Judit, your childhood in Torredembarra and your relationship with nature seem to have had a great impact on your professional career. How did these experiences influence your decision to focus on sun protection and the foundation of Roka Furadada ?
It is true, my childhood in Torredembarra and my connection with nature had a significant impact on my professional career. When I was little, during the summers we would go to a very special place: the Roca Foradada; it was a rock that gave you an entrance to the sea. This aspect of being open to the sea, and also the fact of being able to enjoy protected nature connects with the photoprotection project. In addition, I have always been interested in environmental conservation: the generation of waste, pollution and the impact we have on the planet. For this reason, I saw in sun protection an opportunity to unite my passion for nature with my vocation for health. I wanted to create sustainable products that minimized the environmental impact and at the same time protected people's skin.
Roka Furadada, founded in Barcelona in 2019, has accumulated several recognitions in a short time, including the DeepTech award for the most disruptive technological innovation; the Women in Tech Start-Up Award worldwide; the Catalonia Exponential Leaders 2023 recognized by ACCIÓ - Agency for Business Competitiveness of the Generalitat of Catalonia , and the recent selection as one of the hundred best emerging companies ( start-ups) in the science and technology parks of the Spanish State. Given this panorama of successes, what do these awards represent for you and for the Roka Furadada team?
Recognition, that's the first thing. We are a start-up , and our day-to-day is very demanding, we work with limited resources and with a very high level of demand, but with great aspirations. The fact that we are recognized is a great boost, because it allows us to stop and reflect on the positive impact we are having. But it also allows us to celebrate our successes as a team.
On a personal level, I understand that too?
Yes, without a doubt! The Women in Tech Start-Up Award, in particular, was a very exciting experience. The Secretariat for Digital Policies encouraged me and other Catalan women to apply, and I traveled to Amsterdam for the awards ceremony not knowing whether I would win or not. In the end, it was a great honor to be recognized as the European winner for the best female-led tech start-up . Afterwards, I was selected to represent Europe at the global final in Dubai, where I received the award again. It was an incredible experience to be able to share space with female entrepreneurs from all over the world and learn about their projects.
In addition to personal recognition, these awards are important because they give visibility to women in the technology sector and promote diversity. They are an incentive to continue working hard and to inspire other women to pursue their dreams.
"These awards are important because they give visibility to women in the technology sector and promote diversity"
How does Roka Furadada manage to create effective and sustainable sunscreens?
Sustainability is one of our fundamental pillars. That's why, from the beginning of product design, we take into account both efficacy and the environmental impact it could have. For example, when we develop different products, we use a rigorous selection process, in which, before continuing development, we carry out a series of in silico analyses (“made by computer” or “via computational simulation”), in order to see what the toxicological and environmental impact will be. And from there, we select the candidate products that we will take forward.
Furthermore, we believe that effectiveness and sustainability go hand in hand, one cannot exist without the other. A more effective product requires less to achieve the same result, thus reducing the environmental impact because you use fewer raw materials. Therefore, our products not only offer high sun protection, but are also respectful of the environment and marine ecosystems.
Roka Furadada can boast of having four Industrial Doctorate projects . Do these projects share objectives?
The truth is that they all share the same goal, but they do it from different branches. I'll give you an example: the first molecule we launched on the market, the one we are now selling, has had a diversity of perspectives that has been crucial to achieving a high-quality final product. Each industrial doctoral project, with each of the people who have been completing their theses, has contributed their discipline to be able to obtain these results.
In short, although each doctoral student works on a specific aspect of the product with their specialty, they all have a common goal: launching a molecule on the market.
What added value does research within the company bring to Roka Furadada within the framework of the Industrial Doctorate Plan?
We are a very complete company that, except in the case of manufacturing, which we subcontract, we transfer everything: research is essential for us, because it allows us to develop unique and innovative products that would not be possible without this task.
At Roka Furadada we carry out “pure and hard” research to develop a unique technology that allows us to evaluate several candidate products. In this sense, I think that industrial doctorates are of interest for two reasons. First, we are a small company with limited resources, and when we started they allowed us to have different doctoral students in different laboratories. And second, there is a part that is very important within the industrial doctorate, which is the support you receive from academia. In other words, we have been able to collaborate with very experienced research staff and use their knowledge, which has helped us to carry out this project. In fact, they are the tutors of the theses of the different industrial doctorate projects.
For now, we find it very interesting to have access to this valuable focused and applied knowledge, with the aim of solving problems that we encounter or learning more about the materials we are using.
"Research is essential for us, because it allows us to develop unique and innovative products that would not be possible without this work"
What are the main challenges you face in developing Industrial Doctorate projects?
At the beginning, one of the biggest challenges we had was being able to build a team with people in different spaces: someone in the offices, another person in the pharmacy faculty, another in the chemistry faculty, another in the Autonomous... There comes a time when you say: how can I integrate all these people into the same team? First we managed it with coaching, a system that we have been using for three years with two coaches who accompany the team members, creating cohesion, getting them to know each other, etc. It is a method called Agile, and it consists of seeing the whole team every day, even if it is online, we explain a little about what we have for the day, what we need, and that way everyone is on the same page.
Secondly, another challenge is to coordinate with the thesis director of the project and align ourselves somewhat with the work that needs to be done. I think the truth is that we have done quite well in this regard, because there is a lot of cooperation from the university.
From your experience as an entrepreneur, what has been the most valuable lesson you have learned and how has it influenced the way you lead Roka Furadada?
When you start a business, you realize that no matter how much you know about your product, the market or the sector, you need a lot of things that you have no idea about and that you need to ask for help.
And the other thing that is also very important, for me, is the team, the people. In other words, to achieve objectives the whole team needs to be aligned; and if it is like in our case, we carefully select the professional profiles necessary for the specific tasks that the project involves. Dedication to the team and to the people is essential.
How important do you think female leadership is in the science and technology industry, especially in innovative areas like yours?
Although in certain fields such as chemistry, biotechnology or biology there is a notable presence of women, the reality is that we have difficulty reaching positions of responsibility. I believe that increasing the presence of women in these positions is crucial, since, naturally, this will facilitate the promotion of more women in the future.
Furthermore, I believe that women bring a different vision of leadership, a more holistic and global perspective that perfectly complements the more specific approach of men. The combination of the two visions is crucial for success in any sector.
Therefore, we need more and more women to occupy leadership positions. This will not only benefit women, but the whole of society.
“When you start a business, you realize that no matter how much you know about your product, the market or the sector, you need a lot of things that you have no idea about and that you have to ask for help.”
What are Roka Furadada's long-term goals? Are there any new areas in which you would like to innovate?
In the short term, Roka Furadada is focused on commercializing its two current products and launching four more in the coming years. In terms of research lines, we are very focused on cosmetics, but we are interested in exploring applications in the field of materials; to do so, we are now collaborating with the materials cluster and looking for alliances with companies in the sector. And, on the other hand, apart from cosmetics, we are exploring the possibility of working with more therapeutic actions.
Is that why you are collaborating with Hospital del Mar?
Exactly, in fact I am a researcher at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute – IMIM. It is from this connection that they propose to us to collaborate on a project in their ICUs. For us, it is a very interesting initiative, the objective of which is that patients can enjoy the outdoors, taking advantage of the location of the Hospital in front of the sea, with our protection product, avoiding parasols, etc.
How does Roka Furadada face the challenges of constant innovation in the cosmetics and sun protection sector?
I think we are a brave company, we are very clear about what we want to do and, to maintain ourselves at this level, we need good research staff and, obviously, resources, and we need the staff to be very good in all the areas that we work in. We don't just need good human capital in R&D&I, we also need it in other areas.
Most of the 21 members of the company are doctors, with a high level of experience in various fields. In other words, the level of excellence and knowledge is very high. And that's why I think we can continue to innovate, because the talent we have is very good.
And do industrial doctorates stay with the company?
In some cases, yes, if the skills acquired during the doctorate have continuity within the company. The Industrial Doctorate program allows the company to gain in-depth knowledge of the doctoral student's work and how it works, and this facilitates their integration into the team.
