HAWK Biosystems raises €3.5M led by Inveready

HAWK Biosystems, a biotech company focused on precision diagnostics in oncology and based at the Bizkaia Technology Park, has closed a €3.5M round led by Inveready, according to El Referente. The deal is among the notable Spanish rounds of October 2026 compiled by Startup Riders.

At a glance

• The round: €3.5M led by Inveready, with the EIC Fund and the Basque Fund.
• Total raised: around €12.5M since founding.
• The goal: move from technology company to clinical diagnostics company, with a first hospital test planned for 2027.

What happened

Inveready, one of Spain’s most active life sciences venture investors, leads the €3.5M round. The EIC Fund, the investment arm of the European Innovation Council, and the Basque Fund, the Basque public co-investment vehicle, also take part. Total funding now stands at roughly €12.5M, per El Referente.

CEO Fernando Aguirre describes the round as the step from a technology company to a clinical diagnostics company.

What HAWK Biosystems does

The company builds tools that measure how proteins interact directly in tumour tissue, the biopsy samples hospitals already store. Its core platform, QF-Pro, delivers quantitative, reproducible data on those molecular interactions, which helps develop biomarkers and anticipate whether a patient will respond to a therapy. It is complemented by Violet 3.0, a high-speed microscopy platform, and reagent kits, according to AlicantePlaza.

The focus is immuno-oncology. A 2025 study in non-small cell lung cancer suggested that measuring simultaneous engagement of the CTLA-4/CD80 and PD-1/PD-L1 pathways in paraffin-embedded samples may predict response to immune checkpoint inhibitors. Building on that, the company is developing a family of in vitro diagnostic tests for patient selection.

Origins, base and traction

HAWK Biosystems was founded in 2016 as Fastbase Solutions, a spin-off of the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) Science Park in Elche, which keeps a 2% stake. It is now headquartered in Bizkaia, with part of its scientific work still linked to UMH. It is not a Barcelona company.

Published figures point to a company already selling: distributors in 33 countries, entry into the US and China in 2025, and a user base that grew sixfold that year, per AlicantePlaza. It was selected for the European Commission’s EIC Accelerator in 2024, as reported by Parke, and is part of BME’s Pre-Market Environment for companies preparing to list.

How it will use the money

Part of the funds will grow its pharma business: more active programmes with drug developers and more operational capacity to run them. The other line is clinical: bringing the technology into hospitals, with its first hospital test planned for 2027.

Why it matters

Precision oncology depends on knowing, before treatment, which patients will respond to expensive therapies such as immunotherapy. Current biomarkers do not always predict this well, which is where functional analysis technologies like HAWK’s compete.

For the Spanish ecosystem, the deal shows public European and regional funds co-investing alongside specialist private capital, and a university spin-off from Elche scaling from the Basque Country and selling in dozens of countries before its clinical leap. See the rest of the month’s deals in our roundup of startup funding rounds in October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

How much did HAWK Biosystems raise?

€3.5M in a round led by Inveready, with the EIC Fund and the Basque Fund. Total funding is around €12.5M.

Where is it based?

At the Bizkaia Technology Park. It began as a spin-off of Miguel Hernández University in Elche.

What will it do with the money?

Expand its pharma programmes and move into clinical diagnostics, with a first hospital test planned for 2027.

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This article is for information only and is not investment advice.