Shanghai-based Vivacta Biotechnology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. has closed combined Series A and Series A+ financing totaling over USD 50 million to advance its in vivo CAR-T cell therapy platform, with lead candidate GT801 currently in active Phase I clinical development across oncology and autoimmune indications.
The Series A was led by Loyal Valley Capital and the Series A+ by Decheng Capital, with participation from OrbiMed, Hankang Capital, Eisai Innovation Inc., and C&D Emerging Industry Equity Investment. Existing shareholders Qiming Venture Partners, Beijing Shunxi, and Apricot Capital also participated. The company said proceeds will fund GT801 clinical trials, support regulatory submission and approval, expand its research team, and accelerate global operations. Upon closing of the Series A+, Xie Ronggang from Loyal Valley Capital and a partner from DC Global Ventures joined Vivacta's board of directors. The Series A and Series A+ represent the company's first publicly disclosed institutional financing rounds.
Vivacta is a spin-off of Grit Biotherapeutics and was established to advance in vivo CAR-T therapies built on Grit Bio's proprietary CLAMP (Controllable Ligand Attachment Modification and Purification) technology, which enables site-specific antibody conjugation to lipid nanoparticle surfaces with precise ligand density control. The platform uses T-cell-targeted lipid nanoparticles (T-LNPs) encapsulating chemically modified mRNA encoding a CAR gene, designed to reprogram a patient's circulating T cells directly in the body following intravenous administration, bypassing the complex ex vivo manufacturing process required by approved CAR-T products. The CLAMP technology was described in a 2025 publication in Nature Nanotechnology.
GT801 is an anti-CD19 in vivo CAR-T candidate currently being evaluated in two recruiting Phase I studies: one in adult patients with relapsed or refractory CD19-positive B-cell hematologic malignancies and autoimmune hemolytic anemia, and a second trial in moderate-to-severe refractory autoimmune diseases. Initial human data from GT801 were presented via oral report at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting in December 2025, where the company said the candidate demonstrated encouraging early safety and efficacy signals in both hematological malignancies and autoimmune disease patients.