VC Funds actively investing in Portuguese Startups (Late Stage)
As co-founder and CEO of Infraspeak, co-founder of Founders Founders (scale-up incubator), and former Head of Technology Center and Acceleration Program at UPTEC, I’m deeply involved in the Portuguese Startup ecosystem.
As a hobby, I keep track of the “Hot Startups in Portugal”, “VC Funds actively investing in Portuguese startups in the pre-seed, seed, series A, series B, and late stages” and the most relevant events happening in the Portuguese Startup Scene like “exits”, “funding rounds” and “startup post-mortem articles”.
This article is about the most relevant VC Funds actively investing in Portuguese startups in the Late stage (last update: March 27th, 2021)
Lakestar (Zurich, Berlin, London, New York, and Hong Kong)
Investor Type: Venture Capital
Target Sectors: Generalist (invested previously in AI/Machine Learning, Fintech, Mobile, Real Estate, SaaS, Telecommunications and Travel)
Active funds: 2 active funds including Lakestar Growth I (€426M / May19) and Lakestar III (€252M / Oct18)
Total number of Funds: 4 (€1163M AUM)
Number of Investments: 111 (31 as lead)
Portuguese startups in the portfolio: 2 (Rows / Feb21, Casafari / Sep19)
Website, Crunchbase
KKR / Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (New York)
Investor Type: Late Stage Venture, Private Equity
Target Sectors: Generalist
Active funds: Many active funds including Next Generation Technology Growth Fund II ($2.2B / Jan20) and KKR European Fund V (€5.8B / Nov19)
Total number of Funds: 22
Number of Investments: 194 (125 as lead)
Portuguese startups in the portfolio: 2 (Feedzai / Mar21, Outsystems / Feb21)
Website, Crunchbase
Accel (London, Bangalore, San Francisco, Palo Alto)
Investor Type: Venture Capital
Active funds: Many active funds including Accel London VI ($575M / May19)
Total number of Funds: 29
Number of Investments: 1,441 (550 as lead)
Portuguese startups in the portfolio: 1 (Rows / Feb21)
Website, Crunchbase
Atomico (London)
Investor Type: Venture Capital
Active funds: 2 active funds including Atomico Ventures V ($820M / Feb20) and Atomico Ventures IV ($765M / Mar16)
Total number of Funds: 5
Number of Investments: 159 (62 as lead)
Portuguese startups in the portfolio: 1 (Uniplaces / Nov15)
Website, Crunchbase
Balderton Capital (London)
Investor Type: Venture Capital
Active funds: Many active funds including Balderton Capital VII ($400M / Nov19) and Balderton Liquidity I ($145M / Oct18)
Total number of Funds: 8
Number of Investments: 305 (128 as lead)
Portuguese startups in the portfolio: 1 (DefinedCrowd)
Website, Crunchbase
EQT Ventures (Stockholm, Amsterdam, London, Luxembourg, Paris, Berlin, and San Francisco)
Investor Type: Venture Capital
Active funds: EQT Ventures II ($730M / Nov19)
Total number of Funds: 2 ($1363M AUM)
Number of Investments: 81 (54 as lead)
Portuguese startups in the portfolio: 1 (Codacy)
Website, Crunchbase
Founders Fund (San Francisco)
Investor Type: Venture Capital
Target sectors: Generalist (invested previously in almost everything)
Active funds: 5 active funds including Founders Fund VII ($1.5B / Nov19)
Total number of Funds: 10
Number of Investments: 559 (152 as lead)
Portuguese startups in the portfolio: 1 (Sword Health)
Website, Crunchbase
Tiger Global Management (New York)
Investor Type: Late Stage Venture, Private Equity
Target Sectors: Generalist with a focus on internet, software, consumer,
and financial technologies
Active funds: Many active funds including Tiger Global Private Investment Partners XII ($3.8B / Jan20) and Tiger Global Private Investment Partners XI ($3.8B / Oct18)
Total number of Funds: 8
Number of Investments: 518 (293 as lead)
Portuguese startups in the portfolio: 1 (Outsystems / Feb21)
Website, Crunchbase
To check out investors investing in Portuguese startups in other stages:
Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, and Series B stage
What do I mean by late stage:
Startups raising a late stage round usually raise more than 100M€ and have the following characteristics:
- They have a rock-solid product, a clear product-market fit, and a clear channel-market fit.
- They have a large customer base with an outstanding revenue flow and a proven retention, up-sell, and sales processes. In other words, they are already a successful, money-making global organization.
- They have world-class management and operational teams and show they can hire world-class talent.
- They have a clear plan to IPO or exit.
Final comments:
- This list has the unique goal of bringing visibility to the Portuguese startup ecosystem, helping both entrepreneurs and investors to get to know each other.
- It’s not an exhaustive list. There are plenty of other investors investing in Portuguese startups. If you believe something is wrong or someone else should be added to this list, let me know.
- For the sake of readability and focus, this list excludes business angels and other types of investors not investing on a full-time basis. The criteria to make the list is not written in stone but can be summarized by: $25M+ invested in at least 2 Portuguese startups in the last 5 years, at least 1 active fund, and a great investing team.
- The list is mostly focused on tech investors investing in tech startups (SaaS, Marketplaces, PaaS, E-commerce, etc.), so it doesn’t include biotech, creative industries, real estate, and other booming sectors.
- The list is ordered by “Portuguese startups in the portfolio”.
- “Investor Types” are Venture Capital, Private Equity, Governmental or Corporate.
Interested in the Portuguese Startup Scene?
Check out my other articles about it:
Update Log:
- March 27th, 2021: Lakestar moved up in the ranking due to Rows’ Series B investment; KKR / Kohlberg Kravis Roberts moved up in the ranking due to Feedzai’ Series D investment; Tiger Global Management added due to Outsystems’ Series E investment.
- August 22nd, 2020: Published.
