Azalea Therapeutics Launches with $82M Funding to Pioneer In Vivo Cell Engineering

BERKELEY, CA —November 4, 2025— Azalea Therapeutics, Inc., a new biotechnology company, today announced its official launch and the completion of $82 million in seed and Series A financing. The funding will advance its proprietary Enveloped Delivery Vehicle (EDV) technology, which aims to revolutionize cell and gene therapy by engineering therapeutic cells directly inside the patient (in vivo). The financing, which includes a recently closed $65 million Series A, was led by Third Rock Ventures, with participation from RA Capital Management, Yosemite, Sozo Ventures, and select individual investors.

The EDV Platform: Redefining CAR-T Delivery

Azalea’s mission is to simplify cell therapy, aiming to make it “as simple as dosing a medicine.” The company’s EDV technology is a dual-vector platform that provides precise, site-specific genome editing within T cells in vivo, eliminating the need for complex ex vivo manufacturing and harsh pre-treatment like lymphodepletion.

The platform works by:

1. Selective Targeting: Delivering transient CRISPR-Cas9 cargo to target T cells.
2. Precise Insertion: Utilizing a highly efficient T cell-tropic AAV to deliver a promoterless homology-directed repair template.

This approach allows for the programmable, site-specific insertion of large genes, such as Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) genes, under the control of a native T cell-restricted promoter. This dual-layer precision has the potential to boost durability, efficacy, and safety compared to current methods.  “At Azalea, we are aiming to make cell therapy as simple as dosing a medicine,” said Jenny Hamilton, Ph.D., co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Azalea Therapeutics.

Pipeline and Academic Roots

The $82 million will be used to advance several programs into the clinic, including:

• A CD19-based in vivo CAR-T therapy for B cell malignancies and autoimmune diseases.
• A BCMA-targeted in vivo CAR-T program for multiple myeloma.
• An undisclosed program for solid tumors.

Azalea emerged from collaborative research at the Innovative Genomics Institute, stemming from the laboratories of Nobel laureate Dr. Jennifer Doudna (UC Berkeley) and Dr. Justin Eyquem (UC San Francisco). Dr. Doudna is a co-founder, bringing deep expertise in genome engineering to the company.