Curocell said Monday that it has attracted 36 billion won ($30 million) of pre-initial public offering (IPO) investment, 16 months after it attracted Series C investment in 2020.

Among existing investment institutions, Stic Ventures, DS Asset Management, Seoul Investment Partners, Ryukyung PSG Asset Management, JX Partners, and Quad Investment Management participated in the pre-IPO investment.

Also, Moonchase Asset Management, Widwin Investment, and Ad Biotech Investment Association made new investments as new financial investors (FI) and SK Plasma as strategic investor (SI).

SK Plasma, which participated in this Pre-IPO as a strategic investor, plans to jointly promote domestic and overseas commercialization of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T treatment under development by Curocell.

Through the pre-IPO investment, Curocell plans to build Korea’s largest good manufacturing practice (GMP) plant for CAR-T treatment, which has recently begun construction, and accelerate the clinical trial of CRC01, a next-generation CD-19 CAR-T treatment currently undergoing clinical trials in Korea.

With the success of this pre-IPO investment, Curocell has attracted 97.5 billion won in investment over the five years since its establishment and plans to go public on the Kosdaq market in the second half of 2022.

Meanwhile, Curocell started constructing a GMP factory and research center to produce CAR-T therapeutics in the Dungok district, the Daejeon International Science Business Belt base district.

The CAR-T Center, which consists of a GMP factory and two R&D centers, has a total floor area of 17,325 square meters and is six stories high. The company plans to complete the center's construction by the first half of 2023.

The GMP plant for CAR-T treatment is likely to be equipped with a clean room for CAR-T production and a QC laboratory, and the company expects to start production of CAR-T in 2024.