Bologna’s Cellply secures €7.15 million to develop tools for faster immunotherapy and cell therapy development
Cellply, a Bologna-based DeepTech startup developing analytical tools enabling a deep characterisation of cancer immunotherapies, cell therapies and cell-based biotherapeutics, has completed the largest portion of its latest funding round, securing €7.15 million to date.
The investment was led by ENEA Tech e Biomedical, with additional participation from existing shareholders, including the SAFE conversion into equity by CDP Venture Capital (through its Fondo Rilancio). The company states that a limited final allocation remains available to selected investors.
Alessia Zanelli, President and CEO at Cellply, said, “This investment provides the resources to accelerate our commercial expansion and advance innovative quality control solutions that can help unlock broader adoption of ATMPs worldwide.”
Founded in 2013 by Massimo Bocchi and Roberto Guerrieri, Cellply is a biology-focused deep tech company developing tools to enable rapid development of new immunotherapies and cell-based therapies with enhanced potency and persistence.
The company creates solutions capable of characterising these exciting therapeutic modalities at single-cell resolution. Its flagship product is called VivaCyte®, an analytical system for the discovery and process development of cell therapies. VivaCyte enables the characterisation of immune cells at an “unprecedented resolution and scale”, with a fully automated analysis, from sample preparation to image processing.
The company has combined patented microfluidic technology, AI-powered automated image analysis, and comprehensive automation with dedicated software to create VivaCyte®.
Cellply plans to use this capital to accelerate the international expansion of its flagship VivaCyte® platform, increasing commercial presence across key global markets. The funding will also be used to advance the development of next-generation automated functional testing solutions for ATMP quality control. With this, the company aims to deliver high precision in cell potency assessment while streamlining batch release.
Alongside the funding, Cellply has also added Miro Venturi to its Board of Directors. Venturi is an industry veteran with decades in diagnostics, life sciences, and corporate leadership, and has made significant contributions to precision medicine at scale.
Today, Cellply concentrates on advancing research and development in cell therapies. Its future goal is to significantly reduce the cost and complexity of batch release and potency assays in quality control for these innovative therapies.
In 2023, the company raised €3.6 million led by Recomec, managed by the Zanelli family, LIFTT, and Schia Ventures.
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