Rebuilding a $20M biotech raise for investors who aren’t scientists

Narrative, deck, brand and presentation coaching. A 60-plus-page research dump became a story private investors could follow and fund.Client details are anonymised at the company’s request.

At a glance

Raise, now in market

$20M

To fund Phase 2b, targeted at private investors and family offices.

20 years of scienceDone
Orphan drug designationSecured
Phase 1b/2aOngoing
Phase 2b$20M raising

Brought in by

The investment bank running the raise

It knew the existing deck wouldn’t convert

The deck

60+ pages to under 25

Now in market

Client

Clinical-stage oncology biotech with a first-in-class biologic, 20 years of science, orphan drug designation and an ongoing Phase 1b/2a

Oncology
Biologics

Scope

Narrative
Deck
Visual system and brand
Validation restructure
Presentation coaching

The challenge: a literature review, and investors who aren’t scientists

The science was strong. The deck and the audience were the problem.

The deck. Sixty-plus pages of research summaries, study extracts and abstracts. It read like a literature review, and nobody outside the lab could say why now.

The audience. Private investors and family offices who couldn’t evaluate the science, so couldn’t commit to it. The deck had to work for someone who never reads a paper.

The story: from mechanism to investment thesis

Cancer treatment hasn’t caught up with cancer. This biologic is built to combine breadth and selectivity, and the company is pursuing one approval that covers every listed tumour.

Raised by this company to date$25M

Raised by comparable companies$150M+

Twenty years of milestones, orphan designation secured, and patients alive a year after an eight-week prognosis. $20M funds Phase 2b.

What we learned: why biotech decks fail with private investors

Biotech decks fail with private investors for three reasons.

The science crowds out the business

If an investor can’t repeat the story to their partners the next day, the deal is lost.

Jargon and text kill the read

Unexplained acronyms lose investors who aren’t scientists, and text-heavy slides get skipped in minutes.

Nothing is de-risked on the page

Investors fund milestone by milestone, and want an exit story that fits a realistic timeline.

The money is there for companies that show it: more than 40% of biotech venture rounds in the first half of 2026 went to cancer and autoimmune drugmakers.

Source: BioPharma Dive, first-half 2026 venture funding data.

What we did: the science in the deck, the story in the lead

The science is in the deck; the story leads.

Investor deck slide: how the biologic destroys cancer cells, in five steps — **Rewrote the narrative for a non-specialist.** Mechanism in five steps a layperson can follow, then market, proof, roadmap and ask.

Investor deck slide: a $32B+ market opportunity unlocked by a single FDA approval — **Made one idea carry the deck.** Every target tumour carries the same marker, so one approval could cover them all.

Investor deck slide: Phase 1b/2a patients alive a year past their eight-week prognosis — **Restructured the validation.** Mice, then patients, each with one number an investor can repeat.

Investor deck slide: 20 years of milestones and the roadmap to approval — **Showed traction without the jargon.** Orphan designation, trial sites, pharma co-development talks and the roadmap to approval.

Around it, a new visual system and brand: clean, modern and medical, without the stock-photo feel.

Results

$20M investor deck in market, built for private investors and family offices
60+ to <25 pages, with the full evidence base kept in the appendix
The investment bank got a document it could run a process on, and a team coached to present it