Biotech
5 Early-Stage Cancer Startups Developing More Precise Treatments
DealBio tracks early-stage cancer startups across Europe and North America. These 5 are developing treatments designed to make therapeutic activity more selective, from personalized tumor targets and RNA-guided cell depletion to targeted immune delivery and dual-action cell therapy.
- Oncology
- Precision Medicine
- Immuno-oncology
- Drug Delivery
- Cell Therapy
Cancer treatment is increasingly being designed around molecular features, tissue location and the biology surrounding the tumor. The opportunity is not only to make a therapy more potent, but to concentrate that activity where it is useful and reduce exposure where it is not.
Across this group, precision takes several forms. One startup personalizes tumor targets to the patient, another recognizes intracellular RNA before destroying a cell, while others use engineered delivery systems, CAR-T cells or antibody-guided inhibitors to localize therapeutic effects.
For investors, that creates a shared development question across otherwise different modalities: whether greater selectivity can translate into stronger efficacy, a better safety profile or a clearer treatment pathway.
At a Glance
- Granza BioUnited States2024Targeted immune-payload delivery
- Nema HealthSpain2024Personalized neoantigen immunotherapy
- Akribion TherapeuticsGermany2024RNA-guided selective cell depletion
- GlioCARTSwitzerland2025Dual-action CAR-T for glioblastoma
- Biodelphis TherapeuticsSwitzerland2026Antibody-guided protease inhibition
Reprogramming immunity to create target-specific medicines.
- Country
United States- Founded
- 2024
- Sector
- Biotech
- Funding stage
- Seed or earlier
Why Granza Bio stands out
Granza Bio is turning attack particles, naturally occurring killing entities released by cytotoxic immune cells, into an engineered delivery platform. The startup's lead cancer program packages synthetic versions of these particles inside protein shells fitted with targeting receptors, creating a route to concentrate immune-derived killing at selected disease targets.
The startup raised an oversubscribed $7.14 million seed round led by Felicis and Refactor Capital, with Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund and Oxford Angel Fund participating. Its scientific roots trace to attack-particle research at the University of Oxford, where co-founder Ashwin Jainarayanan characterized the biology underlying the platform.
What Granza Bio is building
Granza Bio is developing engineered protein shells that can carry attack particles, RNA or proteins to selected tissues. The targeting receptor on each shell determines where its cargo is delivered, while the platform is designed around tissue targeting, immune compatibility and stability.
In oncology, the precision thesis is delivery: potent immune mechanisms may become more useful if their activity can be focused on cancer cells rather than broadly exposing healthy tissue.
Developing a personalized neoantigen immunotherapy for advanced melanoma.
- Country
Spain- Founded
- 2024
- Sector
- Biotech
- Funding stage
- Seed or earlier
Why Nema Health stands out
Nema Health is building personalization directly into cancer immunotherapy. Its OncoNeoVac program combines patient-specific neoantigens, tumor-specific targets created by cancer mutations, with DIF peptides designed to strengthen the immune response in advanced melanoma.
The startup raised €730,000 in seed funding led by BCN Peptides alongside a separate €335,000 NEOTEC grant. It also holds an exclusive licence to DIF peptide patents granted across six jurisdictions from the Universitat de Lleida, Vall d'Hebron Research Institute and IRBLleida.
What Nema Health is building
OncoNeoVac is a preclinical personalized immunotherapy intended for stage III and IV melanoma in patients whose cancer does not respond to checkpoint inhibitors or later relapses. The neoantigen set is matched to the patient's tumor biology, while peripherin-derived DIF peptides act as an immune adjuvant.
Nema Health plans to build the preclinical evidence package in-house and then out-license the program to pharmaceutical partners for further development and commercialization.
Developing RNA-guided therapies to selectively destroy cancer cells.
- Country
Germany- Founded
- 2024
- Sector
- Biotech
- Funding stage
- Seed or earlier
Why Akribion Therapeutics stands out
Akribion Therapeutics is developing a different form of precision oncology: recognizing a molecular signal inside a cancer cell and using that recognition event to trigger cell destruction. Its G-dase E platform initially targets HPV-driven throat cancer, where the guide can be programmed against viral RNA present in tumor cells.
The startup raised an €8 million seed round co-led by CARMA FUND and RV Invest. A May 2026 study also showed reduced HPV-positive head and neck tumor growth in mice after local nanoparticle delivery of the RNA-guided nuclease and guide.
What Akribion Therapeutics is building
G-dase E is a preclinical RNA-guided cell-depletion platform. A guide RNA recognizes a chosen intracellular RNA sequence and activates a nuclease, an enzyme that cuts nucleic acids. Once triggered, the enzyme degrades DNA and RNA inside the cell, causing the targeted cell to die rather than making a repairable genetic edit.
Changing the guide creates a route to recognize different molecular signatures. In its first cancer program, Akribion Therapeutics is using that programmability to distinguish HPV-positive tumor cells from surrounding tissue.
04
GlioCART
Developing CAR-T therapy targeting glioblastoma and tumor-supporting immune cells.
- Country
Switzerland- Founded
- 2025
- Sector
- Biotech
- Funding stage
- Seed or earlier
Why GlioCART stands out
GlioCART is designed around two sources of difficulty in glioblastoma: tumor heterogeneity and an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, the local mix of cancer, immune and support cells surrounding a tumor. Its lead CAR-T construct targets EGFRvIII-positive cancer cells while releasing a CD47 blocker intended to activate nearby myeloid immune cells.
The startup holds exclusive worldwide rights to University of Basel technology covering the CAR-SGRP approach. In a 2024 Nature Communications study, the lead construct eradicated mosaic glioblastoma in mice and outperformed conventional CAR-T in a lymphoma model.
What GlioCART is building
GlioCART's lead EGFRvIII-SGRP construct is a preclinical CAR-T therapy, a treatment in which T cells are engineered to recognize a cancer target. The cells are designed for direct tumor delivery, recognize the tumor-specific EGFRvIII mutation and continuously release SGRP to block CD47 locally.
That dual mechanism is intended to kill target-positive cells while recruiting macrophages and microglia against nearby tumor cells that do not carry the CAR target, addressing antigen escape within a heterogeneous solid tumor.
Developing antibody-delivered protease inhibitors for cancer and bone disease.
- Country
- Switzerland
- Founded
- 2026
- Sector
- Biotech
- Funding stage
- Seed or earlier
Why Biodelphis Therapeutics stands out
Biodelphis Therapeutics is trying to make protease inhibition more selective by changing where the inhibitor acts. Cysteine cathepsins can contribute to tumor growth when dysregulated, but they also perform essential functions in healthy tissue, making broad systemic inhibition difficult.
The startup's antibody-peptide inhibitor conjugates produced antitumor activity in lymphoma animal models in a 2024 Nature Chemical Biology study. Biodelphis Therapeutics had raised CHF 1.1 million by May 2026 and signed a GMP manufacturing agreement with HAS Healthcare Advanced Synthesis.
What Biodelphis Therapeutics is building
Biodelphis Therapeutics links selective cathepsin inhibitors to antibodies that recognize markers on target cells. The antibody guides the conjugate into selected cells so the inhibitor acts locally rather than throughout the body.
Its APICore platform spans cathepsins B, S, K and L, with animal-model proof of concept in lymphoma and solid tumors and lead programs in lung adenocarcinoma and osteoporosis. In cancer, the precision thesis is cell-targeted delivery of a potent inhibitor that would be harder to use safely as a broadly distributed drug.
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Investment perspective
The investable pattern across these startups is not a single modality. It is the effort to define the therapeutic boundary more tightly: which patient-specific antigen to target, which intracellular RNA should trigger cell death, which tissue should receive an immune payload, which cells inside a heterogeneous tumor need to be recruited, or which disease cell should receive a protease inhibitor.
That shifts early diligence toward the evidence that selectivity is real. For delivery platforms, biodistribution and target-cell uptake become central. For personalized or programmable therapies, the key questions include target choice, manufacturing and how reliably the treatment can distinguish the intended biological signal. For cell therapies, local activity has to overcome the tumor microenvironment without losing control of safety.
The commercial upside is that greater precision can create more than one form of value. It can support differentiated efficacy, reduce off-target exposure, open targets that were previously difficult to drug, or create a platform that generates multiple programs. The strongest programs will be those where the precision mechanism is matched by evidence that it changes a clinically meaningful treatment constraint.
Methodology
DealBio selected these five early-stage cancer startups because each is developing a therapeutic approach in which selectivity is central to the product design. The selection spans personalized immunotherapy, RNA-guided cell depletion, targeted immune delivery, dual-action CAR-T therapy and antibody-guided protease inhibition.
DealBio builds its Startup Briefs using publicly available startup materials, ecosystem sources, market references and professional profiles. Startup-specific information in this article was taken only from the current live DealBio Startup Briefs.