The fund's investment strategy focuses on innovative companies that are in the commercial phase or close to the commercialization of their products and services. The fund, which aims to reach €50 million, is expected to invest in a total of 25 companies with amounts of between €500,000 and €4 million. The operation is part of the strategy of the Generalitat's public bank to promote Catalonia as one of the main hubs for innovation in health in Europe.
The Catalan Institute of Finance (ICF) has invested three million euros in the CRB Digital Health III fund, the first in Spain to specialise in digital health, a sector that encompasses technological innovations that improve people's health through the application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud applications or virtual reality.
The fund's investment strategy, which aims to reach €50 million, focuses on innovative companies that are in the commercial phase or close to the commercialization of their products and services, in an advanced state of clinical validation and regulatory authorization. In total, CRB Digital Health III is expected to invest in 25 companies with amounts of between €500,000 and €1.5 million initially, accompanying the most promising ones with up to €4 million.
The operation announced by the ICF is part of the strategy of the Generalitat's public bank to promote the Catalan entrepreneurial ecosystem, attract international investment and consolidate Catalonia's role as one of the main hubs for innovation in health in Europe.
According to data at the end of 2023, ICF's venture capital portfolio and commitments add up to nearly €70 million of investment in the biomedical and health tech sector, a figure that represents 22% of the bank's total venture capital portfolio.
"The launch of the CRB Digital Health III fund is very positive news for the Catalan entrepreneurial ecosystem. At the ICF we are very happy to support a sector as innovative as digital health through this instrument," explained the CEO of the ICF, Vanessa Servera. Investing in digital health is investing in the well-being and quality of life of thousands of people because it implies improving the detection of diseases, making more accurate diagnoses, carrying out more complete monitoring and applying more successful treatments," he said.
"We want those innovative companies in the digital health sector born in Catalonia that have the potential to grow and consolidate to be able to do so," said the ICF's Director of Venture Capital Investments, Emili Gómez. Once again, we are committed to the health sector. In this case, we focus on digital health, aware of its great capacity for growth and innovation and the enormous potential that Catalonia has in terms of infrastructure, talent and opportunities", he added.
So far, the fund has investors from the pharmaceutical and banking sectors as reference partners, including the insurance company Sanitas and the financial institution CBNK.
The fund manager, CRB Health Tech, has an operational office in Barcelona and has a team with a strong track record in venture capital investing made up of both experienced entrepreneurs and executives from global corporations, enabling it to not only provide capital, but also provide strategic support and a global network of contacts in the healthcare and technology sector.
CRB Health Tech Partner, Ignasi Heras, said that "Catalonia is an ideal region to become one of the most important hubs in Europe in digital health. We have world-class hospitals and researchers, which together with an ecosystem of entrepreneurs and IT talent form the appropriate combination for the development of this space."
He also added that "the large Catalan investment ecosystem would not have been possible without joint public-private collaboration in recent years, with financing tools such as the Catalan Institute of Finance".