Portugal Startup Scene | September 2020
5 min readOct 4, 2020
Originally published at https://www.pedroalmeidavc.com on October 4, 2020.
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Highlights
- José Neves, the founder of Farfetch, is donating 2/3 of his wealth to his newly launched foundation, aiming to support Portugal transforming into a Knowledge-based economy. In a country so dependent on the public initiatives, this is a bold and inspirational initiative! The foundation will be lead by Carlos Oliveira, founder of MobiComp (sold to Microsoft), and will also count António Murta, Pathena Managing partner, involvement. The first initiative is an income-sharing agreement, which will enable 1.500 students in the next 2 years to afford for the university and only paying back when and if they get a job. The foundation will assume the financial risk if things don’t occur as planned. Looking forward to the initiatives to come!
- Portuguese Women in Tech (PWiT) launched Future Female Founders, aiming to support women in the development of business ideas, from the idea phase to the creation of the company. Also, the Tonic app, founded by Daniela Seixas, was awarded “Best Startup in Portugal started by a Woman”. Congrats Daniela, all nominees, and most of all, PWiT for organizing and driving all these initiatives. These initiatives are very much needed to push for better gender diversity in Portugal’s startup land. According to our numbers, only 1/5 of the startups that raised funds this year in Portugal had at least a woman in the founding team.
- André João, the founder of Barkyn, was also awarded “João Vasconcelos Award — Entrepreneur of the Year“. Congrats! Hope you have, at least, the same success as the last year’s winner — DefinedCrowd
- TechStars Lisbon by SemapaNext acceleration program comes to an end, 1 year earlier than expected. In replacement, Techstars will organize 2 pathfinders programs next year — its newly launched open innovation program. During these 2 years, Hugo and the program contributed massively to the development of the Portuguese ecosystem and brought great entrepreneurs, investors, and mentors to town. So we want to thank all Techstars by SemapaNext team for the great work! Stay tuned, as great things are being “cooked”!
- IFD — Instituição Financeira de Desenvolvimento and EIF — European Investment Fund joined forces, for the 3rd time, and launched the first European equity Fund of Funds dedicated to Blue Economy with €50M. IFD also awarded Portugal Ventures and Quadrantiswith €6.5M and €3M and 5 Business Angels Syndicates — Vega Ventures, Flagrantopportunity, Best Horizon, VSM Capital, and Planeta Revelação — with €1.4M to deploy in Azores and Madeira. Finally, Portugal Ventures dedicated €10M and opened a dedicated call for Tourism startups. All good news for entrepreneurs — no lack of funding in here
- Ricardo Sequerra was promoted to equal partner at Point9, a leading European VC. Congrats, Ricardo! For those that don’t know Ricardo (if that is even possible?!), Ricardo is only 30 years old but has been creating his way until the top of Venture capital in Europe. He previously worked at Seedcamp, Faber Ventures, and Cherry.
- For those keen on having a similar career path as Ricardo, there are 2 unique opportunities in Armilar Venture Partners — Senior Associate — and Portugal Ventures — Investment Manager. These 2 institutions are among the most experienced/long-tenure (“the survivors”) VCs in Portugal. Armilar has just celebrated 20 years since the first investment. Congrats!
Accelerator deadlines, pitch competition and events
- October 6: Founder Hotseat: Pitch Portuguese Investors & Experts (Online Event)
- October 7: Tourism Explorers
- October 8: Customer Success Meetup | Founders Founders #5
- October 11: Portugal Virtual 2020 — Founder Institute
- October 11: ABANCA Inova
- October 12: Relança-te — Escola de impacto
- October 12–18: Montepio Acredita Portugal — Virtual Week
- October 23: iDays 2020 — Health in the Workplace and Health & Environment
- October 30: Demium Lisbon incubator
- October 30: OpenTech Pfizer Vaccines
- October 31: Prémio IN3+
- October 31: Starting
- Websummit startup program
- 2021/January 8: Portugal Ventures — Tourism call
- (Always open for application): CTT 1520 startup program
- Beta-i Shift to start
- Startup Braga incubation
Resources for entrepreneurs
Portugal Startup Scene data
- Market activity data: The Portuguese Startup, Venture Capital and Business Angel activity data; Scaleup Porto; Ecosystem map
- Newsletter: Pedro and João newsletter
- Survey: If you are an entrepreneur, contribute to the Portuguese investment landscape survey
Investors
- Business Angels: Business angels in Portugal
- VCs: Venture capital and business angels syndicates in Portugal; International Venture Capital firms interested in Portugal; 200M
- Term-sheets: Angel term-sheet (Team Genesis/Morais Leitão); General Term-sheet (Team Genesis/Morais Leitão)
Interesting reads
- Product-Market fit: DashDash product-market fit survey; Scaling Unbabel — My Personal Learnings
- Churn: Reducing Churn In SaaS And Subscription Startups
- Podcast: Tech Deciphered Show; Startup Portugal Podcast; O podcast das startups (PT); Building The Future — AI Portugal Podcast
- Videocast: Bitalk; EDP Innovation Series; Spe Futuri, Investidores — Linktoleaders
Tools
- Hiring/finding jobs: Startup Job Portugal; UPTEC Jobs; Zero Gravity
Diversity
- Portuguese Women in tech: Website ; Opinion articles; Salary transparency project; Speaker list; Report
If there is any great resource for Portuguese based entrepreneurs, we are happy to had them.
Funding round
Startup: Didimo (https://mydidimo.com/)
Amount: €1M
TAGs: B2B, 3D Technology, Software, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Gaming
Investors: Armilar Venture Partners, Bright Pixel and 200M
Startup: Digital Manager Guru (https://digitalmanager.guru/)
Amount: €200k
TAGs: B2B, SalesTech
Investors: Portugal Ventures
Startup: Legal Vision (https://www.legalvisionpro.fr/)
Amount: Unknown
TAGs: B2B, LegalTech
Investors: Portugal Ventures
Startup: MindProber (https://www.mindproberlabs.com/)
Amount: Unknown
TAGs: B2B, platform, saas, automated technology, analytics, testing, automated, process, back office, neuroscience
Investors: Portugal Ventures
Startup: RetailEye (https://retaileye.pt/)
Amount: Unknown
TAGs: B2B, Marketplace
Investors: Core Angels
Startup: Clever Meals (https://blog.clevermeals.co/)
Amount: Unknown
TAGs: B2B, FoodTech
Investors: Three51
Update to previously reported data
- Totally missed the €12.5M round last month of Bizay / 360imprimir. Investors: Pathena, Omnes Capital, 200m, Indico Capital Partners, LeadX Capital Partners, Iberis Capital
- EDP Ventures also participated in Probely round. The round size was €500k
- Core Angels also participated in Kit AR, Visor.ai/Jesbee, TotalCross Global Mobile Platform, Landing.Jobs and Shiptmize financial rounds
International funding rounds participated by Portuguese investors
- Core Angels | Dolani — Spain
- Sonae IM | IriusRisk — Spain
- EDP Ventures | Time Energy — Brazil
