List of international Venture Capital Funds interested in Portuguese based startups

International Venture Capital funds represent a relevant source for Portuguese startups. In 2020, >25% of the rounds had the participation of an international investor. Those rounds represented >85% of the amount invested, as international investors are particularly relevant financing sources for post-seed investment. But even in seed and pre-seed rounds, international investors account for 16% and 26% of the rounds.

For more statistics on Portuguese startups, check the Portugal Startup Activity report.

In total, there are >20 International Venture capital funds that have already investing in Portugal and more than 40 that are actively looking for Portugal.

Though I only have started collecting data for 2020, I have noticed a growing interest from international Venture Capital funds in Portugal over the last years – due to the recent success of Farfetch, Talkdesk, Outsystems, Feedzai, DefinedCrowd, among others.

Also, I have noticed that Spanish funds are increasingly deploying resources to find opportunities in Portugal – e.g., Samaipata dedicated a post explaining why they are interested in Portugal, Kibo announced that was opening an office in Lisbon, etc.

Due to my Business Angel activities and to support my portfolio companies, I interact frequently with several international venture capital funds that are interested in opportunities in Portugal.

Aiming to help all Portuguese startups in their fundraising process, I have put together a list of the Venture Capital funds interested in the region.

Check also the list of Top Venture capital funds based in Portugal. If you are in pre-seed and seed phase you might also be looking for Business Angels based in Portugal.

As the best way for entrepreneurs to connect with these funds is through the founders of the investors’ portfolio companies, I have highlighted previous investments in Portuguese companies.

I considered interesting funds that are dedicating time or money in recent years. It is a qualitative assessment, as there is limited information available, so it is pruned to error. If there is any information that is incorrect or any fund is missing you can leave a note in the comments section or interact with me via LinkedIn

Pre-seed/Accelerators

Techstars | https://www.techstars.com/

Offices: Boulder/USA, Lisbon/Portugal and other >30 locations
Prior investments in PT: >10 | DOCdoc (https://dodoc.com/), Mobiag (https://mobiag.com/), GustU (https://www.guestu.com), MyDidimo (https://www.mydidimo.com), Attentive (https://attentive.us/), Graphenest (https://www.graphenest.com), Muzzley (https://www.muzzley.com/), Sensei (https://www.sensei.tech/), Secret City Trails (https://www.secretcitytrails.com/), Emotai (https://www.emotai.tech/), Rnters (https://rnters.com/), Apres (https://www.apres.io), Infinite Foundry (https://www.infinitefoundry.com/)
Thesis: Agnostic
Tickets: 100k$

Seedcamp | https://seedcamp.com/

Offices: London, UK
Prior investments in PT: 8 | Student Finance (https://www.studentfinance.com/), Hole19 (https://www.hole19golf.com/), Zercatto (http://www.zercatto.com/), Codacy (https://www.codacy.com/), Kitch (https://eatkitch.com/), James (https://james.finance/), Popcorn metrics (https://www.popcornmetrics.com/), Hoko (http://hoko.io/)
Thesis: Agnostic
Tickets: 150k€-1M€

500startups | https://500.co/

Offices: SF/USA (HQ), over 20 locations
Prior investments in PT: 3 | Infraspeak (https://www.infraspeak.com/), Prodsmart (https://prodsmart.com/), Talkdesk (https://www.talkdesk.com/)
Thesis: Agnostic
Tickets: 150k$, minus the program cost

YCombinator | https://www.ycombinator.com/

Offices: SF/USA
Prior investments in PT: 3 | Unbabel (https://unbabel.com/), Orankl (https://www.orankl.com/), Esla Speak (https://elsaspeak.com/)
Thesis: Agnostic
Tickets: 125k$

Seed to Series A venture capital firms (300k€-5M€)

Join Capital | https://www.join.capital/

Offices: Berlin/Germany
Prior investments in PT: 3 | Codacy (https://www.codacy.com/), Prodsmart (https://prodsmart.com/), Valispace (https://www.valispace.com/)
Thesis: B2B
Tickets: 500k€-3M€
Person looking to Portugal: Jan Borgstädt

All Iron Ventures | http://www.alliron.vc/

Offices: Bilbao/Spain
Prior investments in PT: 2 | Zenklub (https://zenklub.com.br/), Barkyn (https://www.barkyn.com/)
Thesis: Marketplace
Tickets: 1M€-5M€
Person looking to Portugal: Hugo Fdez.-Mardomingo

Kibo Ventures | http://kiboventures.com/

Offices: Madrid/Spain
Prior investments in PT: 2 | DefinedCrowd (https://www.definedcrowd.com/), Hole19 (https://www.hole19golf.com/)
Thesis: Agnostic
Tickets: 1M€-5M€
Person looking to Portugal: Pedro Trinité

Vesalius Biocapital Partners | https://www.vesaliusbiocapital.com/

Offices: Luxembourg
Prior investments in PT: 2 | SWORD Health (https://swordhealth.com/), Tonic App (https://www.tonicapp.com/)
Fund: Drug development, medical devices & diagnostics and eHealth / mHealth
Tickets: 1M€-5M€
Person looking to Portugal: David Malta

Cherry | http://www.cherry.vc/

Offices: Berlin/Germany
Prior investments in PT: 1 | Dashdash (https://dashdash.com/)
Thesis: Agnostic but strong experience with marketplaces
Tickets: 1M€-5M€
Person looking to Portugal: Marguerite de Tavernost

Firstminute Capital | https://www.firstminute.capital/

Office: London, UK
Prior investments in PT: 1 | Infraspeak (https://www.infraspeak.com/)
Thesis: Agnostic
Tickets: 250k€-3M€
Person looking to Portugal: Lina Wenner

Frontline | https://www.frontline.vc/

Offices: London, UK
Prior investments in PT: 1 | James (https://james.finance/)
Thesis: B2B, SaaS, bringing Europe and US
Tickets: 500k€-3m€
Person looking to Portugal: Carolina Kung

LocalGlobe | https://localglobe.vc/

Office: London, UK
Prior investments in PT: 1 | Stratio Automotive (https://stratioautomotive.com/)
Thesis: Agnostic
Tickets: 1-5M€
Person looking to Portugal: George Henry

Mangrove | https://www.mangrove.vc

Offices: London/UK
Prior investments in PT: 1 | Attentive (https://attentive.us/)
Thesis: Agnostic
Tickets: 1-10M€
Person looking to Portugal: Yannick Oswald

Octopus Ventures | https://octopusventures.com/

Offices: London/UK, New York/USA
Prior investments in PT: 1 | Uniplaces (https://www.uniplaces.com/)
Thesis: health, money and deep tech
Tickets: 1M€-10M€
Person looking to Portugal: Rebecca Hun t

Speedinvest | https://speedinvest.com/

Offices: London/UK, Vienna/Austria, Munchen/Germany, Berlin/Germany, SF/USA
Prior investments in PT: 1 | Secret City Trails (https://www.secretcitytrails.com/)
Thesis: Agnostic
Tickets: 500k-3M€
Person looking to Portugal: Markus Lang

Adara | https://www.adaravp.com/

Offices: Madrid/Spain, Luxembourg and SF/USA
Prior investments in PT: 0
Thesis: Deep tech, Europe
Tickets: 500k€ – 3M€
Person looking to Portugal: Ross Strachan

Angular Ventures | https://www.angularventures.com/

Offices: London/UK
Prior investments in PT: 0
Thesis: Seed, Deeptech, Enterprise
Tickets: 200k$-1M$
Person looking to Portugal: Gil Dibner

Basinghall Partners | https://www.basinghallpartners.com/

Offices: London/UK, Lisbon/Portugal, Munich/Germany, and Luxembourg
Prior investments in PT: 0
Fund: B2B
Tickets: 250k-1M€
Person looking to Portugal: Ilya Velder

BlueYard | https://blueyard.com/

Offices: Berlin/Germany
Prior investments in PT: 0
Fund: Deeptech, Blockchain
Tickets: 1-5M€
Person looking to Portugal: Juan Pinilla

Caixa Capital Risc | https://www.caixacapitalrisc.es/

Offices: Madrid/Spain
Prior investments in PT: 0
Thesis: SaaS, B2B, Health, Life Sciences
Tickets: 500k€-5M€
Person looking to Portugal: Rom a Jelinskaite

KFund | https://kfund.co/

Offices: Madrid, Spain
Prior investments in PT: 0
Thesis: Digital companies
Tickets: 300k€-2M€
Person looking to Portugal: Pablo Ventura

Hoxton Ventures | http://www.hoxtonventures.com/

Offices: London/UK
Prior investments in PT: 0
Thesis: Agnostic
Tickets: 500k$-5M$
Person looking to Portugal: Hussein Kanji

Nauta Capital | https://nautacapital.com/

Offices: Barcelona/Spain, London/UK, Munchen/Germany
Prior investments in PT: 0
Thesis: B2B, capital-efficient
Tickets: 1-5M€
Person looking to Portugal: Borja Lajas

Point 9 | http://www.pointninecap.com/

Offices: Berlin/Germany
Prior investments in PT: 0
Thesis: SaaS, Marketplace
Tickets: 1-5M€
Person looking to Portugal: Ricardo Sequerra

Partech | https://partechpartners.com/

Offices: Paris/France
Prior investments in PT: 0
Fund: Agnostic
Tickets: €200K to €50M
Person looking to Portugal: Boris Golden

Profounders | https://www.profounderscapital.com/

Offices: London/UK
Prior investments in PT: 0
Fund: Agnostic
Tickets: €1-3M
Person looking to Portugal: Sean Seton-Rogers

Project-a | https://www.project-a.com/

Offices: Berlin/Germany
Prior investments in PT: 0
Fund: Agnostic
Tickets: €1-7M
Person looking to Portugal: Nina Jetter

Samaipata | https://samaipata.vc/

Offices: Madrid/Spain
Prior investments in PT: 0 | Post: Why we believe in the Portuguese Ecosystem
Thesis: Marketplaces
Tickets: €500k-5M
Person looking to Portugal: Sebastián Fernández-Medrano

Tomahawk.VC | https://www.tomahawk.vc/

Offices: Zurich/Switzerland, Lisbon/ Portugal
Prior investments in PT: 0
Thesis: B2B
Tickets: €100k-1M
Person looking to Portugal: Ricardo Normand

VentureFriends | https://venturefriends .vc/

Offices: Athens/Greece, London/UK
Prior investments in PT: 0
Thesis: B2C
Tickets: €300k-2.5M
Person looking to Portugal: Pavlos Pavlakis

Series A and beyond venture capital firms (>3M€)

e.ventures | https://www.eventures.vc/

Offices: Berlin/Germany, SF/USA, Beijing/China, Tokyo/Japan, São Paulo/Brazil
Prior investments in PT: 3 | Farfetch (https://www.farfetch.com/), Aptoide (https://www.aptoide.com), Unbabel (https://www.unbabel.com/)
Fund: Consumer, Internet, Software
Tickets: 4M€-
Person looking to Portugal: Jonathan Becker

Index Ventures | http://indexventures.com/

HQ: London/UK, SF/USA, Geneva/Switzerland
Prior investments in PT: 2 | Farfetch (https://www.farfetch.com/), Remote (https://remote.com/)
Fund: Agnostic
Tickets: 5M€-
Person looking to Portugal: Martin Mignot

Lakestar | https://www.lakestar.com/

Offices: Zurich/Switzerland, Berlin/Germany, London/UK, New York/USA and Hong Kong
Prior investments in PT: 2 | Casafari (https://www.casafari.com/), Dashdash (https://dashdash.com/)
Fund: Agnostic
Tickets: 5M€-
Person looking to Portugal: Stephen Nundy

Accel | https://www.accel.com/

Offices: Bay Area/USA, London/UK, Bangalore/India
Prior investments in PT: 1 | Dashdash (https://dashdash.com/)
Thesis: Agnostic
Tickets: 5M€-
Person looking to Portugal: Andrei Brasoveanu

Atomico | https://www.atomico.com/

HQ: London/UK
Prior investments in PT: 1 | Uniplaces (https://www.uniplaces.com/)
Thesis: Agnostic, Europe (interesting report https://2019.stateofeuropeantech.com/)
Tickets: 5M€-
Person looking to Portugal: Ben Blume

Balderton | https://www.balderton.com/