How Athernal Bio turned earlier bid work into a successful Investor Partnerships award

Strong science, and work worth building on

Athernal Bio is developing therapies to stop the seeds of cancer from spreading. The team had already put serious work into a Biomedical Catalyst application, with detailed feedback from us along the way.

When the Investor Partnerships competition came up, the question was how to build on that work rather than start again.

Build on what was strong. Sharpen the investor case.

1. 1

   A rigorous review of the earlier bid

   GrantHero

   On the Biomedical Catalyst application, we gave detailed feedback on the scored answers, rewrote key sections, rebuilt the team appendix and worked through compliance queries. That work became the foundation for what came next.

2. 2

   Refined the additionality case with the investor

   GrantHero

   Investor Partnerships turns on showing that public and private money do more together than apart. We worked with Athernal and Delin on the investor’s form to make that case clearly and credibly.

Funded, with public and private capital pulling together

The Investor Partnerships application was funded. We don’t claim the assessor’s decision, nobody can, but the bid went in with a clear, credible case for why the grant mattered alongside Delin’s investment, built on work the team had already done.

The award lets Athernal push its anti-metastasis programme forward with public and private capital working together.