Wugen rebrands as Allotera, closes $35M financing round

Allotera Therapeutics, formerly known as Wugen, closed a $35 million financing round and changed its name in the same announcement, bringing total capital raised to $150 million in its Series C.

The funds will support pivotal-stage development of sofi-cel, a CD7-targeted, allogeneic CAR-T made from healthy donor T-cells rather than the patient's own, using CRISPR/Cas9 to knock out CD7 and TRAC. Sofi-cel is being evaluated in relapsed/refractory T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma (T-LBL) and already holds Breakthrough Therapy, RMAT, Fast Track, Orphan Drug, and Rare Pediatric Disease designations from the FDA, plus PRIME designation in the EU.

The new round of financing, a mix of equity and venture debt, builds on the $115 million Series C the St. Louis company announced in late 2025. Fidelity Management & Research led the round, with existing investors plus new backing from Lightchain Capital, BioGenerator, and Blood Cancer United's Therapy Acceleration Program (TAP); Banc of California provided the venture debt.

The Allotera rebrand is meant to signal the company's narrower focus on allogeneic, off-the-shelf CAR-T cell therapies for patients with T-cell cancers.