Indico sets venture capital funds in Portugal, aiming to invest around €46m in tech

Indico Capital Partners announced this Friday that it is setting up a venture capital fund operation of €46m to invest in the Iberian markets, targetting startups in the tech industry, in the very early stages of their projects. Finally, said Stephen Morais, former executive administrator of Caixa Capital. This project has been under his responsibility for several months now, together with Cristina Fonseca, co-founder and shareholder of Talkdesk, and Ricardo Torgal, the former head of investment at Caixa Capital.

We are mainly interested in investing in the Portuguese market because we need to be close to the projects we are helping to boost, these early-stage projects require a permanent follow-up, Morais explained to ECO.

Indico Capital Partners is the first Portuguese private and independent venture capital fund, and it is aiming at investing in the early stages of the startups in the tech industry. In Portugal, the major venture capitl group is Portugal Ventures, managed by venture capitalist Rita Marques.

Indico’s fund major financing partner is the European Investment Funds, the leading institutional investor at the European level in this area, but the venture capital fund also has gathered investment from over 20 different institutional and private sources. It now has 12 months to continue the outreach for more capital.

The market is quite dynamic in Portugal and it calls for this type of investment, of this size and nature, which up until now did not exist in this country, Stephen Morais explained. Cristina Fonseca, Indico’s partner, added that it will be essential in such a key phase, for these startups to be accompanied by actors with a lot of experience, and gaining access to a global network might be a defining factor for the success of these startups.

(Updating)