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Oncology investors
Who finances the companies attacking cancer: venture funds that lead oncology rounds, the venture arms of large pharma, Y Combinator, and the disease foundations that invest rather than grant. Each record has a plain-English summary and a portfolio derived from the startups that name it, so the list grows as startup records do.
70 investors64 with at least one portfolio company in OnCoPortfolio links are declared on the startup record and derived here.
70 investors
| Companies | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Y Combinator San Francisco, CA, US Y Combinator is the start-up accelerator that funds hundreds of new companies a year in return for a small stake. Since 2014 it has backed a steady stream of companies going after cancer, from blood tests to engineered viruses. | 63 | Adialante, Adventris Pharmaceuticals, Algen Biotechnologies | 2005 | ||
Even One Ventures United States (head office not published), US Even One Ventures is a venture studio that builds companies in the image of one patient's playbook: Sid Sijbrandij, the GitLab co-founder who, told in 2024 that he had run out of options for recurrent osteosarcoma, assembled a team, pursued every diagnostic and built individualised treatments in parallel. | 14 | Arden Bio, Echo Immune, Ignitus Bio | none | ||
RA Capital Management Boston, MA, US A Boston investment firm that funds biotech companies both privately and on the stock market, and incubates its own. Its cancer bets include Aktis Oncology, CG Oncology and Bicara Therapeutics. | 10 | Adcendo, Adela, Alentis Therapeutics | 2002 | ||
Atlas Venture Cambridge, MA, US A Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech-only venture firm that seeds and incubates new drug companies. Cancer companies it has built include Bicycle Therapeutics, Day One Biopharmaceuticals and Antares Therapeutics. | 6 | K36 Therapeutics, Mariana Oncology, Nimbus Therapeutics | 1980 | ||
Frazier Life Sciences Seattle, WA, US A life sciences venture firm that grew out of Frazier Healthcare Partners in Seattle and now operates independently, backing private and public biotech companies. | 6 | Alentis Therapeutics, Alpha-9 Oncology, Callio Therapeutics | none | ||
Alexandria Venture Investments Pasadena, CA, US Alexandria Venture Investments is the venture arm of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, the life science property company, and takes small, non-lead stakes across a large number of biotech start-ups, often tenants of its campuses, in oncology and other areas. Its web pages blocked automated access, so its own strategy and named cancer companies are unconfirmed. | 5 | Dantari, Enlaza Therapeutics, Immunai | none | ||
Flagship Pioneering Cambridge, MA, US A Cambridge, Massachusetts firm that invents and builds its own biotech companies rather than backing outside founders. Its cancer-focused companies include Foghorn Therapeutics and Repertoire Immune Medicines. | 5 | Foghorn Therapeutics, Generate:Biomedicines, Harbinger Health | 1999 | ||
Foresite Capital San Francisco, CA, US A San Francisco investment firm that funds healthcare companies at every stage with a data-science approach. Its cancer investments include CG Oncology, ALX Oncology, Kura Oncology and the blood-test company Delfi Diagnostics. | 5 | Mythic Therapeutics, Nested Therapeutics, Obsidian Therapeutics | 2011 | ||
ARCH Venture Partners Chicago, IL, US A Chicago venture firm that starts and funds science-heavy biotech companies. Several of its companies work on cancer drugs, cancer cell therapies and cancer diagnostics. | 4 | Arsenal Biosciences, Boundless Bio, Erasca | 1986 | ||
Jeito Capital Paris, FR Jeito Capital is a Paris fund that writes large cheques for European biotech companies so they can take drugs through late-stage trials without selling early. Cancer medicines are a recurring theme. | 4 | Adcendo, Alentis Therapeutics, Callio Therapeutics | 2018 | ||
Lightspeed Venture Partners Menlo Park, CA, US Lightspeed is a large Silicon Valley venture firm best known for software, whose health practice backs cancer diagnostics, AI drug discovery and digital oncology companies. | 4 | Alpha-9 Oncology, Enlaza Therapeutics, Pheon Therapeutics | 2000 | ||
Logos Capital San Francisco, CA, US Logos Capital is a San Francisco healthcare investment firm that backs biotech companies from private rounds through their public life, and turns up repeatedly in cancer drug financings. | 4 | Adcendo, Obsidian Therapeutics, Tango Therapeutics | none | ||
Novo Holdings Hellerup, DK The investment company of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, based near Copenhagen. It is one of the largest life science investors in the world and its venture portfolio includes cancer companies such as Myricx Bio, which Novartis agreed to buy. | 4 | Adcendo, Alentis Therapeutics, Callio Therapeutics | none | ||
OrbiMed New York, NY, US OrbiMed is a New York healthcare investment firm managing about 20 billion dollars across venture, private equity, public equity and royalty strategies, with teams in North America, Europe and Asia. Its cancer portfolio includes Adcendo (antibody-drug conjugates), Adela (blood-based cancer detection), Adicet Bio (immune-cell therapies) and Alterome (alteration-specific drugs). | 4 | Adcendo, Adela, Alentis Therapeutics | 1998 | ||
Versant Ventures San Francisco, CA, US A San Francisco life sciences venture firm that builds biotech companies in its own laboratories in North America and Europe. It created the radiopharmaceutical company RayzeBio and backed Gritstone, Repare and Abdera. | 4 | Abdera Therapeutics, Firefly Bio, Nested Therapeutics | 1999 | ||
Andreessen Horowitz Bio + Health Menlo Park, CA, US The life sciences and healthcare arm of the Silicon Valley venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). It backs founders who mix biology, software and care delivery, including a small number of cancer drug and diagnostics start-ups. | 3 | Alpha-9 Oncology, Thyme Care, Valar Labs | 2009 | ||
Bpifrance Paris, FR Bpifrance is the French state investment bank, created in 2012, which combines loans, guarantees, innovation grants and equity investment. Through its biotech funds and the France 2030 programme it co-invests, usually alongside private venture funds, in French oncology drug, diagnostics and radiotherapy hardware developers, which is why it appears in French oncology financing rounds. | 3 | Adcendo, Alentis Therapeutics, THERYQ | 2012 | ||
Cancer Research Horizons London, GB The innovation and commercial arm of the charity Cancer Research UK. It turns charity-funded discoveries into start-ups and licences, and runs a seed fund; its alumni include Autolus, KuDOS and Myricx Bio. | 3 | Inivata, Monte Rosa Therapeutics, Myricx Bio | none | ||
Cormorant Asset Management Boston, MA, US A Boston biotech investment firm led by Bihua Chen that invests in private and public life sciences companies and is a frequent name in crossover rounds. Its website could not be reached at the time of research. | 3 | BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics, Stablix, Tango Therapeutics | none | ||
DCVC Palo Alto, CA, US DCVC, once Data Collective, is a deep-tech venture firm whose DCVC Bio arm backs computational biology and cancer diagnostics companies. | 3 | Noetik, Radionetics Oncology, Valar Labs | 2011 | ||
Samsara BioCapital Palo Alto, CA, US A Palo Alto life sciences investment firm founded by Srinivas Akkaraju that invests in private and public biotech companies. Its website could not be read at the time of research. | 3 | Alpha-9 Oncology, Enlaza Therapeutics, Tango Therapeutics | none | ||
Section 32 (S32) San Diego, CA, US Section 32 is a venture firm founded by the former head of Google Ventures that invests across biology, healthcare and computing, including AI-native cancer diagnostics and therapeutics companies. | 3 | Exai Bio, Nested Therapeutics, Nucleai | 2017 | ||
SV Health Investors London, GB A London and Boston healthcare investor with 30 years of history that runs biotech, medtech and growth funds, including a dementia fund. Its biotech portfolio includes cancer companies such as Bicycle Therapeutics and Xilio Therapeutics. | 3 | Bicycle Therapeutics, Nimbus Therapeutics, Xilio Therapeutics | none | ||
TCGX (TCG Crossover) San Francisco Bay Area, CA, US TCGX is a crossover fund: it invests in private biotech companies in the round or two before they list, then keeps holding the shares as public investors. Several cancer drug developers in OnCo raised from it. | 3 | Adcendo, Obsidian Therapeutics, Pheon Therapeutics | none | ||
Venrock Palo Alto, CA, US The Rockefeller family's venture firm, formed in 1969, which invests in technology and healthcare companies from its Palo Alto and New York offices. Its website could not be read without JavaScript. | 3 | Adcendo, Enliven Therapeutics, Mythic Therapeutics | 1969 | ||
ACS BrightEdge (American Cancer Society) Atlanta, GA, US BrightEdge is the American Cancer Society's own venture fund. It invests donated money in start-ups working on cancer and returns any gains to the charity's mission. | 2 | Naveris, TailorMed | none | ||
Amgen Ventures Thousand Oaks, CA, US Amgen Ventures is the venture arm of the biotech company Amgen. It takes minority stakes in early companies whose science could matter to Amgen, including cancer drug and platform start-ups. | 2 | Enlaza Therapeutics, Kernal Biologics | 2004 | ||
Casdin Capital New York, NY, US A New York investment firm founded by Eli Casdin that invests in life sciences companies on both public and private markets. Its venture list includes cancer companies such as Black Diamond Therapeutics and Function Oncology. | 2 | Exai Bio, Tango Therapeutics | none | ||
Deerfield Management New York, NY, US A New York healthcare investment firm that funds companies, runs its own drug discovery labs and a philanthropy arm. It founded and seeded Nuvalent, a lung cancer drug company that GSK agreed to buy for $10.6 billion. | 2 | Adela, Neomorph | 1994 | ||
EcoR1 Capital San Francisco, CA, US EcoR1 Capital is a San Francisco investment fund that only invests in biotech, from private rounds to listed companies, and often leads the crossover financings of cancer drug developers. | 2 | Neogene Therapeutics, Tango Therapeutics | 2013 | ||
F-Prime Capital Cambridge, MA, US F-Prime Capital is the venture firm that grew out of Fidelity's own money. It invests in healthcare and technology companies, including cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, from seed to growth. | 2 | Adela, K36 Therapeutics | none | ||
Forbion Naarden, NL A Dutch venture firm that funds European and North American biotech companies from formation to late-stage growth. Its homepage says it manages around EUR 5 billion across 11 funds. | 2 | Mariana Oncology, Pheon Therapeutics | none | ||
Gilde Healthcare Utrecht, NL Gilde Healthcare is a Dutch investor with separate funds for venture-stage health companies and for established healthcare businesses, backing diagnostics, medical technology and therapeutics across Europe and the United States. | 2 | Adcendo, GT Medical Technologies | none | ||
Leaps by Bayer Berlin, DE Bayer's impact investing unit, which funds companies tackling ten 'leaps' in health and agriculture, including curing cancer. Its website blocked automated access at the time of research. | 2 | Affini-T Therapeutics, Century Therapeutics | none | ||
Longwood Fund Boston, MA, US Longwood Fund is a Boston venture firm that founds and funds early biotech companies, several of them in cancer. | 2 | Neomorph, Photys Therapeutics | 2010 | ||
McKesson Ventures San Francisco, CA, US McKesson Ventures is the venture arm of the drug distributor McKesson, which also owns the largest US community oncology network, so it backs companies that change how cancer care is delivered and paid for. | 2 | OncoHealth, Reimagine Care | none | ||
MPM BioImpact Boston, MA, US A Boston biotech investor, formerly MPM Capital, that builds and funds companies and runs an Oncology Impact Fund that donates part of its profits to cancer research. It built Aktis Oncology and backs Cullinan Oncology and Tizona. | 2 | Firefly Bio, Photys Therapeutics | none | ||
Novartis Venture Fund Basel, CH The Novartis Venture Fund is Novartis's corporate venture arm, run from Basel and Cambridge, Massachusetts, making seed and Series A investments of 5 to 10 million dollars in biotech companies, including the cancer drug developers Artios Pharma, CatalYm and Epsilogen. It manages over 750 million dollars across more than 40 companies. | 2 | Amphista Therapeutics, Bicycle Therapeutics | none | ||
Omega Funds Boston, MA, US A Boston and Geneva venture firm that invests in medicines across oncology, immunology and rare disease. Its impact page lists cancer products it helped bring to patients, including the lung cancer drug Ibtrozi and the colorectal screening test Epi proColon. | 2 | Callio Therapeutics, Photys Therapeutics | none | ||
Perceptive Advisors New York, NY, US Perceptive Advisors is a New York healthcare investment firm founded by Joseph Edelman in 1999 that runs a public-market fund, a credit fund and, through Xontogeny, a venture fund backing seed and Series A biotech companies from preclinical work to clinical proof of concept. It is one of the most frequent crossover investors in oncology IPOs. | 2 | Mythic Therapeutics, Pheon Therapeutics | 1999 | ||
Pfizer Ventures New York, NY, US Pfizer's corporate venture arm, which invests in early biotech companies in the areas Pfizer cares about, including cancer. Its oncology portfolio includes Artios Pharma, Crossbow Therapeutics and Strata Oncology. | 2 | CytoReason, Triana Biomedicines | none | ||
Polaris Partners Boston, MA, US A Boston venture firm with a long record of co-founding biotech companies with academic scientists such as Bob Langer. Its cancer companies include Syros Pharmaceuticals, Kronos Bio and the blood-test company Freenome. | 2 | Neogene Therapeutics, Noetik | 1996 | ||
Sanofi Ventures Cambridge, MA, US Sanofi's strategic venture fund, which invests in early biotech and digital health companies before they are ready to partner with or be bought by Sanofi. Cancer-related holdings include the radiopharmaceutical company AdvanCell and the immune checkpoint company Abcuro. | 2 | Nucleai, Trial Library | none | ||
Sante Ventures Austin, TX, US Sante Ventures is an Austin, Texas healthcare venture firm that invests early in medical devices, diagnostics, biotech and health technology, including cancer companies. | 2 | Geneos Therapeutics, Reimagine Care | 2006 | ||
Vida Ventures Boston, MA, US Vida Ventures is a life sciences venture firm founded by scientists, physicians and investors that creates and funds biotech companies, often with partners such as MPM. Oncology dominates its portfolio: Aktis Oncology (radiopharmaceuticals), Adcendo (antibody-drug conjugates), Allogene (off-the-shelf CAR-T) and Halda Therapeutics, sold to Johnson & Johnson. | 2 | Adcendo, Neogene Therapeutics | none | ||
5AM Ventures San Francisco, CA, US A venture firm with offices in San Francisco and Boston that funds early-stage drug companies and also runs a public-market fund. Its cancer investments include the cell therapy company Artiva, the protein degrader pioneer Arvinas and Enliven Therapeutics. | 1 | Radionetics Oncology | none | ||
Andera Partners Paris, FR A Paris private equity firm whose life sciences team, through its BioDiscovery funds, invests in European and US drug and medtech companies. Its life sciences portfolio includes the cancer T-cell therapy company T-Knife. | 1 | Nouscom | none | ||
Bain Capital Life Sciences Boston, MA, US The life sciences investing arm of Bain Capital in Boston. It funds later-stage private and public biotech companies, including cancer drug developers such as Olema Oncology, Nuvalent, Revolution Medicines and Mersana. | 1 | Tango Therapeutics | 2016 | ||
Boxer Capital San Diego, CA, US A San Diego biotech investment firm that backs precision medicine companies from private rounds through public listing. Its venture highlights include cancer drug developers Mirati, G1 Therapeutics, Tango and Elevation Oncology. | 1 | Tango Therapeutics | none | ||
EQT Life Sciences Amsterdam, NL The life sciences venture arm of the Swedish investment group EQT, formerly the Amsterdam firm LSP (Life Sciences Partners). It funds European and US biotech and medtech companies, including in cancer. | 1 | Cyted Health | none | ||
Founders Fund San Francisco, CA, US Peter Thiel's San Francisco venture firm, best known for SpaceX, Palantir and Anduril. Its public portfolio page does not name any cancer companies, so its relevance to oncology is limited. | 1 | Ataraxis AI | 2005 | ||
General Catalyst Cambridge, MA, US A large venture firm founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that now spans seed to growth and even owns a hospital system. Its health portfolio includes the radiopharmaceutical company Alpha-9 Oncology and the radiology AI firm Aidoc. | 1 | Alpha-9 Oncology | 2000 | ||
GV (Google Ventures) Mountain View, CA, US Alphabet's venture arm, established in 2009. It has backed some of the best-known cancer diagnostics companies, including Foundation Medicine, Grail, Freenome and Flatiron Health, as well as cancer drug developers such as Forty Seven and Gritstone. | 1 | Nimbus Therapeutics | 2009 | ||
Illumina Ventures Foster City, CA, US An independently managed venture firm with a strategic tie to the sequencing company Illumina. It backs genomics and precision health start-ups, including cancer companies such as Delfi Diagnostics, Actym Therapeutics and Oncko. | 1 | DELFI Diagnostics | none | ||
Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC New Brunswick, NJ, US Johnson & Johnson's venture capital arm, one of the oldest corporate venture groups in healthcare. It invests alongside J&J's innovation centres and JLABS incubators, including in cancer companies. | 1 | On Target Laboratories | none | ||
Khosla Ventures Menlo Park, CA, US Vinod Khosla's Menlo Park venture firm, which backs bold early-stage technology companies including health and biology start-ups. Cancer-related bets include the blood-test company Guardant Health and the AI oncology start-up Radical Health. | 1 | Noetik | 2004 | ||
Lilly Ventures Indianapolis, IN, US Eli Lilly's investment arm, part of its Lilly Catalyze360 programme for early biotech companies. It co-invests with venture syndicates across all disease areas, including cancer. | 1 | Firefly Bio | none | ||
Lux Capital New York, NY, US A New York venture firm that backs deep technology companies, from defence and AI to biology. Its biotech holdings include the AI drug discovery company Recursion and the imaging-based drug hunter Eikon Therapeutics. | 1 | Trial Library | 2000 | ||
Medicxi London, GB A London and Geneva venture firm that funds single-asset drug companies run by experienced drug hunters. Its cancer companies have included ProfoundBio (bought by Genmab), Kurome Therapeutics and Gadeta. | 1 | ProfoundBio | none | ||
MSD Global Health Innovation Fund (Merck GHI) Rahway, NJ, US Merck & Co's corporate venture fund for digital health and healthcare services companies, known as MSD GHI outside North America. Its website is a JavaScript application whose content could not be read. | 1 | Turbine | none | ||
Sofinnova Partners Paris, FR One of Europe's oldest life sciences venture firms, based in Paris. It has backed cancer companies such as Innate Pharma, Crescendo Biologics and Hookipa, and its portfolio company Myricx was bought by Novartis. | 1 | Mablink Bioscience | 1972 | ||
SR One London, GB SR One is a transatlantic biotech venture firm that began as GSK's corporate venture arm and now invests independently from London and the US West Coast. Oncology accounts for a large share of its portfolio, including Akamis Bio (gene-based immunotherapy), Avenzo Therapeutics, Charm Therapeutics (menin inhibitors for acute myeloid leukaemia) and Biotheryx (protein degradation). | 1 | Nimbus Therapeutics | none | ||
Syncona London, GB A London-listed investment company that founds and funds UK life science companies and holds them for the long term. Its cancer companies include the CAR-T company Autolus and the precision oncology firms iOnctura and Mosaic Therapeutics. | 1 | Neogene Therapeutics | 2012 | ||
Third Rock Ventures Boston, MA, US Third Rock Ventures builds biotech companies from scratch around a scientific idea, then funds and staffs them. Several of the best-known precision oncology companies of the last fifteen years started in its offices. | 1 | Asher Biotherapeutics | 2007 | ||
AbbVie Ventures North Chicago, IL, US AbbVie's corporate venture arm, which invests in early-stage biotech companies in AbbVie's therapeutic areas including cancer. Its web pages blocked automated access at the time of research. | 0 | none | none | ||
Break Through Cancer Cambridge, MA, US A Cambridge, Massachusetts foundation, founded in 2021 and led by Tyler Jacks, that funds teams across several cancer centres to work together on the deadliest cancers. It funds research projects rather than companies. | 0 | none | 2021 | ||
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Therapy Acceleration Program Rye Brook, NY, US The venture philanthropy arm of the blood cancer charity now called Blood Cancer United (formerly the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society). It invests charity money directly in companies developing blood cancer treatments. | 0 | none | 1949 | ||
Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation and Myeloma Investment Fund Norwalk, CT, US A patient-founded charity for the blood cancer multiple myeloma that also runs a venture philanthropy fund investing in companies developing myeloma treatments. Fund investments include Reverb Therapeutics, Abcuro, Coding Bio and CytoImmune. | 0 | none | 1998 | ||
Roche Venture Fund Basel, CH Roche's corporate venture fund, based in Basel, which takes minority stakes in early biotech and diagnostics companies. Its web pages could not be located at the time of research. | 0 | none | none | ||
Takeda Ventures Cambridge, MA, US Takeda Ventures, founded in 2001, is Takeda's corporate venture group, investing in preclinical, platform-based drug companies whose programmes complement Takeda's pipeline in oncology, rare genetics and haematology, neuroscience and gastrointestinal disease. Its page lists no portfolio companies, so no cancer examples are recorded here. | 0 | none | 2001 |
Method. An investor is listed when it has led or joined a disclosed oncology round, runs a dedicated oncology programme, or is a disease foundation with a venture arm. The portfolio count is the number of OnCo company records that name the investor in their `investors` field; it undercounts every fund and says nothing about cheque size or ownership. Corrections through the edit link on any record.