Celularity Enters Strategic Partnership With DefEYE Including An Exclusive License And Pricing Agreement Tied To Celularity's In-Kind Investment In DefEYE's $12M Series Seed Preferred Equity Funding Round

Author: Benzinga Newsdesk | October 30, 2025 07:16am

Celularity Inc. (NASDAQ:CELU) ("Celularity"), a regenerative and cellular medicine company addressing age-related and degenerative diseases, announced today a strategic partnership with DefEYE, Inc. ("DefEYE"), a newly established ophthalmic product and technology company. Celularity has executed an exclusive license & pricing arrangement with DefEYE on the backend of Celularity's in-kind investment in DefEYE's $12MM Series Seed Preferred Equity funding round.

DefEYE was established to build on Verséa Ophthalmics' commercial momentum, reflected in significant year-over-year sales growth since its August 2022 launch. According to DefEYE, sales increased in 2024 by nearly 70% over the prior year. DefEYE expects to use the proceeds of its Series Seed Preferred Equity round to launch and scale a robust portfolio of decellularized biologic solutions for eye care, including:

• Single and tri-layer Decellularized Amniotic Basement Membrane, Biovance® and Biovance® 3L Ocular, respectively.
• Interfyl®, a flowable human connective tissue derived from the chorionic plate.
• Collaborative research and development for future commercial products.
  
   

Celularity granted DefEYE an exclusive sublicense to Celularity's ophthalmic biologics portfolio, which includes Biovance®, Biovance® 3L, Interfyl®, and CentaFlex. Celularity will be the exclusive contract manufacturer for DefEYE's portfolio of ophthalmic biologics solutions.

"The partnership reflects a strategic opportunity to align for both companies and signals the start of a promising new chapter for regenerative therapies in eye care," said Robert J. Hariri, M.D., Ph.D., Celularity's Chairman and CEO. "Our in-kind investment and exclusive license and pricing agreement exemplify Celularity's commitment to drive innovation through strategic partnerships. We are excited to be part of DefEYE's focused expansion into the ophthalmic space and to demonstrate the transformative power of placental-derived regenerative biologic solutions. This strategy fits into our objective of accessing new markets for our portfolio of commercial products," Hariri said.

Posted In: CELU