Prous Institute for Biomedical Research

What Prous Institute for Biomedical Research does

Prous Institute for Biomedical Research is a Barcelona-based private investment and partnership organization that accelerates healthcare innovation by deploying seed capital, industry expertise, networking, and hands-on mentorship into early-stage biomedical research projects. The firm was established as a spin-off following the 2007 acquisition of Prous Science (founded 1958, now part of Clarivate Analytics) by Thomson Reuters; the Institute is registered as a Spanish public limited company (Prous Institute for Biomedical Research, S.A., CIF A62320429) headquartered at the Barcelona Science Park. Its investment thesis centers on data science and AI applied to therapeutic discovery and medical technologies, with portfolio focus areas spanning new therapeutic targets for unmet medical needs, novel uses of data in life sciences, scalable business models, and strong leadership teams.

The firm holds a portfolio of approximately 10-12 biotechnology and AI companies as of mid-2026, including Accure Therapeutics, Chemotargets, QUIBIM, Bioinfogate (acquired by Clarivate in August 2021), Kiin, Connecta Therapeutics, MedBioinformatics, FollowApp.Care, Nanobots Therapeutics, Accencio, and D-Sight. Underlying technologies include AI-driven drug discovery and de novo molecule design (Chemotargets CLARITY, Connecta CTH120), computer-vision-based quantitative imaging biomarkers (QUIBIM QP-Prostate), AI-driven patient communication platforms (FollowApp.Care), and nanorobotic therapeutic delivery (Nanobots MotionTx). The Institute co-founded Connecta Therapeutics in 2019 and continues to act as a strategic co-developer across its portfolio rather than as a passive financial investor.

Revenue is generated primarily through equity investment returns from minority stakes in portfolio companies (categorized in disclosed materials as licensing/royalties) and managed-services-style strategic partnerships with academia, government institutions, and research centres. The firm operates a sales-led GTM focused on annual calls for new investment opportunities, direct engagement with academic research teams, and co-investment syndicates (e.g., D-Sight's €2M round with Clave Capital, Institut Català de Finances, and BioAngels Club). Portfolio outcomes include QUIBIM's $50M Series A, FDA 510(k) clearance for QP-Prostate, EMA orphan drug designation for CTH120, Phase IIa trial initiation for CTH120 in fragile X syndrome, and the August 2021 acquisition of Bioinfogate by Clarivate. The Institute also operates the biennial Prous Institute–Overton & Meyer Award for New Technologies in Drug Discovery in partnership with the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry.

Name

Prous Institute for Biomedical Research

Legal name

Prous Institute for Biomedical Research, S.A.

Website

https://prousresearch.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Prous Institute for Biomedical Research is a Barcelona-based private investment and partnership organization that accelerates healthcare innovation by providing seed capital, industry expertise, and mentorship to early-stage biotech and AI companies in therapeutic discovery and medical technologies.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Biomedical Venture Capital

NAICS

Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (54171)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Health & Medical Research Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAL)

akta.pro secondary industry

AI/ML Platforms for Drug Discovery & Experiment Optimization (HLAGAJAO)

Keywords

• Biomedical research investment
• Drug discovery partnerships
• Life sciences venture capital
• Early-stage biotech funding
• Academic research commercialization

Headquarters

HQ city

Barcelona

HQ country

Spain

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Investment returns: Prous Institute generates returns through equity investments in early-stage biotechnology and AI healthcare companies in its investment portfolio
2. Strategic partnerships: Collaborative relationships with academia, government institutions, and research centers to develop and commercialize biomedical innovations

Go-to-market motion1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Prous Institute for Biomedical Research is a privately held investment and partnership organization that accelerates healthcare innovation by partnering with and investing in early-stage biomedical research projects. It provides seed capital, industry expertise, networking connections, and hands-on mentorship to world-class academia, government institutions, and research centers developing novel therapeutic and diagnostic approaches. The Institute also discovered the CTH120 neuroplasticity modulator molecule, which it advanced into clinical development through its spin-off Connecta Therapeutics.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Prous Institute - Overton & Meyer Award for New Technologies in Drug Discovery: Biennial award established in 2004 to encourage innovation and investigation in technologies related to drug discovery. The award acknowledges the discovery, evaluation or use of a new technology and consists of a cash prize, a diploma and an invitation to present a lecture at an EFMC-ISMC symposium.

Products and services

• Early-Stage Biomedical Investment & Partnership Program

Quantifiable outcome

• Portfolio companies have achieved significant milestones including Phase II clinical trials (Connecta Therapeutics), $50M Series A financing (QUIBIM), FDA 510(k) clearance (QUIBIM), orphan drug designation (Connecta Therapeutics), and acquisition by Clarivate (Bioinfogate)

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability10 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 September 2025Three-year collaboration agreement to promote high-impact research projects through the FIT Programme (Fondo de Impulso Tecnológico / Technology Boost Fund). Prous Institute provides sustained financial contributions and mentorship network support through VHIR's Innovation and Business Development Directorate. Areas of interest include new drugs, medical devices, digital health solutions, and diagnostic technologies.
• Connecta TherapeuticscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerConnecta Therapeutics is a spin-off of Prous Institute for Biomedical Research, focused on developing CTH120, a first-in-class neuroplasticity modulator for treating fragile X syndrome. Prous Institute co-founded the company in 2019 along with Josep Prous, David Prous, and Jordi Fàbrega. The company has advanced to Phase IIa clinical trials and received orphan drug designation from EMA.
• Accure TherapeuticscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAccure Therapeutics, founded in 2020 following merger of Bionure and Iproteos, develops first-in-class disease-modifying drugs for diseases of the nervous system including multiple sclerosis, optical neuritis, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy. Headquartered in Barcelona, Spain.
• ChemotargetscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerChemotargets is a global leader in AI and predictive analytics solutions for drug discovery. Founded as spin-off from Dr. Mestres' Systems Pharmacology lab at IMIM in Barcelona. The company helps biopharma industry accelerate drug discovery and development programs with improved cost-efficiency and safety.
• QUIBIMcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerQUIBIM applies AI and advanced computational models to radiological images for early diagnosis, lesion grading-phenotyping-staging and treatment selection. Spin-off of La Fe Health Research Institute in Valencia, Spain. Portfolio company that announced $50 million Series A financing.
• NanobotscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNanobots develops and commercializes MotionTx technology platform for novel therapeutic entities with unprecedented delivery capabilities. Spin-off of ICREA and IBEC, led by Prof. Samuel Sánchez. Prous Institute invested in pre-seed funding round of €478,000.
• BioinfogatecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBioinfogate produces OFF-X, the leading translational safety intelligence portal for drug discovery. Acquired by Clarivate Analytics in August 2021. Previously part of Prous family group companies, stemming from Prous Science (1958-2007).
• Clarivate AnalyticscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerClarivate acquired Bioinfogate (including OFF-X portal) in August 2021. Clarivate had previously acquired Prous Science (now Cortellis Drug Discovery Intelligence) in 2007. Partnership integrates OFF-X translational safety intelligence with Cortellis suite for enhanced drug R&D insights.
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFDA has agency-wide access to Bioinfogate's OFF-X translational safety intelligence portal through Material Transfer Agreement. Collaboration entering fourth year extension to evaluate OFF-X as research tool to anticipate adverse events and evaluate utility in regulatory review process.
• Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerVHIO and Bioinfogate partnership to validate utility of OFF-X translational safety intelligence portal in design of novel clinical trials, including first-in-human studies. VHIO brings expertise in early clinical drug development to evaluate OFF-X platform functionalities.
• Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCRG collaborated with Connecta Therapeutics (Prous Institute spin-off) and Hospital del Mar Research Institute on CTH120 preclinical studies and clinical trials for fragile X syndrome. Dr Mara Dierssen's research lab at CRG contributed to neuroplasticity research.
• Hospital del Mar Research Institute (IMIM)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHospital del Mar Research Institute conducts Phase I clinical trials for Connecta Therapeutics' CTH120. Part of public-private consortium with CRG and I3PT receiving €2.7 million from Spanish Ministry for Phase IIa trials.
• Institute for Research and Innovation Parc Taulí (I3PT)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoined public-private consortium with Connecta Therapeutics, CRG, and Hospital del Mar Research Institute for €2.7 million Phase IIa trials funding. Dr Ana Roche serves as principal investigator.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Apollo Therapeutics: UK-based biotech venture builder backed by major pharma (AstraZeneca, GSK, Johnson & Johnson Innovation) that combines capital with drug-discovery expertise to develop early-stage academic science, closely paralleling Prous's model of seeding and co-developing academic spin-outs.
• Inveready: Spanish alternative investment manager with a dedicated life-sciences and biotech venture arm; co-invested in Connecta Therapeutics alongside Prous Institute, making it a directly comparable co-investor in the same European early-stage biotech deal flow.
• Caixa Capital Risc: Venture arm of "la Caixa" focused on early-stage life sciences, deep tech and digital health investments across Spain; structurally the closest Spanish institutional peer to Prous's academic-spin-out-led biotech investment model.
• Medicxi: European life-sciences venture capital firm focused on early-stage drug-discovery assets originating from academic research; comparable to Prous in its concentration on European early-stage therapeutic platforms and its asset-centric investment thesis.
• Ysios Capital: Spanish/European life-sciences venture capital firm headquartered in San Sebastián, investing in early- to mid-stage biotech companies, with a portfolio that overlaps Prous's therapeutic focus areas (CNS, oncology, rare disease) and a shared Barcelona/European academic spin-out origination base.
• Asabys Partners: Barcelona-based venture capital firm investing in early-stage biotech and digital health companies, frequently co-investing with or alongside Spanish research institutions (VHIR, IMIM, IDIBAPS), directly mirroring Prous's Barcelona-anchored, academic-spin-out-led investment model.
• Clave Capital: Spanish life-sciences venture capital firm that led D-Sight's €2M round in which Prous Institute participated as strategic investor; both firms operate in the same Barcelona/Spain biotech ecosystem and frequently co-invest.

Broad incumbents

• Syncona: UK-listed life-sciences investment company that builds and invests in biotech companies around academic IP; an incumbent comparator to Prous's model of operating investment vehicles that create and steward biotech companies over multi-year horizons.
• Forbion: Pan-European life-sciences venture capital firm with multiple billion-euro funds investing from seed to late-stage; a broad incumbent that frequently competes for European biotech spin-outs and has the scale to out-bid Prous on follow-on rounds.
• Sofinnova Partners: One of Europe's largest dedicated life-sciences VCs with broad biotech, medtech, and industrial biotech coverage across all stages; a broader incumbent that competes for the same European academic spin-out deals Prous targets and has substantially larger fund capacity.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments3 records

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