• They appear in the annual ranking recently published by the Expansión newspaper.
• Five of these companies are taking part in their first funding round, and GENESIS Biomed has supported them throughout the successful process.

2020 was not an easy year. The COVID-19 pandemic seriously affected many sectors. Tourism, catering and the cultural industry were among those suffering serious setbacks and they still have to contend with restrictive measures imposed to contain the disease, badly affecting their business model. However, there have been exceptions to this depressing scenario and one of the oases has proved to be the health science industry.

In the last few years, it has increasingly positioned itself as a rising sector, with investment gradually but continuously increasing. And in this respect 2020 was undoubtedly a record year. Catalonia, one of the leading areas in Spain in this sector, has been no exception, with biotechnology, medical technology and digital health firms managing to double the capital attracted in funding rounds, according to the annual ranking of the 30 principal health science rounds in Catalonia drawn up by the leading business paper Expansión.

From 60 million euros received in 2019, funding grew to more than 125 million euros in 2020. This is a highly significant sum considering that, although the industry has not been hit especially badly, there were certain negative effects. Of the 30 companies making up the Expansión ranking, six of them (Peptomyc, Oxolife, DeepUll, Cornea Project, ADmit Therapeutics and Aortyx) are clients of GENESIS Biomed. They managed to attract a total of 22.21 million euros, just over 17.6% of the total received by Catalan firms in 2020.

“We are proud and satisfied to see our clients grow and become established in a competitive sector like health sciences,” says Josep Lluís Falcó, CEO of GENESIS Biomed, adding that “four of these six companies were taking part in their first funding round, and we have stayed with them throughout, supporting them all the way through.” 

Among GENESIS Biomed’s clients in this ranking, Peptomyc takes pride of place. In 2020, the company achieved an investment volume of 11.4 million euros, the third largest amount received by any company. “The case of Peptomyc is very special for us: this is a company we saw at the very start and we are still working with them. We are very proud to see how far they have come and that they have a brilliant future ahead of them,” concludes Mr. Falcó.

The 30 principal funding rounds in the health sciences industry in Catalonia (source: Expansión: https://www.expansion.com/catalunya/2021/01/12/5ffdfd67468aeb9c0d8b4609.html) 

2020 Millions of euros

N.A.= Not available. (*) Not including loans and grants