- The Call for Enterprise Deep Tech aims at providing venture capital financing to science and tech-based R&D projects
- Open to Portuguese incorporated companies in the startup, early stage and growth stages.
- Portugal Ventures is willing to invest between €250,000 and one million euros.
Porto, 22 April 2021 – Portugal Ventures, part of the Banco Português de Fomento (BPF) Group, in partnership with Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda, is launching Call for Enterprise Deep Tech to invest in deep tech solutions, acquired by corporate clients, in the following verticals:
- Digital Identity
- Security
- Software Development
- Data
- Infrastructure
- DevOps
With submissions open until 16 May, companies may submit solutions with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), market feedback and some confirmed customers.
Projects must be an original idea of and led by the founders, with the possibility of valuing and protecting theIntellectual Property.
Applicant companies must be located in the Northern, Central and Alentejo regions of Portugal.
Rui Ferreira, Vice-President of Portugal Ventures says that “with this Call, Portugal Ventures hopes to encourage entrepreneurs to create deep tech solutions that boost the digital growth of businesses through innovative solutions built on science and tech-based R&D”.
João Pereira, Investment Director of Portugal Ventures’ Digital Division, notes that “we will be investing in opportunities for global, sophisticated corporate users, where the value proposition based on deep technology developed by the team is clear and relevant. Competitive solutions that are clearly sustainable will be prioritised, asserting their market differentiation. We believe that venture capital investment is essential to accelerating the potential global competitiveness of the teams and projects, sharing the risk, our experience and our business development platform”.
One of the verticals this Call focuses on, digital identity, is a global trend and a major concern for Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda (INCM – Portuguese Mint and Official Printing Office), which aims to invest in new ideas and solutions that dematerialise citizen identity verification and authentication processes.
For Gonçalo Caseiro, Chairman of the INCM Board of Directors, “as the future becomes increasingly digital and as economic activities shift to this new paradigm, the importance of identifying people, property, sensors and other attributes is obvious. Indeed, this vertical is vital because it is at the core of digital transformation, not only to minimise the damaging effects of cybercrime in today’s world, but also to give citizens back control over their own identity in the digital world. In a year of economic recovery such as 2021, exploring digital identity is an obligation and a commitment we make in the belief that, through research and development, we are contributing to the modernisation of society and towards a secure and sustainable digital transformation.
On 28 April, at 3 p.m., Portugal Ventures and Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda will be holding a webinar on “Enterprise Deep Tech Solutions – Digital Identity: why innovative solutions are important for the dematerialisation of citizen identity verification and authentication processes”. Guest speakers include João Pereira (Investment Director, Digital Division) and Vitor Castro (Head of Digital Transformation at INCM).
