Santiago Lozano

Santiago Lozano Manterola has spent the better part of two decades as one of the steady hands behind Clave's technology-transfer and deep-tech investing in northern Spain. He earned a degree in Economics from the University of Navarra (1996) and a Master's in Financial Management from ESIC (2004). His roughly 25-year career began in industry — in the automotive sector at brake manufacturer ICER Brakes — before he moved into the financial sector working in capital markets at Gesnavarra SGIIC.

For more than 15 years he has been linked to venture capital and technology transfer at Clave (founded 2002, headquartered in Pamplona, with additional offices in Valencia and Valladolid). As a Director of Funds he promotes, structures, and manages multiple venture-capital vehicles, analyzing and investing in early-stage technology companies. He has been described as sitting on roughly 15 boards of the firm's portfolio companies, reflecting a hands-on, board-level approach to the deep-tech and life-sciences companies Clave backs.

Lozano directs Clave's technology-transfer and health franchises. He manages the UN I+D+i Tech Transfer FCR fund — a roughly €8.5M vehicle launched in November 2015 in partnership with the University of Navarra's Innovation Factory to commercialize university research — and is associated with the firm's Clave Innohealth fund (≈€80M), which targets medtech, eHealth, nutrition, and biotech. Clave overall manages more than €100M and, as of recent reporting, had invested in roughly 59 companies.

Beyond investing, Lozano collaborates with the University of Navarra's Master's program in Biomedical Engineering and works with various international organizations evaluating innovative early-phase projects, with a particular emphasis on the health sector. In interviews he has conveyed genuine enthusiasm for the work, saying it is "a world that interests me and that I like — you don't get bored a single day."

• Technology transfer as the core thesis: Lozano's funds exist to move research out of universities and labs and into the market — "investing in technology-transfer projects," especially those originating in the University of Navarra ecosystem and other Spanish research centers.
• Stage: Seed / early stage, including concept validation through to early commercialization; the tech-transfer funds back companies at their earliest, often pre-revenue phases.
• Sectors: Health and life sciences are central — biotech, medtech, eHealth, nutrition, biomedical and industrial engineering — alongside broader deep-tech and industrial innovation.
• What makes him say yes: Strong underlying science/IP, a credible path from research to a real market, and founders/teams able to execute the transfer; he takes board seats and works closely with portfolio companies rather than investing passively.
• Disciplined pacing: He has publicly framed deployment in concrete, measured terms (e.g., signaling "between June and December we will make up to three investments"), indicating a selective, conviction-led cadence rather than high-volume dealmaking.