Swanlaab Innvierte Agrifood-Tech has led a €2 million investment round in KOA Biotech, an innovative biotechnology company based in Barcelona that develops disruptive solutions for the aquaculture sector. Fund-F and Faber have also participated in the round.

Madrid, February 6th, 2025 - Swanlaab Innvierte Agrifood-Tech has led a €2 million investment round in KOA Biotech, an innovative biotechnology company based in Barcelona that develops disruptive solutions for the aquaculture sector. Fund-F and Faber have also participated in the round.

More than half of the fish consumed comes from aquaculture production. However, as highlighted by Sira Mogas, CEO and founder of KOA, "infections in fish farms are a growing problem, causing losses of up to 30% of production (economically estimated globally at over $6 billion)."

Using biotechnological tools, KOA Biotech has developed a biosensor system that, combined with proprietary algorithms, forms an autonomous device capable of early detection of waterborne infections. This enables to implement preventive measures in production systems to prevent the spread of infections in water, reducing mortality caused by infectious pathogens and the use of antibiotics in fish farms. This development has been made possible thanks to KOA's young, multidisciplinary team, highly motivated to provide innovative and sustainable solutions to address the challenges faced by the sector and society.

At Swanlaab, we would like to emphasize that KOA's innovative technology enables the optimization of natural resource usage, reduces environmental impact, and addresses critical challenges such as production, food security, and climate change. As Nora Alonso, General Partner of Swanlaab Innvierte Agrifood-Tech, highlights, "investing in technological and innovative companies like KOA is key for the development and value creation based on the research conducted in this sector in Spain, as well as a lever for the development and differentiation of the country's agri-food sector, with a global impact. Additionally, it represents an opportunity to attract foreign investment in this sector, as in the case of KOA, which in this investment round has the participation of two international impact funds, Fund-F and FABER." This investment round will enable KOA not only to advance its technological development and consolidate its technology in the sector but also to implement its commercial plan, ensuring the company's future growth.

About KOA
KOA was born as a spin-off of Pompeu Fabra University, based on its founder's doctoral thesis. The company objective is to become a reference in the diagnosis and prevention of diseases in aquaculture, promoting sustainable practices and contributing to the global growth of this industry. KOA Biotech is structured around three key pillars: biotechnology, data engineering, and hardware development.

About Swanlaab
Swanlaab Venture Factory is a unique Venture Capital firm in Spain with a team with an extensive experience in investing in startups in Spain and Israel for over 20 years in diverse sectors such as B2B Software, Biotech, and Agrifood-Tech.

The Swanlaab team has founded and managed their own startups, led renowned VC funds, and supported, as advisors and consultants, the launch of over 200 companies into the market, with a clear purpose of helping Spanish entrepreneurs succeed globally.

About Fund-F
Fund F is an early-stage VC fund that is investing in the biggest opportunity in European tech: gender-diverse founder teams. Based on the fact that teams with at least one female co-founder perform better, the team of Fund F invests cheques of up to EUR 600k in pre-seed & seed companies with at least one female co-founder. Fund F originated out of Europe's leading community for female entrepreneurs, Female Founders, with 85k members across the continent.

About Faber
Faber is a venture capital firm based in Lisbon that invests in entrepreneurial teams innovating at the intersection of science and technology in digital transformation and climate action areas.
The company combines a specialized focus on early-stage deep tech startups with thematic funds, dedicated teams, and advisors who actively work with entrepreneurs to build global companies in the areas of Applied Sciences and AI, as well as Climate and Oceans (pre-seed and seed). Founded in 2013, Faber was one of the early investors in companies such as Unbabel, Seedrs, Codacy, Sword Health, Smartex, Ydata, iLoF, MicroHarvest and 1s1 Energy.