09-06-2025
Cancer research foundation to start seeding startups
Andy Rachleff is funding startups again, more than two decades after stepping down as a founding partner of legendary venture capital firm Benchmark.
Why it matters: His new mission is curing cancers instead of generating profits for limited partners.
Driving the news: Rachleff tells Axios that he's spearheading a new investment program for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, where he chairs the board.
It's called InVEST and will automatically provide $50,000 equity checks to any Damon Runyon-sponsored scientists who secure at least $500,000 in seed funding for their startups.
For the scientists, it's a way to prove to venture firms that they're "fundable."
For Damon Runyan, it's a way to create a philanthropic flywheel — as its alumni have founded such companies as Moderna, Juno Therapeutics, Beam Therapeutics, and Arbor Biotechnologies.
Zoom in: Damon Runyan focuses exclusively on young scientists, or at least scientists who are relatively early in their careers.
Rachleff and CEO Yung Lie argue that most major scientific breakthroughs come from this cohort, but that most funding goes to older colleagues.
"The average age where people get their first individual NIH grant is over 40, but the average age of a Nobel Laureate in medicine is just 36 at the time they conceive of their breakthrough," Rachelff explains.
By the numbers: Damon Runyan backs around 70 new scientists per year, has 1,400 alumni, and spins out between 10 and 20 startups per year.
It had initially considered creating some sort of investment program whereby the startups would pay royalties but decided that could impede growth.
All investments will come from the foundation's endowment.
