It looks as if only yesterday (well, seven years ago!) that I used to be exploring the rapid development of Portugal’s growing startup and investment scene. I updated my article in 2021 and noticed an explosion of latest firms and investors.
Today we have further proof that Portugal is spreading its wings as one of the freshest and hungriest technology ecosystems in Europe: Venture Shilling launched a EUR 50 million fund to support growth-stage startups in its own portfolio and, most significantly, invest in startups around the world.
Shilling, which is the VC arm of Portuguese private equity firm Draycott SCR, is best known for being an early-stage investor in startups comparable to Talka, Unbabel, Bizay, Uniplaces and Best Tables (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2015).
Shilling’s latest fund, called the Opportunity Fund, will provide it with additional opportunities to support early-stage startups for longer, offering investments of up to €5 million for Series A and beyond. According to the company, over 90% of the fund’s goal value was raised at first close and the fund has already invested in Shilling’s portfolio company, Coverflex.
Despite a vibrant startup ecosystem, Portugal has one of the lowest VC investment to GDP ratios in Europe – five times lower than the European average, According to to Atomic.
This has created a funding gap for growth-stage startups. The Shilling Opportunity Fund shall be a welcome bridge to this gap.
“We want to be one of the players following our startups throughout their journey, hence this new fund,” Ricardo Jacinto, managing partner at Shilling, told me. “Of course we want to keep an eye on new opportunities. This is the thesis of this fund. […] We don’t want to limit ourselves to portfolio companies.”
“As the market emerges from post-pandemic stabilization, our new fund will support growth-stage companies as they scale up,” Hugo Gonçalves Pereira, founding partner of Shilling, said in a statement.
Norberto Guimarães, co-founder and CEO of Talka, added: “Shilling is inevitable in the Portuguese early-stage startup scene. They were quick to support Talka, including me in the community after 12 years of traveling around the Bay Area.”
Early support from tech company founders was key to Shilling’s growth as a company. In 2021 it is fired a €55 million ($35.6 million) early-stage fund called the Shilling Founders Fund, which was backed by just over 35 successful tech founders, in addition to European VC, Atomico.
Shilling was founded in 2011 by Pereira, a real estate investor and proptech founder; António Casanova, CEO of Unilever FIMA; Diogo da Silveira, Chairman and NED of European listed and fund-backed firms; João Coelho Borges, leading PE investor and founding partner at Draycott; and directors Juan Alvarez and Pedro Rutkowski.
Later, entrepreneurs and founders joined the team, including Miguel Santo Amaro (co-founder of Uniplaces and Coverflex), Ricardo Jacinto, Pedro Ramalho Carlos and Maria Villas-Boas.
Shilling is not the only Portuguese enterprise capital firm that has expanded its operations in recent years. In 2022, Lisbon-based enterprise capital firm Indico Capital Partners launched a €50 million climate technology fund called Indico Blue Fund. Other leading VC firms in the country include: Faber, Partners of the Armilar enterprise, Flashlight AND Portuguese ventures.