New investors in the round included Felicis Ventures, which joined existing investors The Engine and Khosla Ventures. Cellino has raised a total of $96 million in gross proceeds from private financings to date.

Cellino's next-generation manufacturing platform combines artificial intelligence (AI) and laser technology to automate cell therapy manufacturing to reduce expenditures and overcome scaling limitations. The approach has the potential to reduce production costs by an order of magnitude and expand patient access to cell therapies, the firm said.

Proceeds from the series A financing round will be used to expand Cellino's software, machine-learning, and hardware capabilities for end-to-end manufacturing of both autologous and allogeneic stem cell-based therapies.

In addition, Cellino is building a long-term collaboration with the National Institutes of Health, where senior investigator Kapil Bharti, PhD, is leading the first autologous-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived clinical trial in the U.S. to validate Cellino's manufacturing approach. The company also plans to build early-stage good manufacturing practices capabilities to support clinical trials.

Cellino's next-generation process combines label-free imaging, high-speed laser editing, and AI to automate cell reprogramming, expansion, and differentiation in a closed-cassette format. Cellino's approach enables the parallel processing of thousands of patient samples in a single facility, which is vital for scalable manufacturing. The company plans to build the first autonomous human cell foundry in 2025.

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