Investments in health technologies triple in Catalonia after the pandemic

Investment in the healthtech sector has been on an upward trend in recent years, accelerated by the arrival of the pandemic. Catalan companies dedicated to health technologies are no exception, going from almost 34 million euros raised in 2017 to 216.6 million euros in 2021, a record figure mostly from venture capital. Fundraising intensified especially in the last year, considering that it started from 59 million euros in 2020, tripling the following year.

This is confirmed by the report Comparison of HealthTech Ecosystems, prepared by the consultancy EY and Xartec Salut, a network formed by about fifty local research groups and led by the Centre de Recerca en Enginyeria Biomèdica (CREB) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). The study compares the evolution of the health technology sector in Catalonia with other ecosystems, such as Denmark, Boston, Israel, and South Korea, selected for having comparable dimensions, either in population or in per capita income.

It concludes that Catalonia is a growing market in this sector, which includes biotech, digitaltech, and medtech companies, but excludes pharmaceutical companies. "It is one of the main innovation ecosystems for life and health sciences, due to the high quality of education, talent, and research centers. Investors see Catalonia as a niche for startups," it emphasizes.

Specifically, the report indicates that the region has 178 startups founded since 2010, 13 incubators and accelerators, 41 research centers, 19 hospitals with research activity, and 12 universities. Among the international investors are Care Capital, Ancora Finance Group, Wellington Partners, and Kurma Partners, while among the local ones are Asabys Partners, Caixa Capital Risc, Inveready, Ysios, and Alta Life Sciences.

The growth registered by Catalan healthtech companies between 2017 and 2021 has meant that they have received more than 371 million euros, of which 92.7% was of private origin. This figure places Catalonia in third position in the report, behind Boston and Israel, but ahead of South Korea and Denmark.

Another factor revealed by the study is that in the last four years, the number of financing rounds has increased from 22 to 31, with the increase concentrated in the more advanced stages, especially Series A, which denotes "a positive maturation" of the companies. Corus, Impress, Koan Health, Stat-DX ---acquired by Qiagen in 2018--- and Anaconda Biomed have been the five companies that have obtained the most financing in this period, concentrating 70% of all funds obtained.

In the last four years, the number of financing rounds has increased from 22 to 31, with the increase concentrated in the more advanced stages, especially Series A

In order to continue growing the ecosystem, the report states that "there must be dozens of technology centers, incubators, and multinationals seeking to capitalize on the local entrepreneurial spirit," as well as a solid knowledge base provided by academic institutions. "Once the network is established, medical technology-related companies should be able to launch new ventures at a high rate thanks to the existing connections in the ecosystem," it concludes.

One more lever for technology transfer

Xartec Salut was born two years ago to solve one of the pending issues of Catalan research: technology transfer. "We identify existing technologies in universities and research centers, and we build bridges to bring them to the market," says the network's director, Alexandre Perera. Since its creation, ten spin-offs have been promoted and 15 technologies with commercial potential have been identified. It does not follow the mechanism of other programs, opening calls for applications, but rather directly contacts researchers and students to encourage them to form their own company or sell their technology to other companies.

Reports like the one prepared with EY should help to see how technology transfer can be improved, emphasizes its director, with the aim of focusing actions on solving the weaknesses of the ecosystem. Beyond what was detected by the study, for Perera, the main weaknesses of the Catalan research sector are talent drain and the lack of an entrepreneurial culture. "Investment is growing, and if we learn to strengthen the creation of startups and retain talent, our research system has the potential to attract more investment and to be able to compare ourselves with Boston and Israel. For that, a change towards an entrepreneurial culture is needed; neither students nor companies have it," he argues.