Cancer Research Horizons Seed Fund
Cancer Research Horizon’s 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 its dedicated Ventures team, to help bridge one of the most challenging stages of start-up creation: attracting early-stage risk capital.
Far too many breakthroughs 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. The fund invests in promising, early-stage opportunities sourced from the 4,000 researchers funded by Cancer Research UK in the UK, globally through its Cancer Grand Challenges programme, its global partnerships, and the wider research community.
Through the fund, early-stage capital and venture creation support are provided, including entrepreneurial training, commercial advice, support with intellectual property, and access to experts, mentors, and management teams. It also catalyses co-investment to maximise the chances of start-ups becoming financially attractive to investors and benefiting cancer patients.
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