Portugal Growth programme

The EIF and the Portuguese national promotional institution, Instituição Financeira de Desenvolvimento (IFD), announced a EUR 100m partnership to support the growth and internationalisation of mature Portuguese companies through access to private equity.

The EIF and IFD each contribute EUR 50 million to this joint programme, which is expected to catalyse over EUR 300m into funds and companies, by crowding in further resources also from private investors.

The EIF will manage and deploy Portugal Growth, through fund investments into Portuguese private equity, growth capital and mezzanine funds, including first-time funds.

As our partner, IFD provides local support and reference to fund managers who are seeking to launch new funds targeting investments in Portugal. Interested fund managers can get in touch with both IFD and the EIF before submitting a formal proposal.

Fund managers interested in being considered for a fund investment can submit their fund proposal to EIF. Proposals are received and evaluated on a continuous basis.

In order to be considered for funding under Portugal Growth, the investment fund must:

• Be managed by a Portuguese-based team with a proven track record;
• Be classified as a Growth, Buyout and Mezzanine fund as defined by Invest Europe;
• Have a strategy focused on growth and internationalisation (including acquisition, buy-and-build, and replacement capital strategies that include capital increase in the portfolio companies);
• Target to invest at least two times (2x) of amounts drawn down from Portugal Growth for the purpose of investment in SMEs or mid-caps that are established or operating in Portugal
• Show ability to raise at least 50% of commitments from 3^rd party investors.

Additional criteria may apply, and this will be provided by the EIF during the review of the investment proposals.

Portugal Growth is the second equity partnership – following Portugal Tech – between the EIF and IFD under the EIF-NPI Equity Platform and the Investment Plan for Europe’s implementation in cooperation with EU National Promotional Institutions. IFD became a founding member of the EIF-NPI Equity Platform’s General Forum in September 2016.

Portugal Growth therefore benefits from the EIF’s long-standing experience in the Portuguese market, including the above initiatives as well as the earlier Portugal Venture Capital Initiative (PVCi).

Contacts and submission of investment proposals

If you are a fund manager, please read more about how to submit your investment proposal to the EIF or be in touch with your existing EIF relationship manager.

If you are a company interested in the funding described above, please refer to investment funds in EIF's portfolio, a list of which can be found here.