CREATE Medicines Raises $122M for In Vivo Cell Therapy

In a significant development for the advanced therapeutics sector, CREATE Medicines has successfully closed a $122 million Series B funding round. This substantial capital infusion, co-led by prominent life science investors Newpath Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, and Hatteras Venture Partners, with participation from existing backers including Alexandria Venture Investments, will accelerate the company's pioneering work in in vivo cell programming.

The biotech firm, founded by the innovators behind PillPack and a former Amazon executive, is focused on developing therapies that engineer immune cells directly within the patient's body. This approach bypasses the complex and costly ex vivo manufacturing processes traditionally associated with cell therapies. The newly acquired funds are earmarked for advancing CREATE Medicines' repeat-dose CD19-targeted in vivo CAR-T program into clinical trials, expanding its dual-CAR CD19 x BCMA program, and further bolstering its broader oncology pipeline.

This funding round underscores a clear investor preference for differentiated platforms with a tangible path to clinical execution. CREATE Medicines' existing track record, having already dosed over 50 patients and recently initiating a Phase 1/2 study for its MT-304 program, provides a strong foundation for this substantial investment. The market for cell and gene therapies continues to expand, with projections indicating significant growth driven by advancements in genetic engineering and a growing understanding of disease mechanisms. Companies demonstrating robust clinical data and scalable manufacturing solutions are attracting considerable attention.

Beyond the headline-grabbing cell therapy deal, other innovative companies also secured significant funding. equipifi raised $34 million in a Series B round led by Left Lane Capital, with continued support from Curql and PHX Ventures. equipifi provides the infrastructure for banks and credit unions to embed flexible payment options, including Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), directly into their digital banking platforms. This move reflects a broader trend of financial institutions seeking to reclaim customer relationships and revenue streams from third-party fintech providers, especially as consumer adoption of embedded finance solutions triples year-over-year.

Further demonstrating investor confidence in infrastructure plays, Nectar Social garnered $30 million in Series A funding, with Menlo Ventures, True Ventures, and GV among the participants. Nectar Social is developing an agentic operating system designed to streamline modern marketing operations, integrating social intelligence, community management, and influencer engagement tools. Additionally, Iceotope Group secured $26 million in Series B financing, co-led by Two Seas Capital and Barclays Climate Ventures, with contributions from Edinv, ABC Impact, Northern Gritstone, and British Patient Capital. Iceotope's focus on liquid-cooling solutions for high-density AI data center racks addresses the critical infrastructure needs of the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence sector, where efficient thermal management is paramount.

The day's funding activity also saw Stitch raise $25 million in Series A for modern financial infrastructure, and GovWell secure $25 million in Series A for its AI-powered government permitting solutions. Wirestock, focused on multimodal AI training data, raised $23 million in Series A. These deals collectively highlight a market that is prioritizing companies capable of demonstrating operational leverage and delivering measurable return on investment, particularly those that can replace legacy workflows with scalable, software-driven platforms across diverse sectors from healthcare and finance to government and AI infrastructure.