Startups attacking cancer
Every young company in OnCo that is going after cancer: Y Combinator companies from the open YC directory, and venture-backed startups across therapeutics, diagnostics, AI drug discovery, digital care, radiotherapy hardware, surgery and imaging. Filter by stage, modality, cancer, YC batch, investor and country. Funding rounds are listed only where a press release, filing or trade report states them; investors are named on the startup, and each investor page derives its portfolio from those links.
YC oncology
Source: open YC directory datasetY Combinator companies whose stated work is cancer: detection, diagnostics, therapeutics, care delivery and the tools around them. Each one was checked against its YC profile and website. Click a batch to filter the table; the snapshot with every hit and how it was classified is in src/data/universe-lists/yc-oncology.json.
| Investors | Cancers | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kelonia Therapeutics Boston, MA, US · founded 2020 Kelonia developed a way to create CAR T cells directly inside the body using a targeted gene delivery particle, so patients do not need their cells removed and manufactured. Its lead programme is for multiple myeloma and Eli Lilly agreed to buy the company in 2026 for up to $7 billion. | none | Acquisition 2026 · $3.3B | none | Multiple myeloma | none | ||
Thyme Care Nashville, TN, US · founded 2020 Thyme Care gives people with cancer a 24 hour phone and app based support team of oncology nurses and social workers, paid for by their health insurer. It aims to keep people out of hospital and lower the cost of cancer care. | none | Series E 2026 · $125M | Foresite Capital, Andreessen Horowitz Bio + Health | none | none | ||
Naveris Waltham, MA, US · founded 2017 Naveris makes NavDx, a blood test that tracks DNA from the HPV virus shed by tumours, so doctors can confirm HPV-related throat and anal cancers and catch them coming back after treatment. It was bought by CareDx in 2026. | none | Acquisition 2026 · $160M | ACS BrightEdge | Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma | none | ||
Quantum Surgical Montpellier, FR · founded 2017 Quantum Surgical builds Epione, a robot that helps doctors guide needles through the skin to destroy liver and other tumours with heat or cold, making a minimally invasive treatment more precise and easier for less experienced operators. | none | Grant 2026 | none | Hepatocellular carcinoma, Colorectal cancer, Renal cell carcinoma | none | ||
MaaT Pharma Lyon, FR · founded 2014 MaaT Pharma makes gut microbiome treatments for people with blood cancer. Its lead product restores gut bacteria to treat a severe complication of stem cell transplants when standard drugs fail. | none | Debt 2026 | none | none | none | ||
Perimeter Medical Imaging AI Toronto, CA · founded 2013 Perimeter makes a scanner that gives surgeons a microscope-level 3D look at the edges of tissue they have just removed during breast cancer surgery, with artificial intelligence flagging suspicious areas, so they can take more tissue immediately rather than bringing the patient back for a second operation. | none | Crossover 2026 | none | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, Triple-negative breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer | none | ||
Adcendo Copenhagen, DK Adcendo is a Danish company developing antibody-drug conjugates, antibodies that deliver a cell-killing drug straight to cancer cells, against targets few others are pursuing. Its first medicines are in early human trials, including one for soft tissue sarcoma. | none | Series C 2026 · $75M | TCGX, OrbiMed, Venrock, Logos Capital, RA Capital Management, Novo Holdings, Gilde Healthcare, Jeito Capital, Vida Ventures, Bpifrance | Sarcomas | none | ||
Allotera Therapeutics (formerly Wugen) St. Louis, MO, US Allotera, formerly Wugen, makes off-the-shelf CAR T-cell therapies from healthy donor cells for T-cell leukaemias and lymphomas, which are hard to treat with conventional CAR T because the cancer cells look like the therapy cells. Its lead product is in a global pivotal trial. | none | Series C 2026 · $35M | none | Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, Acute myeloid leukaemia | none | ||
Arcellx Redwood City, CA, US Arcellx developed anito-cel, a CAR T-cell therapy for multiple myeloma that reprogrammes a patient's own immune cells to attack a marker called BCMA. Gilead bought the company in 2026 for about $7.8 billion ahead of a possible US approval. | none | Acquisition 2026 · $7.8B | none | Multiple myeloma | none | ||
ClearNote Health San Diego, CA, US ClearNote Health sells blood tests that look for chemical marks on DNA fragments in the blood to catch pancreatic and ovarian cancer early in people at high risk. | none | Series D 2026 · $52M | none | Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Ovarian cancer | none | ||
Cullgen San Diego, CA, US Cullgen designs drugs that tag disease-causing proteins for destruction by the cell's own recycling system, and links such drugs to antibodies. In May 2026 it became part of Gyre Therapeutics, a US and China company focused on fibrosis. | none | Acquisition 2026 · $300M | none | none | none | ||
Empyrean Medical Systems Boca Raton, FL, US Empyrean Medical Systems is a Florida company developing new radiotherapy machines, including one that uses magnets to shape very high energy electron beams and a robotic arm system for delivering radiation during surgery. None of its patient-treatment devices is yet cleared for sale. | none | Debt 2026 | none | none | none | ||
Firefly Bio South San Francisco, CA, US Firefly Bio attaches protein-destroying molecules to antibodies so they are delivered only into cancer cells, a new twist on antibody-drug conjugates. Johnson & Johnson bought the company for about 1 billion dollars in 2026. | none | Acquisition 2026 · $1B | Versant Ventures, MPM BioImpact, Lilly Ventures | none | none | ||
GT Medical Technologies Tempe, AZ, US GT Medical Technologies makes GammaTile, small dissolvable collagen tiles containing radioactive caesium seeds that a neurosurgeon places in the cavity left after removing a brain tumour, so radiation starts immediately and the patient avoids weeks of daily radiotherapy visits. | none | Series E 2026 · $100M | Gilde Healthcare | Glioma & glioblastoma | none | ||
Kanvas Biosciences Monmouth Junction, NJ, US Kanvas maps which bacteria live in the gut and turns that knowledge into bacterial medicines that help cancer immunotherapy work better and treat its gut side effects. | none | Series A 2026 · $48M | none | Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Monteris Medical Minnetonka, MN, US Monteris makes NeuroBlate, a system that lets a neurosurgeon destroy a brain tumour from the inside with a laser fibre inserted through a small hole in the skull while watching the heat spread on a live MRI scan, avoiding open brain surgery. | none | Series E 2026 · $28M | none | Glioma & glioblastoma | none | ||
Myricx Bio London, GB Myricx Bio invented a new kind of cancer-killing payload, which blocks an enzyme tumour cells need to survive, and attaches it to antibodies that carry it into tumours. Novartis bought the London company in 2026 for 1.1 billion dollars up front. | none | Acquisition 2026 · $1.1B | none | none | none | ||
Neomorph San Diego, CA, US Neomorph makes small molecules called molecular glues that stick a disease protein to the cell's disposal machinery so it is destroyed. Its first drug is in an early trial for clear cell kidney cancer. | none | Series B 2026 · $100M | Deerfield Management, Longwood Fund, Alexandria Venture Investments | Renal cell carcinoma | none | ||
Nucleus RadioPharma Rochester, MN, US Nucleus RadioPharma does not make its own cancer drugs; it manufactures and ships radioactive cancer medicines for other companies, which is hard because the drugs decay within days. It is expanding its plants in Minnesota and Pennsylvania. | none | Series B 2026 · $50M | OrbiMed | none | none | ||
Nykode Therapeutics Oslo, NO Nykode makes cancer vaccines that teach the immune system to attack tumours. One is built from each patient's own tumour mutations; another targets cancers caused by the HPV16 virus, such as cervical cancer. | none | Crossover 2026 | none | Cervical cancer, Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma | none | ||
Obsidian Therapeutics Cambridge, MA, US Obsidian grows a patient's own tumour-fighting immune cells and engineers them with a switch that lets doctors control a growth signal (IL-15) with an oral drug, aiming to make TIL therapy safer and more effective for melanoma and lung cancer. It listed on Nasdaq in August 2026 after raising $350 million. | none | Crossover 2026 · $350M | Atlas Venture, Foresite Capital, Logos Capital, Novo Holdings, RA Capital Management, TCGX | Melanoma, Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
OSE Immunotherapeutics Nantes, FR OSE Immunotherapeutics develops immune treatments for cancer and inflammatory disease. Its lead cancer product is an off-the-shelf vaccine for lung cancer patients whose immunotherapy has stopped working, now in a late-stage trial. | none | Crossover 2026 | none | Non-small-cell lung cancer, Ovarian cancer | none | ||
Ratio Therapeutics Boston, MA, US Ratio Therapeutics designs small molecules that carry a radioactive particle to a protein found in the supporting tissue of many tumours, so radiation is delivered from inside the body. Its lead treatment is in early human trials for sarcoma. | none | Series C 2026 · $70M | none | Sarcomas | none | ||
Reimagine Care Nashville, TN, US Reimagine Care gives cancer patients a text based assistant and oncology trained nurses available around the clock, so side effects can be handled at home instead of in an emergency department. It was bought by the French company Cureety in 2026. | none | Acquisition 2026 | Sante Ventures, McKesson Ventures | none | none | ||
Repare Therapeutics Montreal, CA Repare Therapeutics was a Montreal cancer drug developer working on drugs that stop tumours repairing their own DNA. In January 2026 it was bought by a non-profit called XenoTherapeutics and its shares stopped trading. | none | Acquisition 2026 | none | none | none | ||
Trial Library San Francisco, CA, US · founded 2022 Trial Library is software that helps everyday cancer clinics spot which patients might qualify for a clinical trial, refer them, and remove practical barriers like transport so more people, especially in under served communities, can join trials. | none | Series A 2025 · $10M | Sanofi Ventures, Lux Capital | none | none | ||
ARTBIO Cambridge, MA, US · founded 2021 ARTBIO makes cancer treatments that deliver short-range alpha radiation from lead-212 directly to tumour cells, starting with prostate cancer. Its first medicine is in early human trials, currently paused by the company while it reviews data. | none | Series B 2025 · $132M | none | Prostate cancer | none | ||
Treeline Biosciences Watertown, MA, US · founded 2021 Treeline Biosciences is a well-funded private company building cancer drugs of several kinds, including a pill that blocks all forms of the KRAS cancer protein and drugs for lymphoma. | none | Form D offering 2025 · $200M | none | Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma | none | ||
Ambagon Therapeutics Eindhoven, NL · founded 2020 Ambagon Therapeutics designs small molecules that act like glue, locking a hub protein called 14-3-3 onto its partner proteins to switch them on or off. It is an early-stage company with cancer and brain disease programmes. | none | Form D offering 2025 · $5M | none | Colorectal cancer | none | ||
Capstan Therapeutics San Diego, CA, US · founded 2020 Capstan built a way to create CAR T cells inside the patient's body by delivering messenger RNA in targeted lipid nanoparticles, avoiding the need to manufacture cells outside the body. AbbVie bought it in 2025 for $2.1 billion. | none | Acquisition 2025 · $2.1B | none | none | none | ||
Scorpion Therapeutics Boston, MA, US · founded 2020 Scorpion Therapeutics was a Boston start-up that designed a cancer pill, STX-478, aimed only at the mutated form of a growth protein called PI3K-alpha, sparing the normal form. Eli Lilly bought the programme in 2025. | none | Acquisition 2025 | none | none | none | ||
Triana Biomedicines Lexington, MA, US · founded 2019 Triana Biomedicines designs molecular glues that make cancer cells destroy their own faulty proteins. Its first drug, TRI-611, removes the ALK fusion protein that drives a subset of lung cancers and has entered human trials. | none | Series B 2025 · $120M | RA Capital Management, Atlas Venture, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Pfizer Ventures, Logos Capital | Non-small-cell lung cancer, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer | none | ||
Halda Therapeutics New Haven, CT, US · founded 2018 Halda Therapeutics invented a new kind of oral cancer drug that links a protein found only in tumour cells to a protein cells need to survive, killing the cancer cell. Johnson & Johnson bought the company for 3.05 billion US dollars in 2025. | none | Acquisition 2025 · $3.0B | none | Prostate cancer | none | ||
Outcomes4Me Boston, MA, US · founded 2017 Outcomes4Me is a free app that turns official cancer treatment guidelines into plain language options for each patient, and also tracks symptoms, explains genetic tests and finds clinical trials. | none | Series B 2025 · $21M | none | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer, Triple-negative breast cancer, Non-small-cell lung cancer, Prostate cancer, Colorectal cancer, Bladder & urothelial cancer, Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, Endometrial cancer, Ovarian cancer, Renal cell carcinoma, Multiple myeloma | none | ||
Ataraxis AI New York, NY, US Ataraxis AI analyses digitised breast tumour slides with artificial intelligence to estimate how likely a cancer is to return and whether chemotherapy is likely to help, returning results in a day without using up tissue. | none | Series A 2025 · $20M | Founders Fund | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer, Triple-negative breast cancer | none | ||
Blueprint Medicines Cambridge, MA, US Blueprint Medicines invented Ayvakit, a pill approved for systemic mastocytosis and for a rare gut tumour called GIST that carries a specific mutation. The French drug maker Sanofi bought the company in 2025. | none | Acquisition 2025 · $9.1B | none | Sarcomas | none | ||
BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics South San Francisco, CA, US BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics (BBOT) makes pills against the KRAS cancer protein and a drug that stops KRAS from switching on a second growth signal called PI3K-alpha. All three drugs are in early human trials. | none | IPO 2025 · $382M | Cormorant Asset Management | Non-small-cell lung cancer, Colorectal cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer | none | ||
Callio Therapeutics Seattle, WA, US Callio Therapeutics makes antibodies that carry two different cancer-killing drugs at once to HER2-positive tumours, to stop cancers escaping treatment. Its first medicine entered human trials in 2026. | none | Series A 2025 · $187M | Frazier Life Sciences, Jeito Capital, Novo Holdings, Omega Funds | HER2-positive breast cancer | none | ||
CARGO Therapeutics San Carlos, CA, US CARGO developed a CAR T-cell therapy aimed at a protein called CD22 for patients with large B-cell lymphoma whose cancer had come back after CD19 CAR T treatment. It went public in 2023 and was bought by Concentra Biosciences in 2025 after winding down development. | none | Acquisition 2025 | none | Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma | none | ||
Cyted Health Cambridge, GB Cyted Health offers a swallowable capsule on a string that collects cells from the whole food pipe in a nurse-led appointment, so people with heartburn can be checked for Barrett's oesophagus and early oesophageal cancer without an endoscopy. | none | Series B 2025 · $44M | EQT Life Sciences | Oesophageal cancer | none | ||
Deep 6 AI Pasadena, CA, US Deep 6 AI made software that reads hospital records, including free text notes, to find patients who match clinical trial criteria in minutes. It was bought by the genomics and data company Tempus in 2025. | none | Acquisition 2025 | none | none | none | ||
Evergreen Theragnostics Springfield, NJ, US Evergreen Theragnostics manufactures radioactive cancer medicines for other companies and develops its own imaging agent for neuroendocrine tumours and a treatment for small cell lung cancer. Lantheus agreed to buy it in 2025. | none | Acquisition 2025 · $250M | none | Neuroendocrine tumours, Small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
IGM Biosciences Mountain View, CA, US IGM Biosciences engineered antibodies of the IgM class, which have ten binding arms instead of two, originally as T-cell engagers for blood cancers and later for autoimmune disease. It ended development and was bought by Concentra Biosciences in 2025. | none | Acquisition 2025 | none | none | none | ||
Imagene AI Miami, FL, US Imagene AI trains large artificial intelligence models on ordinary stained biopsy images so that, within minutes, a slide can predict which gene changes a lung tumour carries, helping doctors decide on targeted drugs before slower genetic tests return. | none | Series B 2025 · $23M | none | Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Indapta Therapeutics Houston, TX, US Indapta makes an off-the-shelf natural killer cell therapy from a naturally occurring, especially potent subset of donor immune cells (g-NK cells). It is testing the therapy with antibody drugs in myeloma and lymphoma, and in multiple sclerosis. | none | Form D offering 2025 · $51M | none | Multiple myeloma, Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma | none | ||
OncoHost Binyamina, IL OncoHost sells a blood test that measures hundreds of proteins before treatment starts to predict whether a lung cancer patient will benefit from immunotherapy drugs. | none | Grant 2025 · $3M | none | Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Orum Therapeutics Daejeon, KR Orum Therapeutics attaches protein-destroying drugs to antibodies so they are delivered only into cancer cells. Its lead medicine for acute myeloid leukaemia is entering human trials, and the company is listed on the Korean stock market. | none | IPO 2025 | none | Acute myeloid leukaemia | none | ||
Owlstone Medical Cambridge, GB Owlstone Medical is developing breath tests: a person breathes into a collector and chemical traces in the breath are analysed to look for early lung cancer, liver disease and, in future, many cancers at once. | none | Series E 2025 · $27M | none | Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Pathos AI New York, NY, US Pathos AI uses very large artificial intelligence models trained on millions of cancer patients' records, scans and genetic data to pick which experimental cancer drugs to develop and which patients to test them in, and is building its own pipeline of such drugs. | none | Series D 2025 · $365M | none | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Plexium San Diego, CA, US Plexium makes single-piece pills that make cancer cells destroy specific proteins. Its lead drug removes a protein called SMARCA2 in tumours that have lost its partner SMARCA4, and is in an early human trial. | none | Form D offering 2025 · $60M | none | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer | none | ||
Poseida Therapeutics San Diego, CA, US Poseida developed off-the-shelf CAR T-cell therapies made from healthy donor cells rather than from each patient, for multiple myeloma and B-cell cancers. Roche bought the company in early 2025 for up to about $1.5 billion. | none | Acquisition 2025 · $1.5B | none | Multiple myeloma, Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma | none | ||
Strand Therapeutics Boston, MA, US Strand makes programmable messenger RNA medicines that switch on only inside tumours. Its first drug is injected into a tumour and makes cells there produce an immune-boosting signal. | none | Series B 2025 · $153M | none | none | none | ||
Transgene Strasbourg, FR Transgene uses modified viruses to make cancer immunotherapies. Its lead product is a personalised vaccine built from each patient's tumour mutations, given after surgery to stop head and neck cancer coming back. | none | Crossover 2025 | none | Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Turnstone Biologics San Diego, CA, US Turnstone developed 'selected' tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy, enriching the most cancer-reactive immune cells from a patient's tumour. It stopped its clinical programme in January 2025 and was bought by XOMA Royalty later that year. | none | Acquisition 2025 | none | none | none | ||
Vergent Bioscience Minneapolis, MN, US Vergent Bioscience is testing an injectable dye that makes lung tumours glow during keyhole and robotic surgery, so surgeons can find small or hidden tumours and check that all of the cancer has been removed. | none | Form D offering 2025 · $19M | none | Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Noetik South San Francisco, CA, US · founded 2023 Noetik builds artificial intelligence models of tumours from huge sets of tissue images and molecular data, to predict which patients will respond to a cancer drug and to find new targets. | none | Series A 2024 · $40M | DCVC, Polaris Partners, Khosla Ventures | none | none | ||
Mariana Oncology Watertown, MA, US · founded 2021 Mariana Oncology designs small protein fragments that carry a radioactive isotope to tumours, starting with small cell lung cancer. Novartis bought the company in 2024 for 1 billion dollars up front. | none | Acquisition 2024 · $1B | Atlas Venture, RA Capital Management, Forbion | Small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Radionetics Oncology San Diego, CA, US · founded 2021 Radionetics Oncology makes small-molecule drugs that carry a radioactive isotope to receptors on the surface of cancer cells that have rarely been targeted before. Eli Lilly paid 140 million dollars in 2024 for the right to buy the company for 1 billion dollars. | none | Series A 2024 · $53M | Frazier Life Sciences, 5AM Ventures, DCVC | none | none | ||
Affini-T Therapeutics Watertown, MA, US · founded 2020 Affini-T engineers a patient's T cells with receptors that recognise mutated cancer driver proteins such as KRAS, and uses gene editing to make the cells more effective. It is an early clinical-stage company based near Boston. | none | Form D offering 2024 · $18M | none | none | none | ||
Kheiron Medical Technologies London, GB · founded 2016 Kheiron built Mia, an artificial intelligence system that reads screening mammograms so that one radiologist plus the software can match the quality of two human readers. RadNet's DeepHealth unit bought the London company in 2024. | none | Acquisition 2024 | none | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer, Triple-negative breast cancer | none | ||
Universal DX Madrid, ES · founded 2012 Universal DX is developing Signal-C, a blood test to screen for bowel cancer and pre-cancerous growths, and has partnered with Quest Diagnostics to offer it in the US once regulators approve it. | none | Series B 2024 | none | Colorectal cancer | none | ||
Alentis Therapeutics Basel, CH Alentis Therapeutics targets Claudin-1, a protein exposed on squamous cancers and scarred organs, with antibodies that either carry a cancer-killing drug or block disease signalling. Its first cancer medicine entered human trials in 2025. | none | Series D 2024 · $181M | OrbiMed, Novo Holdings, Jeito Capital, Frazier Life Sciences, RA Capital Management, Bpifrance | none | none | ||
Alpha-9 Oncology Vancouver, CA Alpha-9 Oncology designs bespoke molecules that deliver radioactive isotopes to cancer cells, with early human trials under way in melanoma and in breast and other solid tumours. | none | Series C 2024 · $175M | Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz Bio + Health, RA Capital Management, Frazier Life Sciences, Samsara BioCapital | Melanoma | none | ||
Boundless Bio San Diego, CA, US Boundless Bio tried to treat cancers driven by extra loops of DNA outside the chromosomes, called ecDNA. Its lead drug did not show enough benefit in early trials, and in 2026 the company agreed to merge with a gene-editing company and leave cancer. | none | IPO 2024 · $100M | none | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, Triple-negative breast cancer | none | ||
C2i Genomics New York, NY, US C2i Genomics built a blood test that reads the whole genome of tumour DNA fragments to detect leftover cancer after treatment; Veracyte bought the company in 2024 and now sells the approach as TrueMRD. | none | Acquisition 2024 · $70M | none | Bladder & urothelial cancer | none | ||
Carevive Systems North Miami, FL, US Carevive built software that cancer clinics use to give each patient a personalised care plan and to collect symptom reports from home so nurses can act early. It is now part of Health Catalyst. | none | Acquisition 2024 · $22M | none | none | none | ||
Enlaza Therapeutics La Jolla, CA, US Enlaza Therapeutics engineers protein drugs that lock permanently onto their target once they find it, which could let antibody-based cancer medicines work at lower doses with fewer side effects. Its programmes are still in laboratory development. | none | Series A 2024 · $100M | Frazier Life Sciences, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Samsara BioCapital, Amgen Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments | none | none | ||
Harpoon Therapeutics South San Francisco, CA, US Harpoon built small T-cell engager proteins that link a patient's T cells to tumour cells, including HPN328, which targets DLL3 on small cell lung cancer and neuroendocrine tumours. Merck bought the company in early 2024 for about $680 million. | none | Acquisition 2024 · $680M | none | Small-cell lung cancer, Neuroendocrine tumours | none | ||
Inhibrx Biosciences La Jolla, CA, US Inhibrx Biosciences is a San Diego antibody company testing two cancer drugs: ozekibart, which triggers a self-destruct receptor on tumour cells in bone cancers such as Ewing sarcoma, and an OX40 antibody that boosts immune cells. Sanofi bought its sister lung disease drug in 2024. | none | Acquisition 2024 · $2.2B | none | Sarcomas | none | ||
Onc.AI San Francisco, CA, US Onc.AI trains artificial intelligence on routine CT scans to predict early whether a lung cancer patient's immunotherapy is working, so doctors and drug developers can change course sooner. | none | Grant 2024 · $2M | none | Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Pheon Therapeutics London, GB Pheon Therapeutics is a London company designing antibody-drug conjugates, antibodies that carry a cancer-killing drug into tumours, against a new target found on many hard-to-treat solid cancers. Its first medicine is entering early human trials. | none | Series B 2024 · $120M | TCGX, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Perceptive Advisors, Atlas Venture, Forbion | none | none | ||
ProfoundBio Seattle, WA, US ProfoundBio developed antibodies that deliver a chemotherapy drug to ovarian cancer cells carrying a protein called folate receptor alpha. Genmab bought the company for 1.8 billion dollars in 2024. | none | Acquisition 2024 · $1.8B | none | Ovarian cancer | none | ||
SonALAsense Oakland, CA, US SonALAsense is testing sonodynamic therapy, in which patients receive a drug that cancer cells turn into a light-sensitive chemical and then focused ultrasound is beamed through the skull to activate it, killing brain tumour cells without surgery. | none | Grant 2024 · $46M | none | Glioma & glioblastoma, Acute myeloid leukaemia, Multiple myeloma | none | ||
Valar Labs Palo Alto, CA, US Valar Labs uses artificial intelligence on routine bladder cancer biopsy slides to predict whether a patient's tumour will respond to BCG immunotherapy, helping doctors decide between BCG and other options such as surgery. | none | Series A 2024 · $22M | DCVC, Andreessen Horowitz Bio + Health | Bladder & urothelial cancer, Prostate cancer, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma | none | ||
Volpara Health Wellington, NZ Volpara Health made software that measures breast density from mammograms and helps clinics manage breast cancer risk and screening quality. The New Zealand company was acquired by Korean AI firm Lunit in 2024 and now operates under the Lunit brand. | none | Acquisition 2024 | none | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer, Triple-negative breast cancer | none | ||
ZAP Surgical Systems San Carlos, CA, US ZAP Surgical makes ZAP-X, a self-shielded machine for treating brain tumours with highly focused radiation in one to five outpatient sessions, without the concrete bunker or radioactive cobalt sources that older radiosurgery systems need. | none | Series E 2024 · $78M | none | none | none | ||
Adela Toronto, CA · founded 2021 Adela is developing blood tests that read chemical marks across the whole genome of DNA fragments in the blood, first to check whether cancer is still present after treatment and later to screen for many cancers at once. | none | Series A 2023 · $48M | F-Prime Capital, OrbiMed, Deerfield Management, RA Capital Management | none | none | ||
Ibex Medical Analytics Boston, MA, US · founded 2016 Ibex makes artificial intelligence that examines digitised biopsy slides to help pathologists detect and grade prostate, breast and stomach cancer, and to score biomarkers such as HER2. Its prostate tool is FDA cleared and its systems are used in hundreds of laboratories. | none | Series C 2023 · $55M | none | Prostate cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer, Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer | none | ||
Tmunity Therapeutics Philadelphia, PA, US · founded 2015 Tmunity was a Philadelphia company spun out of University of Pennsylvania research that built CAR T-cell therapies with extra features to help them fight solid tumours. Gilead's cell therapy unit Kite bought it in early 2023. | none | Acquisition 2023 | none | none | none | ||
Carrum Health San Francisco, CA, US · founded 2014 Carrum Health lets employers send workers with cancer to top cancer centres for a single upfront price, with travel and care coordination included and usually no bills for the patient. | none | Series B 2023 · $45M | none | Thyroid cancer | none | ||
Abdera Therapeutics Vancouver, CA Abdera Therapeutics engineered antibodies that carry a radioactive isotope to cancer cells, tuning how long they circulate so more radiation reaches the tumour and less reaches healthy tissue. Its first medicine targets a protein on small cell lung cancer. | none | Series B 2023 · $110M | Versant Ventures | Small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Emergence Therapeutics Duisburg, DE Emergence Therapeutics was a German start-up making an antibody that carries a cancer-killing drug to a protein called Nectin-4, which is found on most bladder cancers. Eli Lilly bought the company in 2023. | none | Acquisition 2023 | none | Bladder & urothelial cancer | none | ||
Enliven Therapeutics Boulder, CO, US Enliven Therapeutics designs cleaner versions of cancer pills that already work. Its lead drug targets the BCR-ABL protein in chronic myeloid leukaemia and a second drug targets mutated HER2 in lung cancer. | none | Crossover 2023 · $165M | Venrock, RA Capital Management, Frazier Life Sciences | Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Geneos Therapeutics Philadelphia, PA, US Geneos builds a personalised DNA vaccine for each patient from the mutations in their own tumour, injected into the skin with a small electrical pulse so the immune system learns to attack the cancer. | none | Series A 2023 · $5M | Sante Ventures | Hepatocellular carcinoma, Glioma & glioblastoma | none | ||
Haystack Oncology Baltimore, MD, US Haystack Oncology, now owned by Quest Diagnostics, makes a blood test that looks for tiny traces of tumour DNA after cancer surgery to tell whether any cancer is left behind or coming back. | none | Acquisition 2023 · $392M | none | Colorectal cancer, Triple-negative breast cancer, Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
K36 Therapeutics Cambridge, MA, US K36 Therapeutics makes pills that block an enzyme called NSD2 (also known as MMSET), which is overactive in about one in five multiple myeloma cases because of a chromosome swap. It is also testing the approach in prostate cancer. | none | Series B 2023 · $70M | F-Prime Capital, Atlas Venture | Multiple myeloma, Prostate cancer | none | ||
Mablink Bioscience Lyon, FR Mablink Bioscience, from Lyon, invented a water-friendly linker that lets antibodies carry many more cancer-killing drug molecules while staying stable in the blood. Eli Lilly bought the company in 2023, before any of its medicines had reached patients. | none | Acquisition 2023 | Sofinnova Partners | none | none | ||
Neogene Therapeutics Amsterdam, NL Neogene developed T-cell receptor therapies that can recognise cancer-specific mutations hidden inside tumour cells, an approach aimed at solid tumours. AstraZeneca bought the company in January 2023 for up to $320 million. | none | Acquisition 2023 · $320M | Vida Ventures, EcoR1 Capital, Jeito Capital, Syncona, Polaris Partners | none | none | ||
Nimbus Therapeutics Boston, MA, US Nimbus Therapeutics is a Boston company that uses computer-aided chemistry to design pills against hard drug targets. Its cancer drug blocks an enzyme called WRN that some bowel and womb cancers with faulty DNA repair depend on. | none | Crossover 2023 · $210M | GV, SR One, Atlas Venture | none | none | ||
POINT Biopharma Indianapolis, IN, US POINT Biopharma developed radioactive medicines that home in on prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumours, and built a large manufacturing campus in Indianapolis. Eli Lilly bought the company at the end of 2023. | none | Acquisition 2023 · $1.4B | none | Prostate cancer, Neuroendocrine tumours | none | ||
Therapixel Nice, FR · founded 2013 Therapixel's MammoScreen software uses artificial intelligence to point out suspicious areas on mammograms and score how likely they are to be cancer, helping radiologists in the US and Europe read screening exams. | none | Series B 2022 | none | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer, Triple-negative breast cancer | none | ||
Acrivon Therapeutics Watertown, MA, US Acrivon Therapeutics uses a protein-activity test to pick the patients most likely to respond to its cancer drugs. Its lead drug blocks DNA damage checkpoint proteins and is being tested in womb and ovarian cancer. | none | IPO 2022 | none | Endometrial cancer, Ovarian cancer | none | ||
Dantari Thousand Oaks, CA, US Dantari built polymer-based drug carriers that let an antibody deliver far more chemotherapy to a tumour than standard antibody-drug conjugates, while sparing the bone marrow. Its first medicine was tested in breast cancer before the company sold off its assets in 2025. | none | Series A 2022 · $47M | Alexandria Venture Investments | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, Triple-negative breast cancer | none | ||
Elypta Stockholm, SE Elypta measures sugar molecules called glycosaminoglycans in blood and urine to spot kidney cancer returning after surgery, and is testing the same approach to find many cancers early. | none | Series A 2022 · $21M | none | Renal cell carcinoma | none | ||
Microbiotica Cambridge, GB Microbiotica makes precisely defined mixtures of gut bacteria as medicines. Its lead product is given alongside immunotherapy to help more melanoma patients respond. | none | Series B 2022 | none | Melanoma | none | ||
Nested Therapeutics Cambridge, MA, US Nested Therapeutics hunts for hidden cancer-driving mutations and designs drugs to fit them. Its first drug, NST-628, sticks two signalling proteins (RAF and MEK) together to switch off a common cancer growth pathway. | none | Series A 2022 · $90M | Versant Ventures, Foresite Capital, Section 32 | none | none | ||
Photys Therapeutics Boston, MA, US Photys Therapeutics builds two-headed molecules that bring a target protein next to an enzyme that modifies or destroys it. Its first clinical drug is for autoimmune disease; its cancer work, aimed at a mutant form of the p53 protein, is still in the laboratory. | none | Series A 2022 · $75M | MPM BioImpact, Omega Funds, Longwood Fund | none | none | ||
Kumquat Biosciences San Diego, CA, US · founded 2018 Kumquat Biosciences is a San Diego company founded by KRAS pioneers that makes pills against the KRAS cancer protein and immune-boosting small molecules. Its KRAS G12D drug entered human trials with Bayer in 2025. | none | Form D offering 2021 · $50M | none | Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Colorectal cancer, Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Mythic Therapeutics Waltham, MA, US · founded 2017 Mythic Therapeutics designed antibody-drug conjugates, antibodies that carry a cell-killing drug into tumours, with an engineering trick to get more drug inside cancer cells. Its lead lung cancer medicine reached mid-stage trials before the company wound down in late 2025. | none | Series B 2021 · $103M | Venrock, Foresite Capital, Perceptive Advisors | Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Color Health South San Francisco, CA, US · founded 2015 Color Health runs a cancer programme for employers and health plans that gets people screened, follows up abnormal results, and gives those diagnosed access to an online clinic staffed by oncologists. | none | Form D offering 2021 · $127M | none | Cervical cancer | none | ||
Amunix Pharmaceuticals South San Francisco, CA, US Amunix developed T-cell engager and cytokine cancer drugs with a protective mask that is clipped off by enzymes found in tumours, so the drugs become active mainly at the cancer. Sanofi agreed to buy the company in December 2021 for about $1 billion upfront. | none | Acquisition 2021 · $1B | none | none | none | ||
Captor Therapeutics Wroclaw, PL Captor Therapeutics, a Polish company listed in Warsaw, designs small molecules that make cells destroy disease-causing proteins. Its lead cancer programme degrades three proteins at once and is aimed at liver and lung cancer. | none | IPO 2021 | none | Hepatocellular carcinoma, Neuroendocrine tumours, Neuroblastoma | none | ||
Erasca San Diego, CA, US Erasca develops pills that shut down the RAS signalling pathway, one of the most common drivers of cancer. Its two lead drugs aim to block all forms of RAS or KRAS rather than a single mutation. | none | IPO 2021 · $345M | none | Colorectal cancer, Glioma & glioblastoma | none | ||
Exai Bio Palo Alto, CA, US Exai Bio is building blood tests that look for small pieces of RNA made only by tumours, rather than tumour DNA, and uses artificial intelligence to find cancer early from a routine blood draw. | none | Series A 2021 · $68M | Section 32, Casdin Capital | none | none | ||
Iksuda Therapeutics Newcastle upon Tyne, GB Iksuda Therapeutics, based in Newcastle, designs antibody-drug conjugates, antibodies that release a cancer-killing drug only once inside the tumour. Its HER2-targeting medicine is in early human trials, with encouraging results in oesophageal cancer. | none | Series A 2021 · $47M | none | Oesophageal cancer | none | ||
Inivata Cambridge, GB Inivata was a Cambridge, UK liquid biopsy company whose blood tests find traces of tumour DNA; it was bought by the US laboratory group NeoGenomics in 2021 and its RaDaR test is now sold by NeoGenomics. | none | Acquisition 2021 · $390M | none | Non-small-cell lung cancer, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma | none | ||
Janux Therapeutics San Diego, CA, US Janux makes 'masked' T-cell engager antibodies that stay inactive in the bloodstream and switch on only inside tumours, aiming to cut the side effects that limit this drug class. Its lead programmes target PSMA in advanced prostate cancer. | none | IPO 2021 · $223M | none | Prostate cancer | none | ||
Nucleix Rehovot, IL Nucleix makes urine and blood tests that read chemical marks on DNA to spot bladder cancer coming back and, in development, to find lung cancer early. | none | Series C 2021 · $55M | RA Capital Management | Bladder & urothelial cancer, Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Stablix New York, NY, US Stablix does the opposite of protein degradation: its molecules recruit enzymes that strip the 'destroy me' tag off useful proteins so cells keep them. Cancer is one of its target areas, but all its work is still preclinical. | none | Series A 2021 · $63M | Versant Ventures, Cormorant Asset Management, Alexandria Venture Investments | none | none | ||
Tango Therapeutics Boston, MA, US Tango Therapeutics makes cancer pills that exploit a weakness created when a tumour loses a particular gene. Its lead drug targets cancers that have lost a gene called MTAP, common in pancreatic and lung cancer. | none | IPO 2021 · $353M | Boxer Capital, Bain Capital Life Sciences, EcoR1 Capital, Foresite Capital, Logos Capital, RA Capital Management, Samsara BioCapital, Casdin Capital, Cormorant Asset Management | Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Non-small-cell lung cancer, Glioma & glioblastoma | none | ||
Tyra Biosciences Carlsbad, CA, US Tyra Biosciences designs precise pills against a family of growth-signal proteins called FGFRs, which are faulty in some bladder, liver and bile duct cancers and in a bone growth disorder. | none | IPO 2021 · $199M | none | Bladder & urothelial cancer, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Biliary tract cancer | none | ||
Tallac Therapeutics Burlingame, CA, US · founded 2018 Tallac Therapeutics builds antibodies that carry an immune-activating molecule into tumours, so the body's own defences attack the cancer. Its lead medicine is in early human trials and has a fast-track review status in bile duct cancer. | none | Series A 2020 · $62M | none | Biliary tract cancer | none | ||
NBE-Therapeutics Basel, CH · founded 2012 NBE-Therapeutics is a Basel company, now owned by Boehringer Ingelheim, that builds antibody-drug conjugates, antibodies carrying a potent chemotherapy that also trains the immune system to keep attacking the tumour. | none | Acquisition 2020 | none | none | none | ||
Biodesix Louisville, CO, US Biodesix sells blood tests that help doctors judge whether a lung nodule seen on a scan is likely to be cancer, and tests that guide treatment once lung cancer is diagnosed. | none | IPO 2020 · $72M | none | Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Black Diamond Therapeutics Cambridge, MA, US Black Diamond Therapeutics designs cancer pills that hit whole families of mutations in a growth protein at once. Its lead drug, silevertinib, targets mutated EGFR in lung cancer and brain tumours. | none | IPO 2020 · $231M | none | Non-small-cell lung cancer, Glioma & glioblastoma | none | ||
Foghorn Therapeutics Cambridge, MA, US Foghorn Therapeutics makes drugs that act on the machinery that packages DNA and controls which genes are switched on. Its lead drug, partnered with Lilly, targets lung cancers that have lost a gene called SMARCA4. | none | IPO 2020 · $135M | none | Non-small-cell lung cancer, Multiple myeloma, Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, Prostate cancer, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer | none | ||
OncoHealth Atlanta, GA, US OncoHealth works for health insurers to check that proposed cancer treatments follow the evidence, and runs Iris, a service giving patients round the clock access to cancer nurses, therapists and dietitians by phone or app. | none | Series C 2020 · $28M | McKesson Ventures | none | none | ||
Orca Bio Menlo Park, CA, US Orca Bio makes precision-engineered versions of donor stem cell transplants for blood cancers, sorting the donor cells so that patients get the cells that fight cancer and rebuild the immune system with fewer of the cells that cause graft versus host disease. Its first product, TREGZI, was approved in the US in June 2026. | none | Form D offering 2020 · $192M | none | Acute myeloid leukaemia, Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia | none | ||
ORIC Pharmaceuticals South San Francisco, CA, US ORIC Pharmaceuticals develops pills designed to beat the ways cancers resist treatment. One blocks a gene-silencing complex in prostate cancer; the other targets mutated EGFR and HER2 in lung cancer and can reach the brain. | none | IPO 2020 · $138M | none | Prostate cancer, Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Prelude Therapeutics Wilmington, DE, US Prelude Therapeutics develops precision cancer medicines. Its current focus is a pill for blood cancers driven by a JAK2 mutation and drugs that destroy a protein called KAT6A in hormone-driven breast cancer. | none | IPO 2020 · $182M | none | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer | none | ||
Relay Therapeutics Cambridge, MA, US Relay Therapeutics uses computer simulations of how proteins move to design precise cancer pills. Its lead drug, zovegalisib, targets a mutated growth protein called PI3K-alpha in breast cancer while sparing the normal version. | none | IPO 2020 · $400M | none | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, Melanoma, Biliary tract cancer | none | ||
Zentalis Pharmaceuticals San Diego, CA, US Zentalis Pharmaceuticals is developing azenosertib, a pill that blocks a cell-cycle checkpoint protein called WEE1, for ovarian cancer that no longer responds to platinum chemotherapy. | none | IPO 2020 · $190M | none | Ovarian cancer | none | ||
Careology London, GB · founded 2019 Careology is an app that helps people going through cancer treatment log symptoms, medicines and appointments, and a dashboard that lets their hospital team see problems early. | none | Seed 2019 | none | none | none | ||
IDEAYA Biosciences South San Francisco, CA, US IDEAYA Biosciences develops cancer drugs matched to the genetic make-up of a patient's tumour. Its most advanced drug, darovasertib, is in late-stage trials for a rare eye cancer called uveal melanoma. | none | IPO 2019 · $58M | none | Melanoma, Small-cell lung cancer, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma | none | ||
TAE Life Sciences Irvine, CA, US · founded 2018 TAE Life Sciences is developing boron neutron capture therapy, in which a boron drug collects in cancer cells and a hospital-based neutron beam then triggers a tiny nuclear reaction inside those cells to destroy them while sparing nearby healthy tissue. | none | Series A 2018 · $40M | none | Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, Glioma & glioblastoma | none | ||
Radformation New York, NY, US · founded 2016 Radformation makes software that automates the repetitive parts of planning radiotherapy, such as outlining organs on scans, checking plans for errors and verifying doses, so cancer patients can start treatment faster and more safely. | none | Seed 2018 · $2M | none | none | none | ||
![]() FinalDose San Francisco, CA, US · founded 2026 Y Combinator Spring 2026 start-up building a programmable DNA-targeting drug: a molecule that recognises a cancer-specific DNA sequence inside a cell and triggers a kill switch only there. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Aqemia Paris, FR · founded 2019 Aqemia combines physics-based calculations with generative artificial intelligence to invent new drug molecules, working both on its own projects and with large drug companies such as Sanofi. | none | none | none | none | none | ||
Canopy New York, NY, US · founded 2018 Canopy is software for cancer clinics that lets patients report symptoms from home between visits, sorts the reports by urgency for nurses, and automates the paperwork that lets clinics bill for that monitoring. | none | none | none | none | none | ||
Immunai New York, NY, US · founded 2018 Immunai maps the human immune system cell by cell and uses machine learning on that map to help drug companies pick targets and design trials, including for cancer immunotherapy. | none | none | Alexandria Venture Investments | none | none | ||
Vara Berlin, DE · founded 2018 Vara makes artificial intelligence software that reads screening mammograms in Germany's national breast screening programme, flagging normal scans and highlighting suspicious ones so radiologists find more cancers with less work. | none | none | none | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer, Triple-negative breast cancer | none | ||
CytoReason Tel Aviv, IL · founded 2016 CytoReason builds computer models of human diseases from molecular and clinical data so drug companies can predict which targets and drugs are most likely to work, including in cancer immunotherapy. | none | none | Pfizer Ventures | none | none | ||
Iktos Paris, FR · founded 2016 Iktos sells artificial intelligence software that designs new drug molecules and plans how to make them, and runs robotic labs that build and test the molecules automatically. | none | none | none | none | none | ||
Osara Health New York, NY, US · founded 2016 Osara Health pairs people with cancer with a personal health coach by phone, text and app to help with fatigue, sleep, exercise and returning to work. Insurers and employers pay for it. | none | none | none | none | none | ||
Turbine Budapest, HU · founded 2016 Turbine builds computer simulations of cancer cells so drug developers can run millions of virtual experiments before doing them in the lab, for example to pick targets for antibody-drug conjugates. | none | none | MSD Global Health Innovation Fund | none | none | ||
Neutron Therapeutics Danvers, MA, US · founded 2015 Neutron Therapeutics makes a compact particle accelerator that produces the neutron beam needed for boron neutron capture therapy, a form of radiotherapy that targets cancer cells one at a time, so hospitals no longer need a nuclear reactor to offer it. | none | none | none | Glioma & glioblastoma, Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma | none | ||
ONK Therapeutics Galway, IE · founded 2015 ONK Therapeutics, based in Galway, Ireland, is developing off-the-shelf natural killer cell therapies that are gene-edited and given two ways to kill cancer cells at once. It is a private, preclinical-stage company spun out of University of Galway research. | none | none | none | none | none | ||
![]() ScreenPoint Medical Nijmegen, NL · founded 2014 Radboud University spin-out whose Transpara software is the AI reader tested in the MASAI screening trial. | none | none | none | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer | 1 | ||
XACT Robotics Caesarea, IL · founded 2013 XACT Robotics makes a small robot that attaches to the patient and, using CT scan guidance, inserts and steers a needle to a precise spot inside the body for tumour biopsies and heat-based tumour destruction, adjusting its path as the target moves. | none | none | none | Non-small-cell lung cancer, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Renal cell carcinoma | none | ||
Nonagen Bioscience Irvine, CA, US · founded 2011 Nonagen Bioscience makes Oncuria, a urine test that measures a panel of proteins to detect bladder cancer, watch for it returning, and predict whether BCG immunotherapy will work. | none | none | none | Bladder & urothelial cancer | none | ||
![]() On Target Laboratories West Lafayette, IN, US · founded 2010 Purdue spin-out that developed Cytalux, the glowing dye that shows ovarian and lung cancer deposits during surgery. | none | none | Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC | Ovarian cancer, Non-small-cell lung cancer | 1 | ||
![]() Lumicell Newton, MA, US · founded 2008 MIT spin-out whose Lumisight dye and imaging system show leftover breast cancer in the lumpectomy cavity before the operation ends. | none | none | none | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, Triple-negative breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer | 1 | ||
P-Cure Jerusalem, IL · founded 2007 P-Cure makes a compact proton therapy system in which the patient sits upright in a rotating chair in front of a fixed beam, so the treatment fits inside an ordinary radiotherapy room instead of a purpose-built multi-storey building. | none | none | none | Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Adialante San Francisco, CA, US Adialante has redesigned MRI so it fits in a mobile clinic and is paid per scan, aiming to bring MRI cancer screening to any medical site, starting with prostate cancer. | none | Y Combinator | Prostate cancer | none | |||
Adventris Pharmaceuticals Baltimore, MD, US Adventris makes off-the-shelf cancer vaccines against KRAS, the most common cancer-driving gene, with the long-term idea of a yearly vaccine that prevents many cancers. | none | Y Combinator | Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Colorectal cancer, Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | |||
Algen Biotechnologies South San Francisco, CA, US Algen uses CRISPR screens read out at the single-cell level, plus machine learning, to find which RNA messages drive cancer and inflammation, and then designs drugs against them. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Alixia San Francisco, CA, US Alixia is developing drugs that act on the supporting cells and inflammation around a tumour as well as the cancer cells, to stop cancers from becoming resistant. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Altay Therapeutics South San Francisco, CA, US Altay Therapeutics is developing small-molecule drugs for chronic liver disease, including the scarring that leads to liver cancer and liver cancer itself. | none | Y Combinator | Hepatocellular carcinoma | none | |||
Aluna San Francisco, CA, US Aluna works with hospitals to build carefully curated cancer datasets and evaluation sets so that medical AI models can be trained and tested properly. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Amphista Therapeutics Cambridge, GB Amphista Therapeutics, based near Cambridge in the UK, designs small molecules that make cancer cells destroy specific proteins using a less common disposal enzyme called DCAF16. Its first drug, for acute myeloid leukaemia, was cleared to start human trials in 2026. | none | none | none | Acute myeloid leukaemia, Non-small-cell lung cancer, Mesothelioma | none | ||
Ananya Health San Francisco, CA, US Ananya Health makes a portable freezing device that lets a nurse in any clinic treat abnormal cervical cells before they turn into cancer, at a tenth of the usual cost. | none | Y Combinator | Cervical cancer | none | |||
AOA Dx Denver, CO, US AOA Dx is developing a blood test to detect ovarian cancer early, based on fat-sugar molecules called glycolipids that tumours shed. | none | Y Combinator | Ovarian cancer | none | |||
Ariceum Therapeutics Berlin, DE Ariceum Therapeutics is a Berlin company developing a treatment that carries the alpha-emitting isotope actinium-225 to small cell lung cancer and Merkel cell skin cancer. Its first human trial began in late 2025. | none | none | none | Small-cell lung cancer | none | ||
Arpeggio Bio Boulder, CO, US Arpeggio Bio uses AI on large RNA-sequencing datasets to find drugs against transcription factors, the hard-to-hit proteins that switch cancer genes on, with a first programme in immunotherapy-resistant melanoma. | none | Y Combinator | Melanoma | none | |||
Asher Biotherapeutics South San Francisco, CA, US Asher Bio engineers immune-stimulating molecules that switch on only one type of immune cell, such as killer T cells, so the drug is more potent against tumours and causes fewer side effects. | none | Y Combinator, Third Rock Ventures | Renal cell carcinoma, Melanoma | none | |||
Atomic Alchemy Idaho Falls, ID, US Atomic Alchemy set out to build small reactors dedicated to making the radioactive isotopes used in cancer scans and treatments, so hospitals no longer depend on a handful of ageing government reactors. It was bought by the nuclear company Oklo. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Belong.Life New York, NY, US Belong.Life runs a large free social app where people with cancer share experiences and ask questions, plus Dave, an artificial intelligence mentor that answers cancer questions around the clock. | none | none | none | none | none | ||
BigHat Biosciences San Mateo, CA, US BigHat uses machine learning and a fast automated lab to design antibodies. Its first cancer drug, an antibody carrying a chemotherapy payload to stomach and bowel tumours, entered human trials in 2026. | none | none | none | Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer, Oesophageal cancer, Colorectal cancer | none | ||
Bikanta Berkeley, CA, US Bikanta tried to use tiny fluorescent diamonds as imaging probes to spot cancer earlier. It went through Y Combinator in 2014 and is no longer operating. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
BillionToOne Menlo Park, CA, US BillionToOne counts DNA molecules in blood far more precisely than standard sequencing. Known first for prenatal testing, it now sells liquid biopsy tests that read a tumour's mutations and track treatment from a blood draw. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Blank Bio San Francisco, CA, US Blank Bio trains AI models on tumour RNA to predict how a disease will progress and which patients will respond, so drug companies can run smarter cancer trials. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Cambridge Cancer Genomics (CCG.ai) Cambridge, GB CCG.ai built software to combine genomic and clinical data so oncologists could choose and adjust treatment sooner. The company is no longer active. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Certis Oncology Solutions San Diego, CA, US Certis grows pieces of a patient's tumour in mice and in the lab to test which drugs work, serving both drug developers and oncologists looking for treatment options for an individual patient. | none | none | none | none | none | ||
Clear Gene San Carlos, CA, US Clear Gene is developing tests that tell a surgeon, quickly, whether all of the cancer was removed during an operation. | none | Y Combinator | Triple-negative breast cancer, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer | none | |||
Cofactor Genomics St. Louis, MO, US Cofactor Genomics reads the RNA of a tumour sample to model the immune cells inside it, and uses that to predict who will respond to immunotherapy. | none | Y Combinator | Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, Non-small-cell lung cancer | none | |||
Convergent Therapeutics Cambridge, MA, US Convergent Therapeutics attaches an alpha-emitting isotope to an antibody that homes in on prostate cancer cells, for men whose disease has progressed after standard radioligand treatment. Its lead medicine has reported mid-stage trial results. | none | none | none | Prostate cancer | none | ||
Data Driven Bioscience (Duoseq) Durham, NC, US Data Driven Bioscience is building a faster, cheaper sequencing-based way to diagnose and subtype cancers, starting with lymphoma. | none | Y Combinator | Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma | none | |||
Delee Monterrey, MX Delee, from Mexico, built a blood-testing device that catches circulating tumour cells to help diagnose cancer earlier and follow treatment. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Digistain London, GB Digistain shines infrared light through a breast tumour slide and reads its chemical fingerprint to score how likely the cancer is to return, giving a result in a day rather than weeks and at a fraction of the cost of genomic tests. | none | Y Combinator | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer | none | |||
Eris Biotech Lehi, UT, US Eris Biotech is making small-molecule pills that release the brakes on the immune system inside tumours, starting with mesothelioma. | none | Y Combinator | Mesothelioma | none | |||
FidoCure Palo Alto, CA, US FidoCure sequences the tumours of dogs with cancer and matches them to targeted drugs, bringing precision medicine to veterinary oncology and building a dataset that also informs human cancer research. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Gamgee San Francisco, CA, US Gamgee sequences a dog's tumour and designs a personalised mRNA vaccine that teaches its immune system what to attack, and is running trials in Australia with the aim of improving the approach with every case. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Granza Bio San Francisco, CA, US Granza Bio is turning the natural attack particles that killer immune cells fire at their targets into programmable medicines that can re-arm exhausted immune cells against cancer. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Guardian Bio Boston, MA, US Guardian Bio turns a patient's stem cells into dendritic cells, the immune system's teachers, trains them against that patient's tumour and gives them back to restart the immune attack. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Harmonic Discovery New York, NY, US Harmonic Discovery designs single drugs that hit several disease-driving proteins at once, arguing that cancer is rarely caused by one broken protein. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Helio Genomics Irvine, CA, US Helio Genomics sells HelioLiver, a blood test that combines DNA chemistry, protein markers and patient details to find liver cancer earlier than the ultrasound scans usually used for surveillance. | none | none | none | Hepatocellular carcinoma, Colorectal cancer | none | ||
HistoWiz Brooklyn, NY, US HistoWiz is a mail-in pathology laboratory for cancer researchers: send tissue, get scanned digital slides and expert readings online within days. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Humane Genomics New York, NY, US Humane Genomics builds artificial cancer-killing viruses that only infect and only multiply inside tumour cells, starting with a rare liver cancer in children. | none | Y Combinator | Hepatocellular carcinoma | none | |||
Isabl New York, NY, US Isabl reads a tumour's whole genome and transcriptome instead of a small gene panel, and its software turns that into a report clinicians can use. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
iSono Health San Francisco, CA, US iSono Health makes a wearable ultrasound scanner that images the whole breast automatically in about two minutes, with software to flag suspicious masses, for use outside specialist imaging centres. | none | Y Combinator | Triple-negative breast cancer, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer | none | |||
Jasper Health Boise, ID, US Jasper Health is an app and coaching service that helps people with cancer and their carers keep track of treatment, symptoms and appointments, with counsellors available for emotional support. | none | none | none | none | none | ||
Kernal Biologics Cambridge, MA, US Kernal Bio designs mRNA medicines that switch on only in the intended cell type, for example programming a patient's T cells against cancer inside the body without taking them out first. | none | Y Combinator, Amgen Ventures | none | none | |||
Known Medicine Salt Lake City, UT, US Known Medicine breaks a patient's tumour into thousands of tiny three-dimensional tumours, treats each with a different drug, and uses AI to predict which drugs will work. It has been acquired. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Kopra Bio San Francisco, CA, US Kopra Bio engineers viruses that teach the immune system to kill cancer, starting with glioblastoma, the most aggressive brain cancer. | none | Y Combinator | Glioma & glioblastoma | none | |||
LEAH Labs Minneapolis, MN, US LEAH Labs makes CAR-T cell therapy for dogs with lymphoma, using virus-free gene editing to bring the cost of a dose down to hundreds of dollars. | none | Y Combinator | Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma | none | |||
Leo Cancer Care Middleton, WI, US Leo Cancer Care builds radiotherapy equipment that treats patients sitting upright instead of lying down, so the beam can stay fixed and the room, machine and building can be far smaller and cheaper. | none | none | none | none | none | ||
Liyfe New York, NY, US Liyfe built a digital nurse that checks in with cancer patients between visits, scores their symptoms and flags who needs a call, to cut emergency visits. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Lucence Singapore, SG Lucence offers blood tests that read both tumour DNA and tumour RNA from a single sample to help doctors choose targeted treatments, and is developing a multi-cancer screening test. | none | none | none | Non-small-cell lung cancer, Colorectal cancer, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer | none | ||
Luminate Medical Galway, IE Luminate makes a wearable device that presses gently on the scalp during chemotherapy to stop the drug reaching the hair follicles, so patients keep their hair. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Marengo Therapeutics Cambridge, MA, US Marengo makes antibodies that selectively activate particular subsets of a patient's T cells by binding to part of the T-cell receptor, aiming for durable immune control of cancer. Its lead drug is in clinical trials in tumours with many mutations that have stopped responding to checkpoint drugs. | none | none | none | Bladder & urothelial cancer | none | ||
Massive Bio New York, NY, US Massive Bio uses artificial intelligence to read a cancer patient's medical records and match them to clinical trials they may be eligible for, anywhere in the world, with doctors checking the results. | none | none | none | none | none | ||
Mednet (theMednet) New York, NY, US theMednet is an online question-and-answer network where oncologists ask hard clinical questions and get answers from named experts, with AI now helping to search the archive. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Mission Bio South San Francisco, CA, US Mission Bio sells an instrument that reads DNA mutations and proteins from thousands of individual cancer cells at once, helping researchers see how leukaemia and myeloma evolve and resist treatment. | none | none | none | Acute myeloid leukaemia, Multiple myeloma | none | ||
Modulari-T Montreal, CA Modulari-T designs synthetic genes that let engineered immune cells sense their surroundings and change behaviour, so cell therapies can find and kill cancer more reliably. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
NearWave South Bend, IN, US NearWave makes a handheld near-infrared scanner that shows within days whether a breast cancer is responding to chemotherapy before surgery, so patients are not left on a treatment that is failing. | none | Y Combinator | Triple-negative breast cancer, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer | none | |||
Notable Labs Foster City, CA, US Notable Labs tested drug combinations directly on a patient's own blood cancer cells to predict which would work. It later became a listed company; its website was offline at the last check. | none | Y Combinator | Acute myeloid leukaemia | none | |||
Nucleai Tel Aviv, IL Nucleai uses artificial intelligence to map where different cells sit within tumour tissue samples, helping drug companies understand who responds to a treatment and why. | none | none | Section 32, Sanofi Ventures | none | none | ||
Nucleo United States, US Nucleo builds AI agents that help oncologists and radiologists pull measurements and insights out of CT scans to characterise tumours and guide treatment. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Numen San Francisco, CA, US Numen is working on earlier cancer detection, with the stated goal of a future without cancer deaths. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Omanta San Francisco, CA, US Omanta runs a personal research programme for one patient at a time, for people with cancer who have exhausted standard options, coordinating tissue, testing, multi-omic analysis and a treatment strategy with their doctors. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Oncobox Walnut, CA, US Oncobox profiles a tumour's genes and the activity of its signalling pathways, then ranks approved targeted drugs by how likely they are to work for that patient. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Origin Bio San Francisco, CA, US Origin is building the largest dataset of how individual cancer cells from real patients respond to drugs and genetic medicines, to license to pharma and AI companies. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Perci Health London, GB Perci Health is an online clinic where people affected by cancer can book video appointments with specialist cancer nurses, physiotherapists, dietitians, psychologists and other experts, usually paid for by their employer or insurer. | none | none | none | none | none | ||
Persephone Biosciences San Diego, CA, US Persephone studies the gut bacteria of cancer patients and designs live bacterial medicines meant to make immunotherapy work for more people. | none | Y Combinator | Colorectal cancer | none | |||
Precirix Brussels, BE Precirix is a Belgian company developing a radioactive medicine built on a very small antibody fragment that seeks out HER2-positive cancers, including breast and stomach cancers that have spread to the brain. It is in early human trials. | none | none | none | HER2-positive breast cancer, Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer | none | ||
Proxygen Vienna, AT Proxygen is a Vienna company that hunts for molecular glues, small molecules that make cells destroy cancer-driving proteins. Its two lead programmes, against p300 and CDK12, are still in the laboratory. | none | none | none | Prostate cancer, Non-small-cell lung cancer, Bladder & urothelial cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer | none | ||
REPROSENT Los Gatos, CA, US REPROSENT is a patient app that helps people with cancer and their families track symptoms and treatment, and turns what they record into alerts for their care team. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
ResistanceBio (Viosera Therapeutics) San Francisco, CA, US ResistanceBio set out to design drugs that stop cancers becoming resistant to treatment. The company is no longer active. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Reverie Labs Cambridge, MA, US Reverie Labs used machine learning to design cancer drugs that could cross into the brain. It is no longer operating. | none | Y Combinator | Glioma & glioblastoma | none | |||
Serinus Biosciences New York, NY, US Serinus uses an explainable AI model of cancer cell biology to work out how tumours evade a drug, and to design combinations that block the escape routes. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Shasqi San Francisco, CA, US Shasqi puts an inert form of a chemotherapy drug into the bloodstream and switches it on only inside the tumour, using a chemical reaction called click chemistry, so the rest of the body sees far less of the drug. | none | Y Combinator | Sarcomas | none | |||
Signatur Biosciences London, GB Signatur turns complex gene-expression tests, starting with breast cancer prognosis, into simple PCR tests that a local hospital lab can run in days. | none | Y Combinator | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer | none | |||
SynsoryBio Boston, MA, US SynsoryBio builds protein drugs with built-in if-then logic: they stay switched off until they sense they are in diseased tissue, which could make very potent cancer drugs safe enough to use. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
TailorMed New York, NY, US TailorMed is software that finds and enrols patients in financial assistance programmes so they can afford expensive medicines, used by hospitals, cancer clinics and pharmacies. | none | none | ACS BrightEdge | none | none | ||
TareBio San Francisco, CA, US TareBio reads the immune cells already fighting a cancer in a patient's body and works backwards to design a vaccine that makes more of them, in weeks rather than years. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Tradewind BioScience San Francisco, CA, US Tradewind is developing a single antibody for ovarian cancer that both attacks the tumour cells directly and helps the immune system attack them too. | none | Y Combinator | Ovarian cancer | none | |||
Triomics New York, NY, US Triomics builds AI agents that read the unstructured parts of a cancer patient's records, such as pathology reports and scanned faxes, to match patients to trials and prepare visits automatically. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Valink Therapeutics Boston, MA, US Valink designs antibody-drug conjugates that grab two targets at once, aimed at solid tumours that immunotherapy does not reach. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
Valo Health Lexington, MA, US Valo Health uses large collections of patient health records and artificial intelligence to work out which biological targets cause disease, then designs small-molecule drugs against them. | none | none | none | none | none | ||
Velorum Therapeutics San Francisco, CA, US Velorum is developing cancer drugs that exploit heme, the iron-carrying molecule tumours depend on in unusual ways. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
X-Zell Bangkok, TH X-Zell isolates rare abnormal cells from a blood sample and stains and images them so a pathologist can look for signs of cancer without a tissue biopsy. | none | Y Combinator | Prostate cancer | none | |||
Xcision Medical Systems Columbia, MD, US Xcision makes GammaPod, a radiotherapy machine built only for breast cancer: the patient lies face down with the breast held gently in a cup while many small cobalt beams focus on the tumour, allowing treatment in five sessions or fewer instead of several weeks. | none | none | none | HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer | none | ||
Yemaachi Biotech Accra, GH Yemaachi collects and sequences cancer samples from across Africa, the most genetically diverse population on earth, so that cancer tests and drugs work for African patients too. | none | Y Combinator | none | none | |||
zPREDICTA San Jose, CA, US zPREDICTA grew patient-derived tumour tissue in three-dimensional cultures that reproduce the tumour's surroundings, so drug companies could test cancer drugs on something closer to a real tumour. It was later acquired. | none | Y Combinator | none | none |
Most active investors
All investorsCounted from the graph: the number of OnCo companies that name the investor. This measures presence in this corpus, not fund size.
| # | Investor | Type | Portfolio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Y Combinator San Francisco, CA, US | Accelerator | 62 |
| 2 | RA Capital Management Boston, MA, US | Venture capital | 10 |
| 3 | Atlas Venture Cambridge, MA, US | Venture capital | 6 |
| 4 | Frazier Life Sciences Seattle, WA, US | Venture capital | 6 |
| 5 | Alexandria Venture Investments Pasadena, CA, US | Corporate venture | 5 |
| 6 | Foresite Capital San Francisco, CA, US | Venture capital | 5 |
| 7 | Jeito Capital Paris, FR | Venture capital | 4 |
| 8 | Lightspeed Venture Partners Menlo Park, CA, US | Venture capital | 4 |
| 9 | Logos Capital San Francisco, CA, US | Venture capital | 4 |
| 10 | Novo Holdings Hellerup, DK | Venture capital | 4 |
| 11 | OrbiMed New York, NY, US | Venture capital | 4 |
| 12 | Versant Ventures San Francisco, CA, US | Venture capital | 4 |
| 13 | Andreessen Horowitz Bio + Health Menlo Park, CA, US | Venture capital | 3 |
| 14 | Bpifrance Paris, FR | Venture capital | 3 |
| 15 | Cormorant Asset Management Boston, MA, US | Venture capital | 3 |
| 16 | DCVC Palo Alto, CA, US | Venture capital | 3 |
| 17 | Samsara BioCapital Palo Alto, CA, US | Venture capital | 3 |
| 18 | Section 32 (S32) San Diego, CA, US | Venture capital | 3 |
| 19 | TCGX (TCG Crossover) San Francisco Bay Area, CA, US | Venture capital | 3 |
| 20 | Venrock Palo Alto, CA, US | Venture capital | 3 |
| 21 | ACS BrightEdge (American Cancer Society) Atlanta, GA, US | Foundation | 2 |
| 22 | Amgen Ventures Thousand Oaks, CA, US | Corporate venture | 2 |
| 23 | Casdin Capital New York, NY, US | Venture capital | 2 |
| 24 | Deerfield Management New York, NY, US | Venture capital | 2 |
| 25 | EcoR1 Capital San Francisco, CA, US | Venture capital | 2 |
Recently funded
Newest sourced roundsRounds with a public source, newest first. Amounts appear only where the source gives one.
- Obsidian Therapeutics · Crossover$350M · 2026 · source
- Thyme Care · Series E$125M · 2026 · source
- GT Medical Technologies · Series E$100M · 2026 · source
- Neomorph · Series B$100M · 2026 · source
- Adcendo · Series C$75M · 2026 · source
- Ratio Therapeutics · Series C$70M · 2026 · source
- ClearNote Health · Series D$52M · 2026 · source
- Nucleus RadioPharma · Series B$50M · 2026 · source
- Kanvas Biosciences · Series A$48M · 2026 · source
- Allotera Therapeutics (formerly Wugen) · Series C$35M · 2026 · source
- Monteris Medical · Debt$35M · 2026 · source
- Monteris Medical · Series E$28M · 2026 · source
- Empyrean Medical Systems · Debtundisclosed · 2026 · source
- MaaT Pharma · Debtundisclosed · 2026 · source
- Nykode Therapeutics · Crossoverundisclosed · 2026 · source
- OSE Immunotherapeutics · Crossoverundisclosed · 2026 · source
- Perimeter Medical Imaging AI · Crossoverundisclosed · 2026 · source
- Perimeter Medical Imaging AI · Debtundisclosed · 2026 · source
- Quantum Surgical · Grantundisclosed · 2026 · source
- BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics · IPO$382M · 2025 · source
- Pathos AI · Series D$365M · 2025 · source
- Treeline Biosciences · Form D offering$200M · 2025 · source
- Callio Therapeutics · Series A$187M · 2025 · source
- Strand Therapeutics · Series B$153M · 2025 · source
Browse by company type
Method. A company is on this page when its stage is startup or growth, when it has a Y Combinator batch, or when it was bought or wound down after being venture-backed. Chinese and Indian companies are covered in their own passes and are not repeated here. Suggest a missing company or a correction through the edit link on any record.



