For entrepreneurs, there was never a better time to raise seed capital from Venture Capital funds in Portugal!
This year Venture Capital funds will raise more money than in the last 5–7years combined!
With Bynd Venture Capital, ex-Busy Angels, announcing a €10M fund this week, it raises to>€100M raised in 2019 alone on private and independent Venture Capital funds. (Congrats Bynd team 💪🍾).
Prior to Bynd and at the beginning of 2019, Armilar Venture Partners, former Espírito Santo Ventures crew, announced a €60M fund for deep tech startups and Indico Capital, with Stephan and Ricardo ex-Caixa Capital and Cristina from TalkDesk, announced a €46M fund.
Besides these 3 new Portuguese based funds, International early-stage funds have been setting operations in Portugal. First, Techstars in partnership with Semapa Next started this year with the first batch. Second, Kibo Ventures announced the goal to raise a €100M fund until the end of 2019 aiming to invest in the best Iberian companies and a new office in Portugal.
In addition to these public announcements, there are at least other 3 funds, including one international, that will expand the availability of seed capital in Portugal by 50m or more over the next months.
Venture Capital Funds and Business Angel investors in Portugal
All this capital available is on top of 200M, IFD lines Funds and Busy Angel financing lines and other private capital already available in the system.
Combined with more availability of capital, we have also seen an increase in professionalization of the investors — from Angels to Venture funds (Busy to Bynd), from public or corporates to independent funds (Indico, Armilar), from entrepreneurs and operators to investors (Cristina, Miguel, etc.), international funds joining (Techstars, Kibo), first unicorns (Outsystems, Talkdesk, etc,) — leading to a more mature seed ecosystem.
Exciting times!
Going forward
I am excited to see the raise of seed investors. But the ecosystem is also on a seed stage. There are still several uncertainties:
- Demand of capital: will there exist (quality) demand for all this capital? Will the future Talkdesk and Farfetch raise money from local investors? Will this capital attract foreign entrepreneurs?
- Supply of capital: will the LPs base expand and continue to support local investors? Even in a scenario with higher interest rates and lower government subsidies?
- Venture capital firms: Will they perform to sustain or even expand the number of funds? Will these funds help giving the right steps towards a more mature (“series A”, following the initial metaphor)ecosystem?
I am following closely the evolution and I am overall positive about the above questions but is yet too early to say. I am looking forward to see the evolution of the seed space in Portugal.
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
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