Catalonia's life and health sciences ecosystem continues to expand and break its own records. The sector closed 2025 with a historical high of 517 million euros in investment in startups and scaleups, and scientific and clinical activity that reaffirms Catalonia's positioning as an international hub, with Barcelona at the forefront.
This investment record is accompanied by another record: that of turnover, which exceeds 48,690 million euros. And not only investment and turnover are growing, but also the companies that drive the sector: there are already more than 1,650, 8% more than the previous year, forming a sector in which the 94 institutions that research from Catalonia also stand out.
These companies —90% SMEs— are concentrated mainly in the Barcelona area, where 93% of the sector's companies are located, a figure that is timidly decentralizing, as highlighted by Robert Fabregat, general director of Biocat, and Silvia Labé, director of the new BioRegion of Catalonia report, prepared by Biocat. Through these companies, the health and life science sector represents 7.6% of Catalan GDP, and ranks as the third economic activity in Catalonia in terms of employment: it exceeds 306,000 jobs, 7.3% of the employed population.
In addition, Catalonia "has recovered the first position in Spain in exports of sanitary products", with 9,165 million euros, practically half of the total for Spain (45%). Catalan companies are mainly directed to Switzerland, Germany, France and the United States. But Catalonia not only goes outwards, but has received a direct foreign investment of 2,382 million euros between 2021 and 2025, with the AstraZeneca operation at the forefront. Currently, Catalonia is home to more than 30 technology hubs linked to health, out of a total of 200 operating in the territory.
Unprecedented year
The investment of 517 million euros captured by startupsandscaleupsrepresents an unprecedented milestone, with a considerable 43% increase compared to 2024, and 7% above the maximum achieved in 2022. Among this investment, venture capital continued to act as the main driver, with 327 million euros, with a prominent role for mega-rounds: the five largest have concentrated 47% of the total, as Labé highlights. The 118 million round ofSpliceBio, the one ofDeepUllof 50 million and that ofQida, of another 37 million, are among the most outstanding of last year.In addition to venture capital, competitive public funding has added 124 million euros in subsidies, mainly driven by European funds. The sector also drew on debt financing for startups (31 million) and the stock market (30 million), while crowdequity options fell to 3.8 million. All this to feed an ecosystem that now has 464 startups and 168 spin-offs created since 2016.
Here, the subsector also matters. The biotech sector took 68% of the total investment, with 347 million —boosted by SpliceBio's megaround—, while medtech captured 92 million, and digital health rebounded to 71 million. In this investment landscape, the role of actors from beyond the border also stands out: 82% of the venture capital raised included the participation of international investors.
To nourish this entire ecosystem, not only resources are needed, but also talent. Part of this comes from abroad, but another part arises from the ecosystem itself: Catalonia registers 26,000 annual graduates in scientific fields and more than 18,000 research professionals. However, as Fabregat points out, there is still a lack of professionals to cover the entire ecosystem: "There is a lack of talent; there will always be a lack of talent."
After maturity, more impact
Thus, the innovation ecosystem advances in a phase of maturity, attracting more private investment and strengthening scientific leadership and clinical research. "The challenge, now, is to continue scaling so that these advances translate into more innovation adopted in the health system and greater impact for patients and society," Fabregat emphasizes.In this challenge, the key is knowledge transfer. As Labé points out, "tech transfer funds are being created that will boost the creation of spin-offs and investment." However, they agree that there is much room for improvement in this knowledge transfer, a diagnosis shared by multiple actors in the ecosystem.
Given this shared diagnosis, some are betting on taking a step forward, as Leitat president Ramon Pastor did in an interview: forging complicities that lead to a process of ecosystem reorganization to facilitate this knowledge transfer. In this regard, Fabregat argues that "alliances and efforts are required" to cohere an ecosystem where there is now "fragmentation" that makes it difficult for innovations from the research field to reach the market. Given the shared diagnosis, he points out some issues to address: reducing rigidity in universities for the promotion of spin-offs and raising more resources in initial stages to allow for that first leap, along with other more intangible elements, especially one: "Losing the fear of failure, and daring."