95+
start-ups supported
24
exits to date
£3.55bn
raised by our portfolio to date
We support you every step of the journey
Identify and evaluate the opportunity
We help evaluate your idea and give you advice and support on the best way to progress it.
Build a business case
We help shape the business proposition by securing IP, identifying key value propositions, and accessing advice from our expert and investor networks.
Secure funding
We help founders to access funds through the Cancer Research Horizons Seed Fund and a wide network of partner investors on a global scale.
Form a company
Once all pre-formation stages are complete, we'll help you set up your company, advising on all parts of the incorporation process.
Our entrepreneurial programmes
We're inspiring a generation of scientific entrepreneurs to bridge the gap between academic research and real-world impact. Our entrepreneurial programmes include training, accelerator programmes and events. These programmes are targeted at early-career researchers, but they're open to all, regardless of career stage.
Access investment
You can access pre-seed and seed investment for your start-up through the Cancer Research Horizons Seed Fund.
So far we've been able provide early stage funding to 22 exciting new ventures and we have an ongoing commitment to investing in world-class academic research that has the potential to transform how we prevent, diagnose and treat cancer.
Natalie Mount: from lab bench to boardroom
Founders' stories
Natalie Mount, CEO of Cytospire Therapeutics and winner of our 2025 Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, spoke to us about why she loves start-ups, how the life sciences industry has changed, and the advice she’d give to would-be entrepreneurs.
Frequently asked questions
We offer several funding streams to take you to the next stage of your commercialisation journey, whether you want to validate a discovery, license a dataset, or grow a start-up.
We know that translating your idea might seem complex, so we’re here to guide you through it.
Our entrepreneurial training covers the very early stages from building your network and learning entrepreneurial skills through to resources, knowledge and funding to turn your innovative idea into an ambitious start-up.
We can help you arrange the appropriate IP rights to protect your research. We have technology transfer agreements with most universities that cover how we operate in this space.
We can cover the cost of filing a patent and support you through the development of your project so it can reach its full potential.
If you think your work might have translational potential, get in touch with us as soon as possible.
With our support, you can access funding, data and translational infrastructure to take your discoveries from the lab and turn them into tests, treatments and interventions.
Our drug discovery expertise spans target identification, validation and clinical positioning, through Hit identification and lead optimisation to the selection of candidate drugs for regulatory development, for both small molecule and antibody modalities.
Through partnership with the Cancer Research UK Centre for Drug Development we can also offer access to the capabilities and infrastructure needed to demonstrate clinical potential.
For our entrepreneurial community, we regularly hold an Innovation Summit and our hugely successful Innovation & Entrepreneurship Awards. Cancer Research UK also holds a variety of scientific conferences across the research spectrum.
There are also a wide range of events and networking opportunities offered through some of the partners we work with to deliver entrepreneurial training.
Let's go further, faster, together
We're here with support and advice for all stages of building your business.