DeepUll Secures €50M to Revolutionize Sepsis Diagnosis with Rapid Test

DeepUll, one of the most promising biomedical companies in the Spanish ecosystem, has just closed a €50 million Series C funding round. With this investment, the Barcelona-based company aims to complete the clinical validation and regulatory approval process for UllCORE, its diagnostic test for sepsis, a disease that involves an excessive immune system response to an infection that can lead to death. The potential market for this tool is $1 billion per year.

The round was led by the Spanish asset manager Columbus Venture Partners, along with the Panakès Partners fund and Mérieux Equity Partners, the investment vehicle of the owners of the diagnostic laboratory Biomérieux. It also included participation from existing shareholders, such as Asabys Partners, Aliath Bioventures, We Venture Capital (Werfen’s venture capital firm), Innvierte-CDTI, Axis-ICO, Gesamo, and CGHealth Ventures, the investment vehicle of Carlos Gallardo, president of Almirall.

Barcelona biotech company DeepUII aims for FDA and EMA approval of UllCORE, a fast sepsis diagnostic targeting a $1B global market

DeepUll is a company founded by Jordi Carrera and Rafael Bru, founders and former owners of Stat-Dx, a medical diagnostics company they sold to Qiagen for €154 million in 2018 in one of the largest transactions in the sector in Spain. The two scientists launched the new company in 2019, and it has since raised €20 million from private investors—excluding this transaction—and another €20 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

Having completed the prototyping phase, the Barcelona Science Park (PCB)-based company is now launching a multicenter clinical trial to seek FDA (US) and EMA (European) approval. “Deepull has a team with proven vision and experience, a disruptive solution with a tangible healthcare impact, and a scalable model with international reach,” said Columbus Venture Partners partner José Mesa.

Investors in DeepUII include Asabys Partners, Aliath Bioventures and We Venture Capital

UllCORE is a tool that accelerates the diagnosis of infectious agents commonly associated with the development of sepsis, reducing mortality and limiting antibiotic resistance. The test detects 95% of sepsis-causing pathogens, including bacteria and fungi, as well as antibiotic resistance genes, providing healthcare professionals with decisive results within an hour.

The current standard sepsis diagnosis system uses blood cultures, which can take days to provide results and often fail to identify pathogens. Sepsis directly causes or contributes to 1 in 3 hospital deaths in the US, and septic shock has a 30–40% mortality rate worldwide. To date, early diagnosis has been a major challenge due to nonspecific and difficult-to-identify symptoms.

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