Loop Diagnostics, a startup that is developing a test to quickly detect sepsis, has launched a campaign to attract 3 million euros, of which 2.25 correspond to aid from Next Generation funds, already granted; 250,000 to the contribution of its marketing partner, Cardiolink, and another 500,000 euros to contributions from individual investors that it hopes to attract through the Capital Cell participatory investment platform.
The company has invested close to 1.2 million euros since it was founded in 2018, explained its operating director, Eduard Guerrero, and has developed a medical device that is in the industrialization phase. Enrique Hernández, general director of Loop explained that they have carried out the proofs of concept of the equipment and the tests in patients with the Hospital de Bellvitge and the Parc Taulí in Sabadell and the new funds will allow the completion of the clinical trials and obtaining regulatory approval. If these milestones are met, Hernández explained, the company could start selling its devices by the end of the year.
The capital increase offered in Capital Cell represents 8% of the company’s shares, which is valued in the operation at 7.06 million euros. This high valuation, Guerrero said, responds to the fact that Loop has already been able to demonstrate that its technology works, is replicable and can be produced on a large scale, so that only regulatory and commercial risk remains.
Guerrero explained that the firm has opted for crowdfunding because venture capital managers are reluctant to invest in medical device companies, and at this time, especially, they have very demanding financial requirements. “Funds also demand some advantages when disinvesting, compared to the rest of the shareholders. And we have tried not to dilute ourselves,” he explained.
The campaign launched at Capital Cell highlights the commercial risk that investors have to take. “Sepsis diagnostics is a growing market with more and more competitors,” he warns, so even having a good product it won’t be easy for him to “break into the market.” Thus, a few weeks ago another Barcelona company, DeepUll, obtained a capital injection of 17 million euros, led by the Sabadell Asabys fund, and incorporated leading manufacturing groups such as the Catalan Werfen or the French BioMerieux into its shareholding.
The Loop diagnostic test is capable of identifying with great sensitivity and specificity sepsis in the bloodstream after one hour of infection. This would make it possible to reduce the mortality rate of the disease, but also healthcare costs, such as unnecessary hospital stays and consumption of antibiotics.
