Gradiant, a leading technology center in the ICT field, has launched TRL13, an investment fund specialized in deep tech, with the ambition of becoming a strategic catalyst for the future of innovation in Europe. With this initiative, Gradiant takes a further step in its mission to generate wealth through knowledge, deploying its own capital and expertise to support third-party projects, thereby multiplying the economic, technological, and social impact it has already achieved.
TRL13 originates from Gradiant Investments, a company created in 2016 and fully owned by Gradiant, which has served as a vehicle for investing in startups incubated within the technology center. This effort has led to the creation of three spin-offs valued at more than €40 million and employing over 60 highly qualified professionals. The first, Alice Biometrics, was founded in 2019 and sold in 2024; the second, Antexia Technologies, launched in 2023 and was soon after integrated into a listed IBEX35 multinational. Just a year later, in 2024, Sense Aeronautics was created. Currently, Gradiant is incubating two new AI-based spin-offs: Kiur and Dokken.
To date, Gradiant has attracted and managed more than €96 million (including €13M from the European Union, €29M from national and Galician entities, and over €53M from private companies), multiplying its return in terms of economic wealth, quality jobs, and social impact.
“In these years we have demonstrated not only technological mastery in developing deep tech, but also the ability to successfully transfer that technology to the market, creating companies, scaling them, and achieving successful exits. Now, we want to go a step further by putting that technical knowledge and market vision at the service of third parties and reinvesting the resources we have generated into other initiatives that share our technological DNA,” explains Fernando Jiménez, General Manager of Gradiant.
The new fund also seeks to leverage European financing to boost its impact through the INNVIERTE DT-TT call from the Spanish Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI) and the European Investment Fund (EIF), endowed with €353 million for venture capital funds specializing in deep tech and technology transfer.
“With this new role as investors, we aim to create a virtuous cycle of wealth generation through knowledge: we deploy our own resources—generated precisely through high-tech transfer—into these projects, multiplying their impact. That’s the meaning behind the name TRL13: while Technology Readiness Levels go up to 9, we want to go far beyond,” says Luis Pérez Freire, CEO of Gradiant, adding that the project has the support of highly recognized figures in tech investment with proven track records.
TRL13 is the first European fund driven by a Spanish technology center that combines deep tech, tech transfer, and ICT. Its launch is particularly relevant given that less than 5% of private European investment currently targets deep tech projects. TRL13 is firmly committed to strategic technologies such as quantum computing, photonics, artificial intelligence, robotics, and cybersecurity, with the goal of generating a real impact on industrial competitiveness.
The initiative also addresses another major gap: barely 1% of private investment today is allocated to tech transfer. TRL13 breaks this trend by reinvesting resources generated by Gradiant’s spin-offs and combining them with public and private capital, ensuring that science turns into business and delivers sustainable returns.
Furthermore, it tackles a third paradox of the European landscape. Although around 30% of investment is labeled ICT, up to 40% of those projects lack competitive technological advantages. TRL13 aligns with the EU’s strategy that grants ICTs a key role—not only as enabling technologies but also as a critical factor for Europe’s economic autonomy.
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