Biocat, recognized as United Kingdom’s best Spanish business partner
<p>Four times more British VCs invested in the BioRegion in 2020. This fact shows how attractive the life sciences and healthcare ecosystem in Catalonia is to investors from that country. </p>
The Department for International Trade of the UK Embassy to Spain awarded Biocat its Collaboration and Partnership in Business Award for best Spanish collaborator. This award recognizes the organization as one of the fourteen Spanish entities with the best projection in innovation, collaboration and business entrepreneurship in the British Isles.
The award was presented at the second annual UK-Spain Business Awards ceremony, held virtually on March 10, with representatives from the 14 companies recognized. Biocat CEO Jordi Naval explained Biocat’s mission to dynamize all the stakeholders in the BioRegion (companies, research groups and bodies, hospitals and innovation support structures) and highlighted that, despite the pandemic, the BioRegion was able to raise twice as much funding as in previous years.
Naval also spoke live to thank the DIT for the award on behalf of the whole organization and expressed its desire to continue establishing good relations between the two regions.
The event also featured authorities from both countries. British Ambassador Hugh Elliot highlighted the close relationship that persists between the two regions, despite Brexit. For her part, Secretary of State for Trade Xiana Méndez encouraged everyone to not only maintain the level of trade but to step it up.
14 winners from a wide variety of sectors
In total, 14 awards were given out in seven categories. We’ll look at them below:
In the category “Collaboration and Partnership in Business”, in addition to Biocat, online cosmetics shop Laconicumwas also recognized. In the “Winning Business in Spain” category, the winner was Sygnature Discovery; and in “Driving Innovation”, the companies Highview Power and Idiada.
In the category “New UK investor”, the UK Embassy Department of International Trade recognized engineering firm Gabitel and aeronautical company Aernova.
In the “Growth in the UK” category, there were not just two but three winners. They were wireless telecom infrastructure operator Cellnex; Vidrala, a company that manufactures and sells glass containers for the food industry, and Exolum, the leader in logistics for liquid products.
In collaboration with the British Chamber of Commerce in Spain, Mitie, a leading company in professional services and facilities management, and Croda Internationalwere recognized in the “Best British Employer in Diversity and Social Inclusion” category.
The final awards granted, in collaboration with Banco Santander, recognized two Spanish companies that are present in the United Kingdom: Wallbox and Lookiero. The former is developing technology for electric vehicles and the latter is the leading online personal shopping service for women in Europe.
United Kingdom, key partner for the BioRegion
Four times more British companies invested in the BioRegion in 2020, for a total of four: Break Off Capital, Maven Capital Partners, Downing Ventures and Ancora Finance Group. These participated in three operations with a total of €20 million invested. The startups in the BioRegion that have raised the most funding are MadeOfGenes, GenIncode and Koa Health.
Biocat is putting out a call to all companies from the United Kingdom interested in the life sciences and healthcare ecosystem in Catalonia. We connect foreign companies with the main sources of talent, both local and international, to invest in the BioRegion.
Contact us at this email address innovacio@biocat.cat and we’ll tell you more!