Devicare aims to be the benchmark in urological treatments

Based in the Parc de Recerca of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona but with an eye on international markets. This is and has been Devicare's business vision since its inception. The technology developed by the company, with a decade of experience behind it, originated from studies and patents carried out by Dr. Félix Grases, from the Universitat de les Illes Balears. Devicare obtained the licenses for these patents and spent years developing its first solution, designing the business project, and carrying out clinical trials. Finally, in 2018, the company launched its first treatment for kidney stones.

"Since we drew up the first commercial plan, we knew that the company's future involved selling outside of Spain. The first foreign countries we entered were Mexico and Saudi Arabia and, currently, our most important international market is the Philippines. Of the total business, 60% of the turnover is international, and today we have a presence in 64 countries," says Rosendo Garganta, founder and CEO of Devicare. In this entire internationalization process, the company has had the support and advice of ACCIÓ, the agency for business competitiveness of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and part of its network of Foreign Trade and Investment Offices.

In the last decade, Devicare has registered more than 70 patents. One of them served to develop a smart device with which the patient can measure their urinary pH from home. "This is a technology that gave us a lot of prestige, but the bulk of our turnover comes from oral treatments to prevent and treat urological pathologies," acknowledges Garganta. Its most popular solutions are those from the Lit-Control product range, developed by the company itself. In 2021, Devicare also acquired Urogelus from M4 Pharma and added it to its product portfolio.

With these resources, the company now seeks to continue its development. Currently, it invoices 2.5 million euros, employs 16 people, and its goal is to continue growing at double-digit rates ---as it has in recent years--- and even accelerate more if possible. "To do this, we contemplate inorganic growth with the acquisition of new brands, always related to urology," says the founder of Devicare. Looking to the medium-to-long-term future, the company also plans to enter pharmaceuticals, a field currently unexplored, as the products it markets do not have this regulatory category.

Recently, Devicare has also strengthened its most relevant market, which, despite its significant internationalization, continues to be Spain, with the creation of a commercial team. Before having its own sales force, and in the same way it has done in other countries, the company collaborated with distributors who were responsible for getting the product to the final consumer through the pharmacy channel or medical visits. "Our vision is to become the reference company in urology," says Garganta.

Diverse funding sources

To reach this point of development, Devicare has resorted to various funding sources. In its early days, the company participated in the Empenta startup acceleration program, promoted by ACCIÓ together with Esade Creapolis and Esade. The agency for business competitiveness has various instruments to boost startups and entrepreneurial projects. This is the case of Startup Capital, aimed at newly created startups that develop their own technology and which provides direct aid of up to 100,000 euros to help finance the initial phases of the business, develop its product or service, and validate the business model to reach the market.

A few years after passing through Empenta, in 2019, it closed a 1.6 million euro round through Capital Cell ---at that time it was the largest amount to date for the crowdfunding platform---, in which 150 small investors joined as partners. Parallel to this investment, Avançsa, a Generalitat company that promotes public-private collaboration, granted it a loan in 2017 within the Innova lines for disruptive innovation projects, although, later it became, and since 2021 it is a shareholder with a 16.56% stake in the capital.

The last capital increase was at the beginning of 2021, when Advanced MedTech Holdings, a medical device group subsidiary of Singapore's sovereign fund, led a 3 million dollar round in which other partners of the company such as EMESA Capital, Juan Knuth, Ship2B and Garganta himself also participated.