PORTUGAL TECH: EIF, IFD & Faber join forces at Web Summit to support Portuguese data-centric software start-ups with EUR 30 million

• EIF and IFD sign this agreement under PORTUGAL TECH and Juncker Plan, being the 4^th joint commitment to Portuguese fund managers in less than one year
• The agreement with Faber Capital was signed at the Web Summit 2019 in Lisbon in the presence of EU Commissioner Moedas and Minister of Economy Pedro Siza Vieira

The European Investment Fund (EIF) and Instituição Financeira de Desenvolvimento (IFD) have signed a EUR 15 million commitment to Faber Tech II, a new venture capital fund focused on investing in early-stage data-centric start-ups in Iberia, primarily from Portugal. This is the fourth commitment to a Portuguese fund under the PORTUGAL TECH programme, the venture capital partnership between the EIF and IFD announced one year ago by the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, during the opening of Web Summit 2018.

Created with the objective of investing in Portuguese fund managers and attracting private institutions to the venture capital scene, PORTUGAL TECH is funded by the Portuguese Government via IFD and by EU resources via the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the main pillar of the Investment Plan for Europe, also known as the Juncker Plan.

Minister of Economy Pedro Siza Vieira stated: “The Portuguese government is very pleased to launch a new fund targeting start-ups at the Web Summit. Venture capital is of vital importance in our strategy to improve the financial tools available for the promising companies in the Portuguese ecosystem.”

Commenting on this initiative, the European Commissioner Carlos Moedas said: “The European Fund for Strategic Investments (the Juncker Plan) is once again demonstrating its European added value by supporting the Portuguese economy and its innovation ecosystem. Thus, Portugal remains one of the top five beneficiaries of the Juncker Plan, which dedicates more than 25% of its funds to research and innovation projects. The agreement signed today at the Web Summit will help to scale-up investments made in Portugal. By co-funding a Venture Capital fund, we are strengthening innovation in Europe and helping to create future Portuguese innovative products and services.”

The Head of the EIB Lisbon office, Kim Kreilgaard said: “We are very pleased to support the launch of a new fund under PORTUGAL TECH aimed at addressing investment market gaps for Portuguese start-ups. This agreement will contribute to strengthening the Portuguese venture capital sector while supporting innovative companies. The Web Summit represents the ideal location to sign such a deal.”

EIF Chief Executive, Pierluigi Gilibert commented: “Thanks to the established partnership with IFD, the EIF now benefits from broader knowledge and access to the Portuguese venture capital and tech transfer ecosystems. This is another important milestone in our partnership with IFD and the fourth joint commitment under PORTUGAL TECH.”

programme while wishing for mutual success both at supporting Portuguese tech companies and achieving adequate returns.”

Faber Capital’s Managing Partner, Alexandre Barbosa said: “Faber was founded to pursue a long-term mission: to be the best early-stage, value added micro-VC firm in Iberia in helping founders to build successful global tech companies. We are honoured to partner with the EIF and IFD as anchor investors in our new fund, providing us with a clear validation of our differentiated value proposition. We look forward to jointly supporting a new portfolio of audacious entrepreneurs – our stage/tech focus and value added approach fills a gap in Southern Europe and we believe that we are well-positioned to be early investors in the next vintage of Iberian high-potential data-centric software companies.”

The EIF, the subsidiary of the EIB Group dedicated to the financing of SMEs, and IFD, the Portuguese development bank, will each commit EUR 7.5 million in this new transaction, Faber Tech II, which is then expected to mobilise EUR 15 million of additional private and institutional capital.

Faber Tech II is an early-stage fund with a specialty focus on backing top entrepreneurs building data-centric software ventures (Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning, Big Data) to transform and lead their industries. The fund will be managed by Lisbon-based Faber Capital SCR and its partner team, an independent and entrepreneur-led regulated management company that will select, invest and monitor more than 20 start-ups and projects over the next five years. This new fund builds on the successful investment experience of the team through a “super-angel” investment vehicle. The track record of the management team (Alexandre Barbosa, Sofia Santos, Rui Carvalho and Carlos Silva) shows their ability to source and access the best opportunities presented in the Portuguese venture tech landscape, inasmuch as they were the first local backers of successful innovative companies such as Unbabel, Codacy, Seedrs (co-founded by Carlos Silva) and Hole 19.

About the EIF

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank Group. Its central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses by helping them to access finance. EIF designs and develops both venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments that specifically target this market segment. In this role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research, and development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment.

About IFD

Instituição Financeira de Desenvolvimento (IFD) is the national development bank of Portugal. It develops financial instruments to address market gaps in funding SMEs and mid-caps. IFD is a wholesale institution, acting in partnership with banks, mutual guarantee institutions and other financial intermediaries, such as venture and private equity fund managers and business angels. By leveraging IFD’s own equity and funds under management for equity and quasi-equity instruments and for debt and guarantee instruments, IFD is now making available to the Portuguese economy a total of EUR 2 billion in new funding.

About PORTUGAL TECH

Signed in November 2018, PORTUGAL TECH is a EUR 100 million investment programme focused on venture capital and tech transfer in Portugal. IFD and the EIF are committing EUR 50 million each to this jointly developed programme, which has already committed EUR 75 million alongside four Portuguese fund managers (Indico Partners, Armilar Ventures, Vallis Partners, and now Faber Capital), with a total leveraged amount of more than EUR 200 million to be mainly invested in Portugal. So far, PORTUGAL TECH has already supported 20 Portuguese start-ups, a number that is expected to grow during the next five years.

About the Investment Plan for Europe

The Investment Plan for Europe (the Juncker Plan) focuses mainly on removing obstacles to investment, increasing the visibility of investment projects while providing them with technical assistance, and making smarter use of new and existing financial resources. By October 2019, the Juncker Plan had already mobilised over EUR 439.4 billion of investment across Europe, including EUR 9.8 billion in Portugal and supported more than one million start-ups and small and medium businesses. Juncker Plan-backed investments have increased EU gross domestic product by 0.9% and added 1.1 million jobs compared to the baseline scenario. By 2022, the Juncker Plan will have increased EU GDP by 1.8% and added 1.7 million jobs.

About Web Summit

Web Summit is an annual technology conference with more than 70 000 attendees held in Lisbon, Portugal. It is considered one of the largest and most important tech events in the world.

About Faber Capital and Faber Tech II

Faber is a Lisbon-based early-stage VC firm that invests in great entrepreneurs building global tech companies to transform and lead their industries. The firm’s unique value proposition in Portugal combines a specialty focus on early-stage data-centric software ventures that can scale globally and an entrepreneurial management team advised by a collective of technology experts/founders with a solid track record in the Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning and data science space.

Through an initial “super angel” investment vehicle, the manager had access to some of the most promising start-ups in Portugal such as Unbabel, Codacy, Seedrs and Hole19.

Faber Capital is now setting up Faber Tech II – a new early-stage fund to invest in the next generation of top entrepreneurs and support their data-centric software ventures (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Big Data). The fund will have a strong focus on B2B/SaaS companies from Iberia, from pre-seed/seed to Series A, with global plans.

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