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Portugal and Spain Startup Scene

Information about Portugal and Spain Startup Scene

Principais investidores Venture Capital e Business Angels em Portugal

Most active Venture Capital Firms And Business Angels In Portugal

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Updated: January 2021

The Portugal Venture Capital landscape and entrepreneurial ecosystem have been growing fast – 2x faster than the European average.

2020 Portugal Startup and Investors Activity Report 

Now there is a pool of Venture Capital firms – Armilar Venture Partners, Indico Capital, Bynd, Portugal Ventures, etc. – and Business Angels – Shilling Capital, Olisipo Way, Core Angels, etc. – to support you in reaching your next milestone. 

Looking for a Portuguese Business Angel? Check here a comprehensive list with Portuguese Business Angels

To support founders raising money from local investors, I created a list with the top local investors. In case you are looking for Pre-seed and Seed, you should also look for the Business Angels list. There is also an increasing list of international investors looking into Portuguese based startups (check the list here). At the bottom of the post you have an excel with detailed information.

As a Business Angel, I invest in mission-driven and tech founders. If you believe we can have fit, connect with me via LinkedIn here and request an appointment here

 

Venture Capital Firms and Business Angels in Portugal

Armilar is a Seed to Series A Venture Capital firm, investing mostly in DeepTech startups across Information Technology, HealthTech, and CleanTech. Armilar team has been around for more than 20 years (previously known as Espírito Santo Ventures).  It was considered one of the top 30 seed investors in Europe, according to Dealroom, due to its investments in Outsystems (Unicorn), Feedzai, Codacy, among other startups. In 2020, Armilar invested in 4 startups, one of which outside Portugal. It has +€250M assets under management. In 2019 and 2020 raised 2 funds, a €60M multi-stage fund, focused on technology transfer from universities, and a €10M 5G fund with NOS, Portuguese Telco.

Bright Pixel is a Pre-Series A Venture Capital fund, part of the Sonae group (Sonae IM invest in Series A/B and beyond). It invests in Sonae verticals, including Retail, Telecom, Cybersecurity, and IoT, mostly in B2B startups. Since 2020, it is led by Alexandre Santos, after Celso stepping down to join Cloudflare. Last year, Bright Pixel invested in 7 startups, 5 of which in Portuguese based startups, including Replai.io. Bright Pixel is one of the most active investors in Artificial Intelligence startups.

Formerly known as Busy Angels, Bynd moved from a Business Angel syndicate to VC and in 2019 raised a €10M. Bynd invests in the Life Science and Technology Information space, in both B2B and B2C. In 2020 Bynd invested in 3, only one in Portugal – follow-up investment in Defined Crowd. 

One of the most active Business Angel groups in Portugal. Core Angels is the continuation/evolution of Red Angels. Core Angels has multiple syndicates for different verticals/geographies (e.g., Impact, Spain, etc.). In 2020, Core Angels invested in 10 startups, the majority in Portugal. Core Angels, regularly co-invests with LC Ventures.

Corporate VC from EDP, Portuguese utility. Currently investing in Clean Energy, Smart Grids, Client-Focused solutions, Energy Storage, and Digital Innovation. In 2020, EDP Ventures invested in 10 startups, most outside of Portugal. In Portugal, it has been investing mostly in Artificial Intelligence. More about EDP Ventures’ portfolio here. 

Faber Ventures | https://www.faber-ventures.com/

Faber is a Pre-Series A Venture Capital fund. In 2020 raised its second fund, targeting a €30M fund, focused on data-centric startups. Carlos Silva, Seedrs co-founder, joined the team for the second fund. In 2020, Faber announced investments in 2 startups – Sword Health and YData. 

Indico is a Pre-Seed to Series A Venture Capital fund. Founded by 2 former Caixa Capital members — Stephan Morais and Ricardo Torgal — and Talkdesk co-founder — Cristina Fonseca. Indico raised 2 funds between 2019 and 2020, a Seed and Series A €54M fund and a Pre-seed €12M, to back startups from its accelerator program in partnership with Google. Indico invests in areas like blockchain, artificial intelligence, big data, enterprise SaaS, fintech, marketplaces, among others. In 2020, Indico invested in 12 startups, 1 of which in an international startup, and it was the 3rd most active investor.

Beta-i investment fund. Beta-i was the second most active investor in Portugal in 2020, though it only invest sin the first half of 2020. In 2020, LC Ventures invested in 16 startups, mostly in pre-Seed and Seed stages.

Seed and Series A Impact VC fund with an European investment focus. Mustard Seed Maze is a joint ventures between Mustard Seed – UK Impact fund – and Maze – Portuguese Impact company. Last year, Mustard Seed Maze invested in 9 startups, most outside Portugal. MSM has a €40M fund, raised in 2018.

VC fund from the former entrepreneur António Murta. Focused on life sciences and information technology companies. €70M assets under management. In 2020, Pathena only had a public investment –  360imprimir – but is one of the oldest investors around. 

State-own fund investing in Digital, Engineering & Manufacturing, Life Sciences and Tourism sectors from pre-seed to Series A. One of the first early-stage investors in Portugal with over 75 portfolio companies, including Aptoide, and Outsystems. In 2020, it was the most active investor (and co-investor). 

Pre-seed and Seed Angel Syndicate led by José and Tocha investing cash light startups. In 2020, invested in 11 startups with a median round size of around €200k. Olisipo Way also has an interesting Videocast (Bitalk) covering stories from entrepreneurs.

Venture Capital and Fund of Funds arm of Semapa, one of the largest Portuguese Industrial Groups. The team and family behind Semapa have been investing in early-stage startups since the beginning of the century (e.g., early investors of Ydreams) and more recently have decided to give a step forward and created an early-stage fund. In 2019 and 2020, partnered with Techstars to launch Techstars Lisbon. Semapa Next ambition is to invest in Series A and beyond. In 2020, Semapa Next invested in 11 startups, 10 from the Techstars program and in DefinedCrowd series B. 

Business Angel syndicate with notable investors, including Hugo Gonçalves Pereira and Miguel Santo Amaro. Early investors of Uniplaces and Best Tables (sold to The Fork from TripAdvisor). In 2020, Shilling raised a new fund and invested in 1 startup.

 

List of early-stage investors in Portugal

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