Cancer Research Horizons Seed Fund

Accelerating high-potential, early-stage innovations into patient impact through seed funding, expert networks and business building support.

£7.8m

Seed Fund committed to date

£32.6m

co-investment secured to date

19

new investments to date

7

investments pending

About our Seed Fund

Our Seed Fund builds on 25 years of creating and building successful start-ups. It is a £15m investment commitment from Cancer Research UK, managed by our dedicated Ventures team, to help bridge one of the most challenging stages of start-up creation: attracting early-stage risk capital.

Far too many of the breakthroughs still stall in their early stages due to a funding gap between cutting-edge academic cancer research and a start-up becoming ready for scale-up investment. We invest in promising, early-stage opportunities, sourced from the 4,000 researchers we fund in the UK, and globally through our Cancer Grand Challenges programme, our global partnerships, and the wider research community.

Through this fund we can provide early-stage capital and venture creation support including entrepreneurial training, commercial advice, support with intellectual property, access to experts, mentors and management teams. We also catalyse co-investment to maximise the chances of start-ups becoming financially attractive to investors and benefiting cancer patients.

Our investment strategy

Our investment decisions are driven by the potential for patient impact – we take risks others can’t, adopting novel and challenging ideas that hold promise for real innovation, meet unmet needs and have the potential to save and enhance lives. Having a sustainable fund that isn’t subject to market fluctuations or shareholder return allows us to take risks others can’t and to take a long-term view.

Our investment remit includes therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices and data-driven and AI solutions.

Any returns we generate are reinvested in the fund and cancer research. We’re also fundraising to boost the fund, to extend its scale and longevity.

Donate to the Cancer Impact Booster

Funding available

Early-stage validation capital

Rapid-access funding to help bridge the gap between a new idea and some validating data, obtain expert regulatory advice, entrepreneurial training and/or support market research
Up to £50k

Pre-seed capital

Investment capital to evaluate and support the technical feasibility and commercial potential of early-stage technologies
Typically £50-150k
This applies to pre-company formation or early-stage company validation

Seed capital

To assist new company creation and early growth, or further develop a start-up proposition before forming a new company
Typically £100-500k, with the ability to invest up to £1m on occasion

Follow-on capital

For our seed invested portfolio companies, we have the ability to provide follow-on capital to help drive maturation where additional capital may incentivise external investment
Typically £100-500k, with the ability to invest up to £1m on occasion

Application process

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Get in touch

Reach out with your idea. Our team will work with you to assess the commercial potential of the start-up opportunity and advise on the best way to proceed.

Contact the ventures team

Develop the opportunity

Our expert team will support you to ensure we build the most compelling proposition. Depending on the stage, this could include connecting to our network, help with the business plan, or team training suggestions.

Apply for investment

Once ready, we'll assist you with completing the application documents and presenting the opportunity for consideration to our independent Investment Committee.

Further support

Once investment is approved, we'll work with you to put in place all required documentation, secure co-investors where applicable, and implement under flexible models at pace.

Ventures team

Our Ventures team have a long-standing track record of sourcing, evaluating and creating start-ups. They manage the Seed Fund work alongside an independent investment committee to review applications.

Meet the team