Nanobots Therapeutics, a spin-off company founded by the BIST centre IBEC and ICREA in January 2023, has successfully closed a pre-seed funding round of €478,000. The company specialises in the development of biocompatible nanorobots capable of delivering drugs to difficult-to-treat tumours more efficiently and safely than current therapies. The funds raised in this round will enable the company to validate its platform technology, manage its patent portfolio, and initiate industrial-scale production.
The pre-seed funding round of the start-up Nanobots Therapeutics has been led by BStartup Health, Banco Sabadell’s dedicated health start-up programme. It has also included participation from Prous Institute for Biomedical Research and ESADE-BAN, in addition to public investment from the ACCIÓ StartUp Capital programme (Generalitat de Catalunya).
The start-up company will focus on developing and commercialising the MotionTx technological platform, which harnesses the potential of nanorobots to penetrate tissues and deliver drugs directly to cancer cells. This revolutionary technology is expected to significantly improve the effectiveness and safety of current and future medical treatments.
Nanobots Therapeutics will initially concentrate on non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer, one of the most recurrent and difficult-to-treat cancer types. In the future, the company envisions expanding the technological platform to other diseases with significant unmet medical needs.
Founded in January 2023 as a spin-off from the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), a BIST Community centre, and ICREA, Nanobots builds upon pioneering research in nanorobotics conducted by the distinguished ICREA Research Professor Samuel Sánchez, who has received accolades including the MIT TR35 Innovator Award, the Princess of Girona Award, and the Banco Sabadell Research Award, among others. The company’s other co-founders, Marc Ramis and Gonzalo Fernández-Miranda from Chasing Science, along with Andrés G. Fernández, Daniel Oliver, and Isaac Cabezas, bring extensive experience in entrepreneurship, drug development, and start-up financing to the team.
“The time has come to harness what we’ve learned about the therapeutic uses of nanorobots. We are delighted to successfully conclude this initial investment round because it represents significant support for our vision and approach to its development. Furthermore, it demonstrates the confidence that investors have in our potential to revolutionise the field of medicine,” said Dr. Sánchez, founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the company, and member of the BIST Community.
The funds raised in this funding round will enable the company to validate its platform technology, manage its patent portfolio, and initiate industrial-scale production.
Eduardo Currás, Deputy General Manager of Banco Sabadell, emphasised “the excellent and recognised biomedical team behind the Nanobots Therapeutics project and BStartup Health’s commitment to enabling the science of outstanding and promising spin-offs like Nanobots to reach the market and society.”
Nanobots is the third investment formalised from the fifth BStartup Health call, which received applications from 127 start-ups and spin-offs. In this programme supporting health projects in the pre-seed and seed stages, investments are primarily directed toward validating technology, research, and business.
Learn more:
IBEC press release
Nanobots Therapeutics website
BStartup website