform. Press Release. Aug. 28, 2023.
5. Cellares. Cellares Announces Expanded Agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb to Include Second CAR-T Program in Cellares’ Technology Adoption Partnership Program. Press Release. Oct. 11, 2023.
6. Bristol Myers Squibb. Bristol Myers Squibb and Cellares Announce a $380M Worldwide Capacity Reservation and Supply Agreement for the Manufacture of CAR T Cell Therapies to Bring the Promise of Cell Therapy to More Patients, Faster. Press Release. April 22, 2024.