The Four Years From Now (4YFN) kicked off this Monday with the baton passed by two of Barcelona's most promising startups: the biotech company Ona Therapeutics and the smart electric car charger company Wallbox. Both the CEO of Ona Therapeutics, Valerie Vanhooren, and Wallbox's CEO, Enric Asunción, found a common thread in the origins of their companies. "Barcelona chose me," both stated.
In Asunción's case, the city was the birthplace of his startup for practical reasons. Both he and the other co-founder of Wallbox, Eduard Castañeda, were living outside Barcelona when at a wedding they decided they could lead the new mobility. Asunción was in the Netherlands, working for Tesla, and Castañeda, in Zaragoza. After dedicating all their savings to creating the company, the most logical decision was to move in with their parents, in Barcelona. "It was the best option," Asunción explained. This convenient, even forced, choice was benefited by two factors, which proved key to Wallbox's future. The presence of the necessary talent to be part of the company and a strong network of suppliers in the automotive sector, considering the location of strategic players such as Seat and Nissan.
For her part, Vanhooren came from Belgium because she fell in love with a Catalan. In her home country, a leader in the field of biotechnology, the executive had conducted research and worked in large companies. When she decided to leave, Vanhooren saw all her colleagues and friends think she was making a mistake, leaving behind one of the main European markets for this sector. Her surprise was when she discovered that in Barcelona there was an incipient and rich ecosystem, with an excellent scientific system, funds willing to invest, and talent. That is why Vanhooren has no doubt that Catalonia can be at the same level as Belgium within ten years or, even, "perhaps less."
On this path to position the city and its surroundings in the biotechnology sector, Vanhooren does not rule out that Ona Therapeutics will become a new Catalan unicorn ---a company valued at more than 1,000 million euros---, after the recent success of Wallbox. "I wouldn't mind," she joked. For the CEO, the most important thing is to get her discovery about metastasis to the market, taking whatever path is necessary for people to directly benefit. After closing a 30 million euro round in June 2020, Vanhooren has indicated that they plan to go for a Series B in a few years.
Asunción, questioned as the first Catalan unicorn and third in Spain, after Cabify and Glovo, explained that they had no doubt in launching themselves to go public on the New York stock exchange through a SPAC, an uncommon investment vehicle locally. For him, the SPAC's virtue is that it allows for long-term investors and, in their case, with experience in the sector. The operation has risks, like any business, but Wallbox was clear that it was necessary to gain muscle to be able to lead a sector that is growing very rapidly and will do so even more in the short term. To guarantee this position, the company has clear objectives: within four years they expect to have entered into profits and have a workforce of 3,000 employees.
Vanhooren and Asunción, who do not see themselves as local heroes, the name with which they were presented in the talk, only hope to serve as an example for other Barcelona entrepreneurs. Each will do so from their own field. She, working to make cancer eventually become a chronic disease, while he will do so by facilitating access to the energy sector for all citizens, allowing them to generate their own energy and turn them into actors who can sell and buy it.