Captain T Cell closes $23M financing round to advance TCR-T pipeline to clinic

Captain T Cell announced the successful closing of an equity financing round, which, along with already secured grants, provides the company with a total budget of $23 million (EUR 20 million) to advance its autologous program to clinical phase 1 read-outs and its allogeneic program for off-the-shelf solid tumor treatments towards clinical trial readiness.

The round was led by Springboard Health Angels and Pluton Asset Holding, joined by Sintra Limited and Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen, as well as existing investors i&i Biotech Fund, HIL-INVENT and Brandenburg Kapital.

The funds will enable the company´s lead program, CTC127, to progress into a first-in-human phase 1 clinical trial in patients with multiple advanced MAGE-A4-positive solid tumor indications, including lung, bladder, gastroesophageal, ovarian, and head and neck cancers. CTC127 is based on Captain T Cell’s proprietary engineering toolbox, which enables functional “armoring” of T cells to enhance their anti-tumor activity, persistence and resilience within the solid tumor microenvironment.

In parallel, the company has already demonstrated complete solid tumor responses in vivo with a program leveraging its first-in-class allogeneic TCR-T cell platform and will advance it toward clinical trial readiness. Furthermore, the company plans to extend its proprietary best-in-class toolbox towards in vivo T cell therapy applications.