Where oncology investors are based
Close to two thirds of the oncology investors on Angel Match are in the United States. That part isn't surprising. What stands out is which states lead.
California usually tops startup investor lists by a wide margin. In oncology, Massachusetts runs almost level with it, and New York comes third. No other US state gets close to those three.
The city view tells the same story. New York City, Boston and San Francisco are bunched together at the top. Add Cambridge, which sits just across the river from Boston, and the Boston area becomes the biggest oncology cluster on the list. A lot of cancer research happens there, and the money has set up shop next door.
Outside the US, the United Kingdom has the most oncology investors, followed by Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. Switzerland ranking that high is unusual. It makes sense once you remember that Basel is home to Roche and Novartis, two of the world's largest drug makers. In Europe, London leads, but Barcelona, Paris and Amsterdam aren't far behind, so don't stop your search at the UK.
What should you do with this? If you're raising for a cancer startup, start your list in the Boston area, New York City and San Francisco, then widen it. San Diego and Philadelphia are the next US cities worth a look.
What stage oncology investors come in at
Seed is the most common stage on this list. About four in ten oncology investors are tagged as seed investors. Early stage venture comes next, then Series A.
Pre-seed is thin. Fewer than one in ten oncology investors are tagged for it, about the same number as Series B. That fits how cancer companies get started. The very first money often comes from research grants, university programs and disease foundations, not from investors. So if you're pre-seed, treat grants as part of your raise and go to investors once you have early data to show.
By investor type, more than half the list carries the venture capital tag and nearly half carries the angel tag. Plenty of people carry both, so the groups overlap. That split matters because of check size. Angel investors write checks between $25,000 and $500,000. That can pay for early lab work or a key experiment. It won't pay for a clinical trial.
For that you need venture capitalists, who invest $2 million to $100 million+ per round. So plan your angel round as a bridge to that kind of money, not a replacement for it. Use it to produce the one result that makes a venture investor take the meeting.
A small group on this list is tagged corporate venture capital. These are the investing arms of drug companies. There aren't many of them, but they're worth knowing about, because a big drug company is often the partner or buyer a cancer startup ends up with. Just ask early what rights they expect in return, since some want a first look at your program.
What oncology investors look at before they write a check
Oncology investors think about risk first, and the numbers explain why. A study by BIO, Informa Pharma Intelligence and QLS Advisors looked at drug programs from 2011 to 2020. Only 5.3% of oncology programs that entered Phase I went on to win FDA approval. Across all disease areas, the figure was 7.9%.
So your pitch has one main job. Show why your program is less risky than the average one. The same study gives you three things to work with.
- Biomarkers. Programs that used biomarkers to pick the right patients for their trials had a 15.9% chance of approval from Phase I, compared with 7.6% for programs that didn't. That finding covers all disease areas, not only cancer. If you have a biomarker plan, put it on your first slide.
- Tumor type. Blood cancer programs had a 7.5% chance of approval from Phase I. Solid tumor programs had 4.6%. If you're working on a solid tumor, expect harder questions about why your approach will work where others haven't.
- Time. Oncology programs that made it took 10.3 years on average to go from Phase I to approval. No investor expects you to raise for all of that at once. They fund you from one milestone to the next.
That last point changes how you should size your round. Work out what it costs to reach your next real data point, such as a first result in patients, and add a buffer. A runway calculator helps you check that the money lasts until the data arrives. Raising with no new data and three months of cash is a bad spot to be in.
Not every oncology startup makes drugs. If you're building a cancer test, a device or software for cancer care, investors will ask different questions. They'll want to know who pays for it, what clinical evidence you have and how you'll sell to hospitals. Plenty of the investors here also carry tags like drug discovery or patient care, so read each profile's tags to see which side of oncology they lean toward.
What oncology funding looks like in 2026
Cancer is still where a lot of biotech money goes. BioPharma Dive keeps a tracker of venture rounds backed by 26 highly active biotech venture funds. So far in 2026, cancer has drawn the largest share of that investment.
But more money doesn't mean raising got easier for you. The same tracker shows investment shifting toward later-stage biotechs, and $100 million rounds have become a regular thing. In plain terms, a lot of the money is going into big rounds for companies that are already further along in clinical testing.
If you're early, that means two things. First, you're not the main target of that money, so your list needs to be tight. The seed and early stage investors on this page are the ones to focus on, not the late-stage names. Second, anything that moves you closer to the clinic makes you look more like the companies getting funded. A clean preclinical data package and a clear plan for your first trial count for more right now than a big market slide.
How to approach oncology investors
A lot of oncology investors trained as scientists or doctors before they moved into investing. They'll read your data closely, so write for that reader.
- Lead with the science, not the market. Everyone knows cancer is a big market. Open with your target, your approach and your best data point instead.
- Put four facts in your first two lines. Name the cancer type, the kind of treatment or product, your stage of development and the one result you're proudest of. That's what an investor uses to decide whether to keep reading.
- Match on stage before anything else. A Series B investor won't back a preclinical company, no matter how good the science is. Filter the list by stage first, then by location.
- Watch the calendar. Oncology runs on conference season. Investors are hard to reach during the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January and the ASCO annual meeting around the start of June. The weeks right after are a good time to follow up, especially if you have new data to share.
- Have your documents ready before the first email. Oncology diligence is heavy. Expect requests for your full data package, your patent status and your regulatory plan. Keeping them in a data room means you can share them the same day an investor asks.
Building your oncology investor list
With 700+ oncology investors on this page, you don't need all of them. You need the few dozen who fund your kind of cancer company at your stage. Start with the seed and Series A investors in the Boston area, New York City and San Francisco, then widen out to London and the rest of Europe. You can filter all of them by stage, type and location in the Angel Match investor database.
Biotechnology investors
