The vehicle, called Grow Seed Fund I, will have resources of approximately €5.5 million and plans to carry out around twenty operations in deep tech start-ups in their early stages, Francisco Badía, chairman of the fund, explained to the newspaper Expansión.
In a press release, Badía added: “Our fund specialises in technology transfer, i.e. we invest in companies based on intellectual property and technologies developed in Spanish universities and research centres. Specifically in the field of Deep Tech and industrial technologies.”
The Grow Venture Partners team is made up mainly of engineers who have already ventured into these high-tech fields. Badía said: “Our vocation is to help scientists make the transition from researchers to entrepreneurs by helping them bring the technologies they have been working on for years to the market and have an impact on people’s lives. While we formally invest in their companies, we actually invest in them. People and their motivations are central to our fund and the purpose that drives us as a team.”
The fund manager invests in a very neglected segment that is at the same time fundamental for transforming both Spain’s economic model and the way in which its universities and research centres operate.
Finally, the chairman of the fund manager added: “We are starting with a small fund of which we hope to announce the closing in the coming weeks and expand it rapidly. We expect the first closing to be above 5M. Our main investor is Axis of the ICO group with its fund of funds. The objective of this fund is to make 10 investments this year and another 10 next year. We hope to be the most active Spanish investor in our category.”
RocaJunyent’s Banking & Finance team, led by partner Xavier Foz and counted on associate Jordi Bermúdez, has advised on the creation of the management company and the capital fund Grow Venture Partners (Grow VP).
