What big challenge is Portugal Ventures addressing?

Public policies designed to stimulate tech-based entrepreneurship cannot only measure their success by the number of start-ups created. Co-investment and M&A exits according to international best practices, and with global investors, are also key vectors that help measure the success of public intervention.

Portugal Ventures has been working with their local ecosystem since 2012 to help Portuguese companies enter new markets, find new business partners and find new investors. As a result, early-stage funding in Portugal has increased, and an early-stage Portuguese investor base has started to grow, with pre-seed or bootstrapped start-ups now finally relying on their local ecosystem! As the size of the local investor base increases, Portugal is witnessing an increase in the level of investor collaboration that should lead to more co-investments at Series A level and above.

What is the mission of the organisation?

Portugal Ventures is the most active Venture Capital firm in Portugal and focuses on proactive investment in start-ups in all phases of development, backing their growth, competitiveness and internationalization. Portugal Ventures leverages the outcome of investment and readiness efforts that have already been made by other market players, namely in acceleration programmes, prioritising networking and partnerships with other market players.

A large portion of funding already comes from European Funds leading to an abundant supply of capital flood in so called “convergence regions”. New indirect investors are needed, including pension funds, insurance companies, endowments, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, and fund-of-funds that can back Portugal’s best funds and companies. Long-term partnership between investors is fundamental to how the industry operates, and this has become a top priority for Portugal Ventures since the new board team joined the company.

What impact has Portugal Venture’s achievement to date?

Entrepreneurship, more specifically the start-up ecosystem, is an important driver of job creation, business diversification and innovation. Since starting in 2012, Portugal Ventures has monitored more than 100 start-ups in over 20 different sectors, with a total investment amounting to €120 million. Portugal Ventures has designed differentiating strategies with each company to help structure their business models and create value in the key markets in which they operate, monitoring the businesses and supporting the roll-out of new products into the market. The team has over 20 years’ experience managing venture capital investments and has access to more than 900 experts in the sectors in which it operates.

How will InvestHorizon support Portugal Ventures?

The InvestHorizon Accelerator Programme is not only an excellent source of deal flow, but also connects Portugal Ventures to other major players in the European entrepreneurship ecosystem. InvestHorizon will also offer specialised content dedicated to financing processes and investment which will support the portfolio of Portugal Ventures companies.