SINGAPORE and UNITED STATES — 22 JULY 2026 — Tikva Allocell today announced the successful closing of an $8 million Series A financing round, led by Kantharos Capital. The capital will accelerate the development of Tikva’s novel off-the-shelf, engineered allogeneic T-cell platform designed to tackle persistent challenges in solid tumor oncology.
The funding will primarily support the completion of IND-enabling studies and regulatory filings for Tikva’s lead candidate, TAVST01, as the company prepares to enter clinical development in both Singapore and the United States.
With this financing, we are well positioned to complete IND-enabling studies and advance TAVST01 toward its planned IND submission, bringing us closer to delivering a scalable, readily available, and potentially transformative cell therapy for patients with solid tumors.
Managing Partner at Kantharos CapitalOur investment reflects strong conviction in both Tikva's science and its leadership team. Tikva is addressing fundamental challenges that have constrained allogeneic cell therapies, and we believe its ALLO SerpinB9 EBVST platform can extend the reach of cell therapy to solid-tumor patients who today have limited options. We look forward to supporting the company toward IND submission and clinical evaluation.
While allogeneic (donor-derived) cell therapies hold immense promise for scalable cancer treatment, host immune rejection often clears (allorejection) these cells before they can deliver sustained therapeutic benefit.
Tikva’s platform solves this challenge through a multi-pronged approach:
- EBV-Specific T-Cell Backbone: Built on donor Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-specific T cells—cells the human immune system naturally recognizes and tolerates long-term—minimizing Graft-versus-Host Disease (GvHD) risk without requiring heavy gene editing.
- SerpinB9(CAS) “Armor”: Engineered with an optimized variant of SerpinB9 (a inhibitor of granzyme B and caspases). This enhancement shields the cells from host cell rejection and activation-induced cell death (AICD), enabling long-term persistence in the tumor microenvironment.
Our lead candidate, TAVST01, targets B7-H3—an antigen widely overexpressed across multiple high-need solid tumors, including including lung, breast, prostate, pancreatic, and pediatric cancers.
About Tikva Allocell
Tikva Allocell Pte Ltd is a late preclinical stage biotech company headquartered in Singapore. Our cell therapy platform is an off-the-shelf CAR-T therapy, utilizing highly specific second-generation allogeneic T cells prepared from the blood of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive healthy individuals. Our approach exploits the intrinsic properties of Virus-Specific T cells (VSTs), enhanced by IP-protected novel repurposing strategies to enhance cell performance and safely target patients with solid tumors including gastric, prostate and triple negative breast cancers.
For more information on Tikva, please visit www.tikvaallocell.com.
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