MPower Partners announces its investment in Cyto-FactoApril 22, 2024; Tokyo, Japan: MPower Partners Fund, Japan’s first ESG-focused global venture
capital fund, has invested in Cyto-Facto Inc. (Kobe, Japan), a CMO/CDMO company for cell andgene therapy.
Historically, medical treatments have been administered in the form of drugs or surgery. Morerecently, cell therapies such as regenerative medicine using tissue stem cells that candifferentiate into target cells after transplantation and replace damaged tissues, Cell and Gene
Therapy (CGT) using gene-transferred T-cells that are enhanced cytotoxic effect of the patient'sown T-cells (CAR-T) to target the blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma and solid
tumors, and gene therapy that delivers target genes to cure the congenital or incurable diseases
at the genetic level are also underway.
Cyto-Facto functions as a CMO (Contract Manufacturing Organization) and CDMO (ContractDevelopment and Manufacturing Organization) for CGT therapy. With a mission to "improve
lives in Japan and beyond by swift and reliable delivery of novel CGT (cell & gene therapy)
products," they work closely with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to develop andmanufacture cutting-edge cell therapies.
Cyto-Facto was spun out from the Foundation for Biomedical Research and Innovation at Kobe(FBRI) in April 2023. FBRI was established as part of the Kobe Biomedical Innovation Cluster,which grew out of the reconstruction efforts following the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.
In 2015, the Research & Development Center for Cell Therapy (RDC) was established as thefourth center in FBRI to promote a wide range of development support for cell therapy, frombasic research to pharmaceutical commercialization. Led by Shin Kawamata, MD, PhD, whopioneered the field of CGT in Japan with more than two decades of research, the RDC was thefirst facility to manufacture a CAR-T product, Novartis' Kymriah, in Asia. Following completionof clinical trials and regulatory filing, RDC began commercial production of Kymriah in 2000 andhas treated more than 200 patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic
leukemia.

MPower is pleased to support Cyto-Facto's continued efforts and to co-lead this Series A roundwith existing investor D3 LLC. We have been impressed not only by Cyto-Facto's track record at
Novartis, but also by the team's determination to develop cell manufacturing software,
CytoFactory 4.0 (CF4.0), that could further improve the CGT manufacturing process at every
step. MPower intends to support the Cyto-Facto team not only in commercial manufacturing, butalso in their efforts to promote environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, such as
reducing medical waste throughout the life cycle of pharmaceutical products.

Comments from Shin Kawamata, Cyto-Facto CEO
One year has passed since we spun out from FBRI, and we owe this milestone to our great
business partners and stakeholders. Our team is very grateful to have raised nearly 1.2 billion
Japanese yen in this round of funding, and we believe it is a testament to the societal
importance of our business and the high expectations for our growth.
We are humbled and excited to work with our investors, MPower Partners and D3, who areco-leading this round. D3 has been an ongoing supporter of Cyto-Facto since their initialinvestment in the summer of 2023, and we are grateful to receive their investment again withMPower, a globally minded and ESG-focused venture capital fund. With other VCs, corporates
and trading firms also participating in this round, we are confident in our journey to become aglobally competitive company.

Cyto-Facto’s Press Release regarding this round (Japanese)
URL: https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000004.000125654.html
About Cyto-Facto
Location: Shimin Byoin Mae bldg 3F. 2-1-11, Minatojima-minamimachi, Cyuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo
CEO: Shin Kawamata
Business: Cell and gene therapy CMO/CDMO
Corporate URL: https://www.cytofacto.com/company/About MPower Partners
MPower Partners Fund is Japan’s first ESG-integrated global venture capital fund that aims
to support entrepreneurs providing solutions to societal challenges through the power oftechnology, and to promote sustainable growth by incorporating ESG (Environment, Social,Governance) into their core business strategies.
For more information, please visit: https://www.mpower-partners.com
For inquiries, please contact: info@mpower-partners.com
This press release has been prepared for the purpose of providing information to qualified
institutional investors and potential portfolio companies of the Fund, and is not a disclosure
document pursuant to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, and does not constitutea solicitation or recommendation to purchase the Fund.