Biomedical companies in Catalonia attracted €153 millions in private investment in 2016
<p>Most of the funding comes from inside Catalonia, through venture capital funds, licensing deals and business angels and family offices, according to study from CataloniaBio and EY</p>
Biomedical companies in Catalonia attracted €153 millions in private investment in 2016, according to the first "Study on investment in the Biomedical industry in Catalonia 2017" compiled by CataloniaBio and EY, with collaboration from Biocat. This record figure for the sector was raised through 50 operations from a variety of funding sources.
Specifically, product-development companies financed most of their operations through venture capital (35%), licensing deals (33%) and debt (16%), and to a lesser degree industrial partners (7%), MAB (4%), business angels and family offices (3%), and crowdfunding and others (2%). For service companies, the main source of funds was business angels and family offices (92%), followed by venture capital (8%).
Catalan investment companies performed a total of 33 operations with €32 millions in committed capital in 2016. 48% of these resources was allocated to businesses located in Catalonia.
According to the study, founders are gradually reducing their participation in each round, falling below 50% by the third round, while venture capital funds have a growing presence, up to 21% from 8% on average, in product-development companies.
"We have to strike a balance between the commitment of founders and that of financial partners,” highlighted Ignasi Biosca, president of CataloniaBio and CEO of Reig Jofre. “My message to entrepreneurs is that they need to consolidate a solid project and attract enough value before their first round of funding so their participation isn’t diluted later.”
38% of companies surveyed for the study expect to need new sources of funding within the year and 28% within the next 2 years.