Sometimes universities give rise to the best and most interesting companies. These are some of them
It has always been said that universities are somewhat detached from the world of work: that if they do not train in technological skills, that if they teach jobs and professions that are going to disappear, that if students learn tasks that are going to be very different from those that they will later find in the world of work… In the end, a kind of separation has been established between universities and companies: spinoffs.
However, things are changing. For two reasons: firstly, because more and more universities are launching their own startup programmes and encouraging their students to become entrepreneurs; and secondly, because universities have always had large research teams, and it is now that, in addition, they are trying to get these groups to find their own outlet as a company, calling them the so-called spinoffs.
If you are interested in this topic, discover here some of the most interesting technological and scientific spinoffs from Spanish universities:
1. Vytrus Biotech
Vytrus Biotech is founded in the heart of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Barcelona. It was in 2009 when they launched themselves into the business arena with several objectives: to develop, produce and market high-value active ingredients from plant stem cell technology.
Since then, the Catalan startup has reached distribution agreements in 50 countries and one of its cosmetic products has been awarded by Cosmetics Design Magazine as the best hair care product in the world. Its latest round of financing, of 500,000 euros, accounts for the growing interest of investment funds in this company.
2. AwSensors
From the Polytechnic University of Valencia comes AwSensors, a business proposal promoted, above all, by Professor Antonio Arnau and engineer Yolanda Jiménez. Between the two of them, together with their team, they set out to develop a business model based on designing, manufacturing and marketing scientific instruments for real-time molecular detection and characterization with high resolution and sensitivity.
At the moment, the Valencian startup has raised one million euros in its only round of funding, carried out in the summer of 2017, and they are fighting to make a prominent place in the biomedicine sector.
3. TasteLab
The University of Santiago de Compostela was the seed from which TasteLab began to germinate, a sensory analysis technology startup focused on the study of consumers and products by applying sensory analysis for the consumer industry.
TasteLab is still advancing, but it has received funding from Unirisco, the venture capital fund for startups at its same university.
4. Nanogap
Nanogap was also born at the University of Santiago de Compostela and was created by Tatiana López del Río, a chemist who is passionate about materials and decided to use them to develop atomic quantum clusters.
As strange as the company’s model may seem, Nanogap is having more than reasonable success. Today it has clients in the United States and Japan, among other places, and has even opened a branch in Silicon Valley itself. In addition, it has obtained 2.3 million euros in financing with the entry into its shareholding of investors as powerful as Repsol, Uninvest or Unirisco.
5. Carbures
You probably know it, but what you may not know is that it is a spinoff. Carbures was born as a business project within the University of Cádiz, in which four students decided that it was a good idea to develop, manufacture and sell Carbon fiber parts for the aerospace sector.
Carbures had a hard time consolidating, but it recovered quickly. Today the company has more than 1,000 employees worldwide and a turnover of more than 80 million euros per year.
