16 March 2017
Madrid Headquarters
Roberto Ranera, General Partner of BeAble, took part in the March session of #Disruptive cycle, which is an event held monthly at Deusto Business School Madrid. He outlined their private technology transfer investment fund, specialising in industrial high-tech.
Ranera has broad experience in venture capital firms and described the special features of BeAble in comparison to other investment funds. These can basically be summarised as a focus on identifying scientific advances that have potential and turning them into disruptive profitable firms by financial support. The fund’s data mining tools can identify the technology advances published in academic journals so that the researchers can be contacted to develop the project.
Another distinctive characteristic of BeAble is its area of financing. The fund only invests in industries related to photonics, advanced materials, nanotechnologies, micro and nano electronics and industrial biotechnology. The aim is to transfer mainly the developed technology to the market, via research centres and universities, and to do so by creating technology-based firms jointly with researchers and through support from firms previously created by them.
The investments are made by scale, so that firstly the attractive projects are identified. They are supported with approximately 100,000 euro to prepare what is called concept testing. The idea is to invest in some 20 concept tests in the next five years.
If the concept testing is successful, the next step is to create a firm and a pilot plant in which they may invest another half a million euros and set up a management team and structure. The following step consists of building an industrial plant, requiring an investment of some two million euros.
Xerolutions is one the projects that has passed the first stages. Supported by the fund, it focuses on elaboration of synthetic coal to improve the conductivity of supercondensers.
Deusto Business School’s #Disruptive cycle is a stable discussion and knowledge forum, offering revolutionary successful experiences put into practice in traditional industries.
