Asabys, member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, today announced the entry of the Catalan Institute of Finance (ICF) into its new venture capital fund, Sabadell Asabys Health Innovation Investments II (Sabadell Asabys II), with a stake of €10 million. 

With this investment, the ICF, which already invested in Asabys first fund in 2019, confirms its interest in medical technology and biopharmaceutical companies, and the need to value medical research and technology transfer. One of the entity's main lines of action in the field of venture capital is to invest in funds managed by independent managers that invest in Catalan health sciences companies. 

Since the launch of Sabadell Asabys II at the beginning of the year, the fund manager has already made three investments, two based in Barcelona, DeepUll and OrikineBio, and one in Paris, Gradient Denervation Technologies. 

Asabys has led the Seed, Series A and B financing rounds of these companies together with leading European venture capital managers such as Sofinnova Partners, Kurma Partners, Thuja Capital and Adbio, as well as with the investment arm of corporates such as Werfen and BioMerieux. 

In recent years, Catalonia, and specifically Barcelona, has positioned itself as a relevant medical hub in Europe, where healthcare startups raised 445 million euros in 2022, an increase of 87% compared to 2021. This September, Barcelona will host for the first time two of the most relevant global healthcare conferences, with Asabys as main sponsor, LSI Europe 23, one of the world's leading healthcare technology conferences, attended by investors, founders and top-level executives, and Biospain, one of the largest international biotechnology events in southern Europe. 

Josep Ll. Sanfeliu, Founding & Managing Partner of Asabys, adds: "The support of the ICF in this new fund is not only a support to our work as investors since we started in 2018, but above all a reflection of the enormous potential of the ecosystem in biotech, medical technology, diagnostics and digital health solutions; a multi-segment that defines Asabys distinctive strategy as an investment firm." 

Irene Bertran, Director of Venture Capital at the ICF, says: "Asabys investment policy in the biotech ecosystem is in line with the ICF's mission to support and promote medical research and technology transfer in health and science in Catalonia, especially at very early stages of development. The interest of our public promotion bank is that this ecosystem grows, becomes more solid and positions the country as a first level medical hub".