Ysios Capital introduces a €100 million fund aimed at developing biotech companies.

      Spain's largest venture capital firm in life sciences is advancing with InceptionBio, its inaugural fund aimed at the riskiest phase of biotech: creating companies from university and research center spinouts. The Centre for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI) is serving as a principal limited partner. The goal is to launch at least three new companies by 2026.

      The most challenging aspect of turning academic research into a biotech business is not securing Series A funding. It is the period prior to the Series A, during which a promising lab discovery must be transformed into a legal entity, assembled with a founding team, and given sufficient capital to generate the preclinical data that will attract institutional investors.

      Most European life sciences funds tend to avoid this stage because it is slow, costly, and has a high failure rate. However, Ysios Capital has opted to embrace it.

      Based in Barcelona and San Sebastián, Ysios is Spain's largest life sciences venture capital manager, overseeing more than €400 million in assets. It has introduced InceptionBio, a €100 million fund exclusively focused on the creation of biotech companies and early-stage investments, particularly in Spanish scientific institutions.

      The fund has already achieved a partial first close, with CDTI participating as a key investor. It aims to initiate at least three new companies by 2026.

      InceptionBio will be led by Joan Perelló, who transitioned to Managing Partner from his role as a Venture Partner at Ysios since 2022, and Arturo Urrios, who joins as Partner having a background in Wellington Partners, M Ventures, Merck’s corporate venture arm, and as part of the founding team at Seamless Therapeutics.

      Perelló brings significant operational experience, having co-founded Sanifit, a Palma-based biotech focused on renal disease, which raised over €140 million in equity before its acquisition by Vifor Pharma for €375 million. He has a background in chemistry and analytical chemistry and has held various leadership roles in biotech and medtech companies in Spain and France.

      The fund's investment model emphasizes technology transfer, collaborating directly with universities, hospitals, and research institutions to identify therapeutic discoveries ready for incorporation, while providing the necessary capital and operational support to build companies around them. This phase represents the pre-seed and seed stage in biotech, where the main output is a pipeline-ready company that can be further developed by Ysios's later-stage funds or external investors.

      This strategy complements Ysios’s existing BioFund III, its €216 million flagship fund launched in 2020, and its Telescope Biotech Fund, a public equities vehicle managed by Andbank focused on listed biotech, which achieved a 52.5% net return in its first year.

      Founded in 2008, Ysios has supported over 40 biotech companies throughout its history, including Stat-Diagnostica (acquired by Qiagen), SpliceBio, Ona Therapeutics, and Minoryx Therapeutics. Joël Jean-Mairet continues as Managing Partner for the firm’s main funds. The introduction of InceptionBio represents the first time Ysios has specifically established a €100 million fund focused on the company creation stage, addressing a gap in Spain's life sciences funding environment that the firm recognizes as both a strategic opportunity and a structural necessity for converting the country's research output into sustainable commercial entities rather than mere licensing agreements or early exits.