Leaps by Bayer Leads $80M Series A Financing for Cellino Biotech to Autonomize Stem Cell Therapy Manufacturing

& LEVERKUSEN, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cellino Biotech, Inc., an autonomous cell therapy manufacturing company, today announced the completion of a Series A financing of $80 million, led by the impact investment arm of Bayer AG —Leaps by Bayer— 8VC, and Humboldt Fund. Currently, large scale production of stem cell therapies is challenging due to extensive manual handling, high variability, and expensive manufacturing costs. “We believe that artificial intelligence-driven manufacturing is the next important inflection point towards industrializing cell therapies, which undoubtedly are one of the core technologies to advance biotech from treatment to prevention or disease reversal. Cellino’s next-generation process combines label-free imaging, high-speed laser editing, and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate cell reprogramming, expansion, and differentiation in a closed cassette format. They are all working on potentially breakthrough technologies to overcome some specific challenges such as providing sustainable organ & tissue replacement, reducing the environmental impact of agriculture, preventing, or curing cancer, and others.