Zymvol, a biotech that has developed software specialized in designing enzymes for the pharmaceutical, food and chemical industries, has closed its first round of 1.3 million euros, which will be provided by the French fund Elaia Partners.
Zymvol was founded by the Portuguese Maria Fátima Lucas in 2017, “capitalizing the unemployment that I got when I lost my job at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center,” he recalls. “My husband is from Barcelona, ??and before leaving for another country I decided to try creating a company, because he believed that what we did had a market.”
And so it was: in 2018 the firm was no longer losing money and since then it has managed to be self-financing and profitable, also investing four million euros in R&D. “We reinvest what we generate with our activity, but it is also that we have obtained public aid ”, which have exceeded six million euros, in competitive calls for European and Spanish funds.
The company, Lucas explains, obtains all of its turnover from international clients, mainly French and American companies, and from ten other countries, with firms such as Archer Daniels Midland, the world’s leading chocolate producer.
Zymvol is headquartered in Barcelona, ??and has a commercial office in Boston (United States), and has a total of twenty workers, of ten nationalities. “Barcelona has truly been the ideal city to be able to assemble a team like ours”, he assures.
The capital increase aims to get the company to take a leap forward: from developing enzymes to producing them, for which it has just opened a laboratory in the Barcelona Science Park. “We are already recruiting personnel,” explains Lucas. “Producing the enzymes generates much more added value”, which is why it expects to double its income by 2024.
The production of enzymes moves around 11,500 million euros annually and their demand is growing at a good pace: they are biocatalysts, which eliminate or reduce the need to use toxic chemical products. In addition, they act at lower temperatures and pressures than chemical reagents, which saves energy.
Elaia has been the first investor to enter the capital of the firm, until now controlled 100% by the founder. “We chose it because it combines experience in the field of health and technology, which are the two axes of what we do. We did not want someone who only contributed money ”, she admits.
Lucas received in 2022 the award for Innovative Women awarded by the European Commission. “They valued that our work allows the industry to be greener; that we create quality employment in southern Europe and the promotion of equality: 50% of the workforce are women ”, she points out.