Cargo Therapeutics, a San Mateo, CA-based biotechnology company advancing a next generation of CAR T-cell therapies for cancer, closed a $200m upsized Series A financing.
The round was co-led by Third Rock Ventures, RTW Investments, LP and Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund, and includes additional new investors Nextech, Janus Henderson Investors, Ally Bridge Group, Wellington Management, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Cormorant Asset Management and Piper Heartland. Founding investor Samsara BioCapital and existing seed investors Red Tree Venture Capital and Emerson Collective also participated in the financing.
Launched in 2021 by Samsara BioCapital in collaboration with CAR T pioneers, Crystal Mackall, MD, and Robbie Majzner, MD, and accomplished cancer advocate, Nancy Goodman, JD, and led by Gina Chapman, CEO, Cargo Therapeutics leverages proprietary platform technologies to engineer and develop next-generation best-in-class CARs that incorporate complex therapeutic cargo with the potential to achieve durable responses that are curative for more cancer patients.
The company intends to use the proceeds from the financing to advance its autologous CD22 CAR T-cell therapy candidate, CRG-022, through a pivotal multicenter Phase 2 trial in patients with LBCL whose disease has relapsed or is refractory to CD19 CAR T-cell therapy, and to advance its proprietary platform technologies and discovery-stage programs to deliver better outcomes for patients with cancer who have high unmet need.
