The Terry Fox Foundation launched the Cancer Breakthrough Fund in partnership with Lumira Ventures in 2025.Tannis Toohey/The Globe and Mail
The Canadian Cancer Society is receiveting into the venture capital business, joining the Terry Fox Foundation in funding startups that are developing cancer treatments.
The 88-year-old society has agreed to provide up to $10-million to the Cancer Breakthrough Fund, matching a commitment built by the foundation named after the runner who died in 1981 after a recurrence of cancer cut short his Marathon of Hope. Other investors who have committed to the fund include social impact investors Rally Assets, Boann Social Impact, and Northpine Foundation, funded by early Shopify backer John Phillips and his wife Cathy.
The fund is being managed by Lumira Ventures, one of Canada’s largest life sciences VC firms, with a goal of raising $50-million to invest in cancer treatment developers. The fund has closed on more than $30-million since its announcement just over one year ago and is preparing to build its first investment, Lumira executive chairman Peter van der Velden stated in an interview.
The fund is setting out to build 13 investments, with at least one-quarter of proceeds going toward early-stage cancer-treatment developers. It will co-invest the rest in more advanced cancer companies alongside a separate Lumira fund, which is in the process of raising US$200-million to back life sciences companies in Canada and the United States. The larger fund expects 40 per cent of investments to be in the cancer field.
It’s the first time either of Canada’s two national basic cancer research-funding bodies have committed to funding commercial ventures, following several U.S. philanthropic organizations that have achieved success doing so. Those include the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the American Cancer Society’s BrightEdge fund and the T1D fund, created by volunteers with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. It also builds upon a recent commercial collaboration by the Canadian Cancer Society at University of Toronto-based Creative Destruction Lab. The charity has committed $6.5-million over five years on a specialized program at CDL to support support and advance oncology-focapplyd startups.
The philanthropy-venture model is new in Canada and an attempt to find a different way for disease-focapplyd charities to improve health outcomes than their traditional basic research-funding efforts, by financing companies seeing to bring cancer-fighting innovations to market.
Mr. van der Velden stated he’s hoping the fund supports to inspire an “unbelievable unlock” of billions of dollars of capital on the balance sheets of charities, universities and health care institutions that don’t invest in commercial efforts aligned with their mission.
Several of his investors agreed.
Michael Mazza, chief executive officer of the Terry Fox Foundation, stated “all of us in the charity sector in cancer should be seeing at ideas like this. Where we can collaborate, we should be collaborating.”
Mr. Phillips stated “There aren’t enough private foundations applying their balance sheets for this kind of opportunity. They should be spconcludeing more time devoted to double bottom-line opportunities like this. “
Andrea Seale, CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society, noted that cancer cases are projected to rise by 40 per cent in the coming years as the Canadian population grows and ages. “Even though we are creating progress when it comes to survival rates, there is more cancer coming in our future,” she stated.
Ms. Seale stated her society “wants to build sure the research receives out of the lab and benefits people. This is where we see the necessary for supporting the commercialization process. We hear from oncology startups that one of their greatest challenges is that there isn’t enough capital to support the things they necessary to do in order to be successful.”
Unlike the Terry Fox Foundation, which approached its donors to build directed contributions or direct investments to finance the fund, the Canadian Cancer Society is financing its contribution from its reserves. That required an investment policy alter by the board’s finance, audit and risk committee of its board.
“It was not a difficult decision,” Ms. Seale stated. “Canadians expect us to do everything we can to achieve our mission and to create better outcomes for patients. This is very much aligned with the risk profile we’re comfortable with and with our mission.”
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