It seems like just yesterday (or 7 years ago!) that I was focusing on the rapidly developing Portugal's growing startup and investment scene. I updated the article in 2021 and noticed an explosion of new companies and investors.
Today, further evidence has emerged that Portugal is spreading its wings as one of Europe's freshest and most voracious tech ecosystems. Venture firm Schilling has launched a €50 million fund to support growth-stage startups in its portfolio and, crucially, to invest in startups everywhere. other than that.
Shilling, the VC arm of Portuguese private equity firm Draycott SCR, is best known as an early-stage investor in startups such as Talka, Unbabel, Bizay, Uniplaces, and Best Tables (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2015). I am.
Schilling's latest fund, dubbed the Opportunity Fund, will allow investments of up to €5 million after Series A, giving it additional firepower to support early-stage startups over the long term. The company said more than 90% of the fund's goal had been raised by the end of the first round, and the fund has already invested in Schilling's portfolio company CoverFlex.
Despite having a vibrant startup ecosystem, Portugal has one of the lowest VC investment-to-GDP ratios in Europe, at one-fifth of the European average, according to Atomico.
This has created a funding gap for growth-stage startups. Schilling's Opportunity Fund will be a welcome bridge to bridge that gap.
“We want to be one of the players that follows startups throughout their journey, which is why this new fund was born,” Ricardo Jacinto, managing partner at Schilling, told me. “Obviously we want to keep an eye on new opportunities. That's the theme of this fund. […] We don't want to limit ourselves to just portfolio companies. ”
“Our new fund will help growth-stage companies scale as the market recovers from post-pandemic stabilization,” Schilling founding partner Hugo Gonçalves Pereira said in a statement.
Norberto Guimarães, co-founder and CEO of Talka, said: “Schilling is inevitable in the early stage startup scene in Portugal. It brought me into the community.”
Supporting tech founders early on has been key to Schilling's growth as a company. In 2021, the company launched a €55 million ($35.6 million) early-stage fund called Schilling Founders Fund, backed by over 35 successful technology founders and European venture capital firm Atomico.
Schilling was founded in 2011 by Pereira, a real estate investor and proptech founder. Antonio Casanova, Unilever FIMA CEO. Diogo da Silveira, chairman and NED of a fund-backed European listed company; João Coelho Borges is a top PE investor and founding partner of Draycott. and executives Juan Alvarez and Pedro Rutkowski.
Subsequently, entrepreneurs and founders such as Miguel Santo Amaro (co-founder of Uniplaces and Coverflex), Ricardo Jacinto, Pedro Ramalho Carlos, and María Villas Boas joined the team.
Schilling isn't the only Portuguese venture to expand in size in recent years. In 2022, Lisbon-based venture firm Indico Capital Partners launched a €50 million climate technology fund called Indico Blue Fund. Other major VC firms in the country include Faber, Armilar Venture Partners, Tocha, and Portuguese Ventures.