IUCT creates four-million-euro fund to drive biotech entrepreneurship
Minister Andreu Mas-Colell applauds this support for small companies that don’t have access to large investment funds.
BY BIOCAT
Under the strategic viewpoint of Open Innovation, the University Institute for Science and Technology (IUCT) has introduced a four-million-euro seed-capital fund to be invested over 10 years in European projects at companies with high potential for growth that are based on innovative technology. This fund isn’t aimed exclusively at providing capital for new companies, but also intends to transfer all the IUCT’s assets in knowledge and experience.
The funds will be invested in projects from fields like industrial biotechnology, green chemistry, biomedicine, the pharmaceutical industry, cosmetics, functional foods, fine chemicals, biofuels, drug delivery, drug discovery and drug development, among others.
The investments will be between €50,000 and €400,000. IUCT Director Josep Castells explained that they “aim to create a new model for entrepreneurship based on cooperation and taking advantage of the synergies derived from the company’s resources and scientific and technological capacity.”
Catalan Minister of Economy and Knowledge Andreu Mas-Colell, who presided over the event, applauds this initiative as “it isn’t easy to find investors for projects of between €1 millions and €6 millions.” Mas-Colell hopes that the spin-offs generated “don’t wind up being sold to large companies, but become great Catalan companies in their own right.”
The presentation event will be repeated on 14 September in Alcalà de Henares during the 9th Green Chemistry Conference.
The IUCT is a biotechnology company in the Clade Group, created 14 years ago. They have facilities in Mollet del Vallès and in Madrid, and now operate in Brazil and Japan through joint ventures with local partners. Their turnover for 2010 totaled €4 millions. The company hopes to go public next year with 30% of the capital.