Top 10 Cancer treatment startups

Updated: March 21, 2024

Oncology startups develop new cancer treatments and diagnostics technologies, like genome analysis, patient big data analyses, AI, immunotherapy, antibody therapy, gene therapy, stem cells, nanoparticles for drug-delivery...
1
Country: USA | Funding: $3B
At Moderna, we are pioneering the development of a new class of drugs made of messenger RNA (mRNA). This novel drug platform builds on the discovery that modified mRNA can direct the body’s cellular machinery to produce nearly any protein of interest, from native proteins to antibodies and other entirely novel protein constructs that can have therapeutic activity inside and outside of cells.
2
Country: Germany | Funding: $2.1B
CureVac is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the prophylactic and therapeutic application of messenger RNA.
3
Country: Germany | Funding: $1.7B
We are developing the next generation of personalized immunotherapies to help revolutionize the treatment of people with cancer and other debilitating diseases.
4
Country: USA | Funding: $1.4B
IOVANCE Biotherapeutics is focused on the development and commercialization of autologous cellular immunotherapies optimizing personalized, tumor-directed Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TIL)
5
Country: USA | Funding: $1.2B
TP Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that is focusing on overcoming drug resistance in precision medicines for cancer and other diseases.
6
Country: USA | Funding: $1.2B
Fate Therapeutics is a stem cell and developmental biology research company using biological mechanisms to develop stem cell therapeutics.
7
Country: USA | Funding: $1.2B
Kura Oncology, a biopharmaceutical company, advances a pipeline of precision medicines for the treatment of solid tumors and blood cancers.
8
Country: USA | Funding: $1B
NantHealth solutions are advancing diagnostics to better identify and target specific disease characteristics; transforming clinical and operational delivery with real time actionable clinical data, and promoting wellness for a healthier, happier world. We are building an integrated, evidence-based, omically-informed, personalized approach to the delivery of care and the development of next generation healthcare solutions.
9
Country: USA | Funding: $917.7M
Using our proprietary Antibody-Coupled T-cell Receptor (ACTR) technology, we are discovering and developing new cellular immunotherapies for cancer. The company doesn’t intend to make its own antibodies in-house, but rather align with various companies that want to enhance their experimental antibody drugs.
10
Country: Israel | Funding: $903.5M
Novocure is an oncology company pioneering a novel therapy for solid tumors called Tumor Treating Fields, or TTFields. TTFields are low intensity, alternating electric fields within the intermediate frequency range. TTFields disrupt cell division through physical interactions with key molecules during mitosis. This non-invasive treatment targets solid tumors.
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11
Country: USA | Funding: $901.8M
Allogene Therapeutics is a biotechnology company catalyzing cancer treatment through the development of CAR T therapy.
12
Country: USA | Funding: $890.7M
A simple blood test unlocks a new dimension in cancer management. Guardant360 is the only biopsy-free tumor sequencing test that tracks tumor genomics in real-time and identifies associated treatment options.
13
Country: UK | Funding: $808.8M
Immunocore is a privately owned, clinical-stage, UK-based biotechnology company, focused on the discovery and development of novel T cell receptor-based drugs to treat diseases with a high unmet need, including cancer and viral disease.
14
Country: USA | Funding: $796M
Crinetics Pharmaceuticals explores the inner life of GPCRs to discover and develop novel therapeutics targeting peptide hormone receptors for the treatment of rare endocrine disorders and endocrine-related cancers.
15
Country: UK | Funding: $781.6M
Autolus utilises advanced cell programming CAR-T and manufacturing technologies and we have established a development-stage pipeline of products for the treatment of haematological malignancies and solid tumours.
16
Country: USA | Funding: $752.6M
Zentalis is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing clinically differentiated, novel small molecule therapeutics.
17
Country: Switzerland | Funding: $751.6M
ADC Therapeutics is focused on the development of proprietary Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of both solid and hematological cancers. ADC Therapeutics employs monoclonal antibodies specific to particular tumor antigens conjugated to a novel class of highly potent pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) -based warheads to selectively kill cancer cells.
18
Country: Germany | Funding: $748.1M
MorphoSys' mission is to make exceptional, innovative biopharmaceuticals to improve the lives of patients suffering from serious diseases. Our focus is on cancer.
19
Country: China | Funding: $723.4M
Rakuten Aspyrian is developing tumor-targeted precision therapies based on its proprietary platform Photoimmunotherapy.
20
Country: Japan | Funding: $723.4M
Rakuten Medical is a privately funded clinical-stage biotechnology company. The Company develops medicines for the treatment of cancer based on photoimmunotherapy platform.
21
Country: USA | Funding: $647.1M
Arcus discovers and develops innovative cancer immunotherapies based on known but under-exploited biology. Arcus’s lead program targets the adenosine pathway, which has been shown to play a significant role in driving immuno-suppression in the tumor micro-environment.
22
Country: USA | Funding: $560M
Century Therapeutics is harnessing the power of adult stem cells to develop curative therapies for cancer. It develops iPSC-derived, allogeneic immune cell therapy products for cancer
23
Country: UK | Funding: $542.9M
Bicycle Therapeutics is developing a technology for the creation of new generation biotherapeutics.
24
Country: USA | Funding: $520.6M
We’ve created a pipeline of novel vaccine and immunotherapy programs that stimulate the T cell arm of the immune system, which is increasingly recognized as critical to generating protective immune responses against a wide array of diseases.
25
Country: USA | Funding: $506M
Loxo Oncology is innovating the development of highly selective medicines for patients with genetically defined cancers.
26
Country: USA | Funding: $499.8M
Atara Biotherapeutics is a leading off-the-shelf, allogeneic T-cell immunotherapy company developing novel treatments for patients with cancer, autoimmune and viral diseases, multiple sclerosis (MS).
27
Country: USA | Funding: $445M
Rubius is developing a new class of drugs, Red-Cell Therapeutics. Rubius is using advanced cellular therapies that harness the unique, inherent properties of red cells and marry them to the creative power of genetic engineering.
28
Country: USA | Funding: $431.1M
IDEAYA is an oncology-focused biotechnology company committed to the discovery of breakthrough synthetic lethality medicines for genetically defined patient populations and immuno-oncology therapies targeting immuno-metabolism and innate immunity.
29
Country: USA | Funding: $418M
RayzeBio is focused on improving outcomes for people with cancer by harnessing the power of targeted radioisotopes.
30
Country: USA | Funding: $400M
Celgene spinout that aims is to develop cells from placentas against blood cancers and is founded on the use of stem cells from placentas. The goal is to create therapies across autoimmune and degenerative disease, immuno-oncology, and functional regeneration.
31
Country: USA | Funding: $370.9M
Nurix develops small molecule inhibitors for the treatment of proliferative and degenerative diseases.
32
Country: USA | Funding: $355.2M
PathAI's goal is to improve cancer diagnosis using artificial intelligence. PathAI’s services solve the most challenging pathology problems faced by the research and pharmaceutical industry.
33
Country: USA | Funding: $350.5M
NeoGenomics is a cancer reference laboratory that provides cancer testing and partnership programs to pathologists and oncologists.
34
Country: USA | Funding: $347.9M
Atreca develops a technology to identify the set of antibodies produced during an immune response, without prior knowledge of an antigen.
35
Country: USA | Funding: $345.4M
CytomX is unlocking the potential of antibody therapeutics in oncology by developing a novel therapeutic antibody class of highly targeted Probody therapeutics.
36
Country: USA | Funding: $335.4M
Kite Pharma is a development-stage biotechnology company designing and developing immune-based therapies to treat cancer indications. Acquired by Gilead Sciences
37
Country: USA | Funding: $329.2M
ALX Oncology is a preclinical stage biotechnology company developing innovative immuno-oncology therapies for cancer.
38
Country: France | Funding: $328.2M
Cellectis is a biopharmaceutical company that develops adoptive immunotherapies for cancer.
39
Country: USA | Funding: $324.9M
Accelerating the fight against cancer requires the entire industry to work together. Our products connect community oncologists, academics, hospitals, life science researchers and regulators on a shared technology platform. Flatiron Health gathers and analyzes data on cancer treatments and sells software based on those insights
40
Country: USA | Funding: $324M
Frontier Medicines is a biopharmaceutical company that develops a chemoproteomics platform to accelerate the development of medicines.
41
Country: Czech Republic | Funding: $316.9M
SOTIO Biotech is shaping the future of cancer immunotherapies by translating compelling science into patient benefit.
42
Country: China | Funding: $312.8M
Harbour BioMed is a global biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapeutics in the field of immuno-oncology and inflammatory diseases.
43
Country: USA | Funding: $313M
Bicara Therapeutics develops dual-action cancer therapies, combining targeted treatments with tumor modulators for enhanced impact.
44
Country: USA | Funding: $310M
Juno Therapeutics is a clinical-stage company developing novel cellular immunotherapies based on two distinct and complementary platforms – Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs) and T Cell Receptors (TCRs) technologies. Our goal is to revolutionize medicine by re-engaging the body’s immune system to treat cancer.
45
Country: USA | Funding: $310M
NextCure is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing next generation immuno-oncology-based drugs.
46
Country: USA | Funding: $305.8M
ArsenalBio is focused on integrating technologies such as CRISPR-based genome engineering, scaled and high throughput target identification, synthetic biology, and machine learning to advance a new paradigm to discover and develop in immune cell therapies.
47
Country: UK | Funding: $298.6M
Artios is developing breakthrough cancer treatments that target DNA Damage Response (DDR) pathways to selectively kill cancer cells
48
Country: USA | Funding: $272.1M
Black Diamond Therapeutics is focused on the discovery and development of precision medicines for cancer that are directed against a novel class of allosteric mutant oncogenes.
49
Country: USA | Funding: $270M
Scorpion Therapeutics is a next-generation precision oncology company.
50
Country: USA | Funding: $262.6M
Apollomics is an emerging life sciences oncology company focused on developing innovative medicines targeting the growth and proliferation of cancer cells for which available treatments are inadequate.