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Portugal is in the top 20 European countries with the most active investors in technology startups

  • A new OEP study helps assess the size of the funding gap for European startups identified in Mario Draghi’s EU Competitiveness Report and reveals a larger European investment gap compared to the US
  • Portugal Ventures, EIC, Startup Braga, ESA, Indico Capital Partners, Armilar Venture Partners, Shilling VC and other entities are among the main technology investors in Portugal.
  • Startups now have easier access to investors through OEP’s Deep Tech Finder.

Technology startups have enormous potential to drive innovation and foster economic progress. These also present challenges that only investors with experience in Patents and IP (Intellectual Property) are prepared to face effectively.

A new report released today by the European Patent Organization (EPO) highlights key investors for the commercial success of cutting-edge inventions. Portugal ranks 16th among the European countries with the most active investors in the area of ​​technology startups, registering 1450 transactions and 3.6 billion euros of investment between 2000 and 2023. The report also reveals that technology investment in Europe is driven mainly by large public programs and specialized private investors, revealing, however, a financing deficit compared to the USA.

“Startups play a crucial role in commercializing disruptive ideas that have great potential to drive progress. However, as highlighted in Mario Draghi’s report, many innovative companies face financial obstacles to growing in Europe,” says António Campinos, President of the OEP. “This financing gap makes it difficult to transform innovation into scalable startups, leading entrepreneurs to seek opportunities abroad. Closing this gap is crucial to revitalizing sustainable growth across Europe.”

pexels cookiecutter panumas nikhomkhaiPexels < Panumas Nikhomkhai

The report introduces a new metric – the Technology Investor Score1 (TIS) – which measures the percentage of companies that have filed patent applications in an investor’s portfolio. Leveraging this metric designed to identify technology-focused investors, the study reveals that 88% of European investors have portfolios that include companies with patents. Furthermore, 8% have portfolios with more than half of their companies holding patents, demonstrating a particularly strong engagement with patenting startups.

The five most central investors in the European co-investor network are large public entities specialising in technology financing, namely the European Innovation Council (EIC), Innovate UK, the Eurostars Programme for SMEs, Bpifrance and the European Institute of Innovation. and Technology (EIT). The top 100 also includes pan-European public institutions such as the European Investment Bank (EIB) and other national innovation agencies. Among the private investors in the top 100, 62% focus on early-stage financing, while only 22% specialize in late-stage financing, highlighting the limited capital available in Europe to scale up technologies and put them into practice. inventions on the market. In contrast, private investors account for 98 of the top 100 investors in the US Co-Investor Network, with more than half specializing in later-stage companies, reflecting greater private support for the expansion of high-tech companies.

The main investors in technology-based initiatives in Portugal are Portugal Ventures, EIC, EIT Health, Caixa Capital, Startup Braga, Armilar Venture Partners, Shilling VC, ESA Business Incubation Centre in Portugal, Eurostars SME programme and Indico Capital Partners. According to the study, these entities represent around 40% of investment in Portugal in the technology area.

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Pexels < Josh Sorenson

The UK, France and Germany lead in total funding and number of deals, with a strong presence of investors in the technology sector. Together, these three countries were responsible for a total of approximately 75,800 transactions, with a total financing of around 392 billion euros between 2000 and 2023, supported by around 6,100 investors with a portfolio of at least ten companies operating in the three countries. The Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and Belgium also have high levels of patent-backed investment, with over 240,400 cumulative transactions and almost €88.5 billion in the same period. The other European countries together represent a total of more than 22,000 transactions, with total financing of more than 70 billion euros, which demonstrates strong growth potential in technological specialization.

Addressing the challenges of startup financing in Europe

The comprehensive survey of technology investors presented in the study is part of the OEP’s broader effort to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups in Europe. As a complement to the study, OEP’s Deep Tech Finder has been updated with a new filter to identify investors. This filter will help startups find the most suitable investors for their company’s specific profile, based on criteria such as type of investment round, country or technological domain. This update expands the functionality of Deep Tech Finder, a free tool that already allows users to easily find over 10,000 European startups, spin-outs and universities with patent applications to the EPO.

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