Jul 31, 2020

5 min read

Portugal Startup Scene | July 2020 — Pedro Almeida

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Highlights

In the first half of 2020, €125M was invested in 70 early-stage financing rounds in Portugal. This is 2.2x more money deployed than in 2019 H1, though less -5% in the number of investments. Going forward, I see a lot of activity happening. So I expect the number and volume of investments to continue at the same level (or higher) until the end of 2020, though with a potential decline in valuations
In July 2020, Talkdesk raised $143M, more money than all Portuguese startups in 2020 H1 together. Talkdesk is now are on the IPO track. Impressive growth story, Tiago and Cristina!
B-Parts was acquired by PSA, leaving Portugal Ventures portfolio. Among other metrics, investors look for exits and large rounds (as a proxy for exits) to assess if it is an interesting and liquid entrepreneurship market to invest in. This and Talkdesk news are healthy signals for the Portuguese startup ecosystem.
Indico Capital announced a €12M accelerator fund, one year after announcing its first fund. It is the second fund announcement this year (the first fund was the Armilar 5G €10M fund, which coincidentally was also announced 1 year after Armilar Tech Transfer fund in 2019). Unlike, 2019 in which we saw The Rise of Seed Capital in Portugal, 2020 there are only a few funds closing. Despite Covid19 and until the end of the year, I expect more 1–3 new funds announcements.
Indico Capital Partners also announced the first cohort of its accelerator program in partnership with Google. Skoach, my most recent investment, is 1 of the 6 startups in the Indico program. Skoach is also nominated for “Best startup in Portugal started by a Woman” award, a great initiative by Portuguese women in Tech. 2x congrats Rita!
DefinedCrowd welcomes Balderton as a new investor (first investment of Balderton in Portugal)! On a different note, it accuses Amazon, one of its early investors, of copying its product. Though not all Corporate investors are created equal (and I don’t know the DefinedCrowd details), in general, I think Corporates can be good additions to the cap table for late-stage rounds (Series B and beyond) and investing along with VCs. But I tend to not recommend it in earlier stages. I am curious about your views on this topic, particularly my friends at CVCs
From Spain, there were 2 interesting developments impacting early-stage Portuguese entrepreneurs and VCs — First Kfund launched the KFounders — a program to invest 100k€ in entrepreneurs early in their journey (well done Kfund team!). Second, Aldea Ventures launched a fund of funds dedicated to Southern European early-stage funds. There are not many Southern European LPs, so it is a reason for celebration!
Last month, I received negative feedback on the newsletter, as it was missing information on some rounds. I wanted to emphasizes that I only use public information or information that people have expressively allowed me to disclose. As such and by definition, this newsletter is not accurate as it lacks non-public/known rounds. But feedback is always an opportunity to improve. As such, I have created a form where you can contribute with information and suggest URLs to highlight. You can now share it here.

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Funding round

Startup: Talkdesk (https://www.talkdesk.com/)

Amount: $143M

TAGs: B2B, Call Center, Cloud Computing, CRM, Customer Service, SaaS, Customer service, Software

Investors: Viking Global Investors,Threshold Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Willoughby Capital, Skip Capital, Lead Edge Capital, Top Tier Capital Partners

Startup: Ilof (https://ilof.tech/)

Amount: $1M

TAGs: B2B, Artificial Intelligence, Biotechnology, Health Care, Health Diagnostics, Machine Learning, Medical DeviceStreaming

Investors: M12, Mayfield

Startup: Nutrium (https://nutrium.io/)

Amount: €750k

TAGs: B2B, SaaS

Investors: Portugal Ventures

Startup: Kit AR (https://www.kit-ar.com/)

Amount: €544k

TAGs: B2B, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Productivity, Manufacturing

Investors: Best Horizon

Startup: Peoople (https://peoople.app/)

Amount: €500k

TAGs: B2C, Apps, Internet, Social Media, Social Network

Investors: Best Horizon

Startup: Bitcliq (http://www.bitcliq.com/)

Amount: €350k

TAGs: B2B, Blockchain, Information Technology, Internet of Things, marketplace

Investors: Fundo para a Inovação Social

Startup: Shiptimize (https://www.shiptimize.me/)

Amount: €225k

TAGs: B2B, Developer APIs, E-Commerce, Logistics, Shipping

Investors: Portugal Ventures, Best Horizon

Startup: Spontaneous Mystery

Amount: €175k€

Investors: Teamplay

Startup: RetailGates

Amount: €150k

Investors: Olisipo Way

Startup: Skoach (https://skoach.com/)

Amount: €100k

TAGs: B2B, Remote work, Human Resources, Training, Chatbot, SaaS

Investors: Indico Capital, Pedro Almeida

Startup: APiS (https://apistech.eu/)

Amount: €100k

TAGs: B2B, Internet of things, Beekeeping, SaaS

Investors: Indico Capital

Startup: InnovationCast (https://innovationcast.com/)

Amount: €100k

TAGs: B2B, Information Technology, Software

Investors: Indico Capital

Startup: Modatta (https://www.modatta.org/)

Amount: €100k

TAGs: B2C, Mobile, Marketplace

Investors: Indico Capital

Startup: Onalytics (https://www.onalytics.tech/)

Amount: €100k

TAGs: B2B, Internet of things, Logistics, Supply chain, SaaS

Investors: Indico Capital

Startup: Playbox (https://www.playbox.com)

Amount: €100k

TAGs: B2C, Adult games, Gaming, D2C, Subscription

Investors: Indico Capital

Startup: Projecto iodo Azul

Amount: €100k

Investors: Portugal Ventures

Startup: Virtualeap (https://virtuleap.com/)

Amount: $100k

TAGs: B2B, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Biometrics, Education, Fitness, Health Care, Home Health Care, Wellness

Investors: Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator

Startup: Oscar (https://oscar-app.com/)

Amount: €70k

TAGs: B2C, Mobile, Marketplace

Investors: Olisipo Way

Startup: Knok (https://www.knokcare.com/)

Amount: Unknown (series A)

TAGs: B2C, Marketplace, Health Care, Medical

Investors: Mustard Seed Maze

Startup: Noite Americana