Cell therapy manufacturer Cellares has secured $255 million in Series C funding that will be used to launch the world’s first commercial-scale Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO) Smart Factory in Bridgewater.

The funding, announced Aug. 23, was led by new investor Koch Disruptive Technologies, alongside Bristol Myers Squibb, DFJ Growth, Willett Advisors and existing investors Eclipse, Decheng Capital and 8VC.

Cellares, which is headquartered in South San Francisco, says that the 118,000-square-foot IDMO Smart Factory in Bridgewater will seamlessly integrate advanced robotics, purpose-built technology and interconnected software.

The company notes that IDMO Smart Factories can produce 10 times more cell therapy batches per year than traditional CDMO, or Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization, facilities — even with the same footprint and workforce.

“The creation of the first IDMO marks the beginning of a new era, in which cell therapies will finally be able to reach patients in need,” said Cellares CEO Fabian Gerlinghaus. “We’ve developed integrated technologies for the entire drug development and manufacturing life cycle. Now we’re leveraging these technologies to offer global manufacturing services for the living drugs of the 21st century.

“Our partners are some of the best academics, biotechs, and large pharma companies in the world,” Gerlinghaus continued. “We’re enabling them to meet total patient demand, improve consistency and quality, lower manufacturing costs, and accelerate expansion to new markets.”

“Cell therapies have tremendous curative potential across a wide range of diseases. But right now, manufacturing by conventional CDMO’s is expensive, failure-prone, and impossible to scale,” said Koch Disruptive Technologies Managing Director Dave Mauney, who will also join the Cellares’ board of directors. “Cellares is driving transformation in the marketplace by combining an Industry 4.0 approach with full vertical integration. As the first IDMO, Cellares is empowering cell therapy companies to build viable businesses, remain competitive, and meet the needs of fast-growing patient populations.”

Cellares’ modular platform, the Cell Shuttle, can be scaled for cell therapy manufacturing.

The Bridgewater site, which will be dedicated to commercial-scale manufacturing, has capacity for 50 Cell Shuttles and will be capable of producing 40,000 cell therapy batches per year. It is expected to be ready to start production in the second half of next year.