Infographic – Cancer Start-Up Venture Funds Decline

Click on image for full-size view. (Crunchbase)

24 Dec. 2022. As our reporting this year notes, venture funding for new companies is declining across the board, and that includes start-ups developing cancer therapies or diagnostics. According to technology research company Crunchbase that tracks venture finance, funding for new enterprises creating products and services that treat or detect cancer fell more than 40 percent from last year.

Crunchbase reports this week that cancer therapy or diagnostics start-ups worldwide are raising $8 billion this year, down from 13.7 billion in 2021. Plus, the number of venture funding transactions for these companies is also declining, from 357 last year to 179 so far in 2022. Those numbers are comparable to investment dollars and deals recorded in 2018.

Most of the venture investments in cancer start-ups this year is going to early-stage companies. Crunchbase says $5.3 billion of the $8 billion raised this year by cancer therapy or diagnostic developers is invested in seed, first, or second venture funding rounds.

Luba Greenwood, managing partner of a venture capital fund affiliated with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, says investors now are looking for particularly innovative approaches and mechanisms. “We have spent so much money on the same me-too mechanisms,” Greenwood tells Crunchbase. “Now, money is going to be concentrated in true innovation.”

More from Science & Enterprise:

• Virtual Pathology Image Company Opens, Raises $15.2M
• Residual Cancer Detection Company Launches, Raises $56M
• Cancer Detection Start-Up Gains $4M in Seed Funds

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