The alumni Tecnun, Haritz Zabaleta, has shared his experience as an entrepreneur and creator of the startup Fesia Technology with the students of the Entrepreneurs Club of Tecnun, directed by Professor Mikel Arcelus.

Zabaleta explained to the students at Tecnun that "Fesia Technology tries to offer an alternative adapted to people with neuromuscular problems, giving special importance to both versatility and portability. Therefore, it brings added value to all agents in the health system, whether they are patients, doctors, hospitals and health centres".

Thus, as well as going into the need for prior knowledge in order to respond to different needs, Haritz contributed many ideas and solutions to the challenges faced by the students of the Entrepreneurs Club when defining their projects.

It is worth noting that the San Sebastian-based company Fesia Technology managed to overcome a funding round of 800,000 euros from the Capital Cell platform, the first European investment platform specialising in biomedicine and medical devices. The company Fesia, created in 2018, is among the select group of 3% of the total number of proposals that have been accepted by the European platform to access its crowdfunding campaigns and met the challenge of reaching the set amount.

Capital Cell establishes a minimum fundraising of 90% of the total for the project to go ahead. Otherwise, investors are returned the amount they have contributed and the operation is closed. This was not the case with Fesia Technology, which managed to get 69 investors to contribute 772,185 euros, 97% of the funding that its founder, Haritz Zabaleta, considered necessary to consolidate the business project.

According to Haritz, although the bet was very risky, given that it is the second highest funding round in the history of the Capital Cell platform, it was worth the risk. "We could have started with a lower amount, but we would have had to call other rounds and it is a very laborious process", says Haritz Zabaleta, in reference to the high requirements imposed by this platform to accept proposals.

From then on, a laborious process of obtaining investors began, which Zabaleta describes as "very difficult". "Crowdfunding is all very well, but nobody is going to work for you, you need to make a lot of calls, work on contacts, intense marketing work, etc.", warned the founder of Fesia Technology to the students of the Entrepreneurs Club.

The almost 800,000 euros raised were earmarked, as a first step, to consolidate the company with an expansion of the workforce by recruiting people "both with little experience and those with more". On this point, Zabaleta agrees with the Basque business community in lamenting the difficulty of finding the profiles they need, which in this case will be resolved through training processes. In the not-so-immediate future, the company from San Sebastian plans to design a strategic business plan that contemplates the design and development of new products. In short, "guaranteeing the continuity" of the business.