ICF invests €10M in Asabys fund II, which has already 3 companies in its portfolio

Asabys has announced that the Institut Català de Finances (ICF) has joined its new venture capital fund, Sabadell Asabys Health Innovation Investments II (Sabadell Asabys II), with 10 million euros. The ICF is Catalonia's public financial institution, dedicated to promoting and facilitating access to financing for Catalan businesses, contributing to the growth of the Catalan economy, generating value for society and acting as a complement to the private financial sector.

With this investment, the ICF, which already invested in Asabys' first fund in 2019, confirms its interest for 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 venture capital field is the investment in funds managed by independent managers that invest in Catalan health science companies.

Since the launch of Sabadell Asabys II at the beginning of the year, Asabys 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 rounds of these companies together with leading European venture capital firms such as Sofinnova Partners, Kurma Partners, Thuja Capital and Adbio, as well as the investment arm of corporates such as Werfen and BioMerieu.

In recent years, Catalonia, and specifically Barcelona, has positioned itself as a medical hub of relevance in Europe whose healthcare startups raised €445 million in 2022, which is 87% more than in 2021. This September, Barcelona is hosting for the first time two of the most relevant global healthcare conferences, with Asabys as the 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 biotech events in Southern Europe.

Irene Bertran, Venture Capital Director at ICF, states: "Asabys' investment policy in the biotech ecosystem is in line with 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".

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

About ICF

ICF is the public financial institution of Catalonia. Its main mission is to promote the financing of the business community in Catalonia to contribute to the growth, innovation, and sustainability of the Catalan economy. The ICF acts as a complement to the private sector, offering a wide range of financing solutions focused on loans, guarantees and venture capital investment. Since 2014, it has been a member of the European Association of Public Banks (EAPB), which brings together most of the public banks and financial institutions operating in Europe. https://www.icf.cat/

About Asabys Partners

Asabys Partners is a venture capital firm specialized in healthcare, founded in 2018 by Josep Ll. Sanfeliu and Clara Campàs, participated by Alantra and supported by Banco Sabadell as the anchor investor. With nearly €217 million in assets under management and 15 portfolio companies (+1 exit), Asabys invests in highly innovative and disruptive companies that address unmet medical needs in the biopharma and health technology space. www.asabys.com