About Us
The Venture Builder is a Portugal-based Venture Builder specialized in softlanding for startups and investors. We help investors, startups and entrepreneurs to use Portugal as an unbeatable gateway to the European Markets. By using methodologies such as “Lean Startup” and “Open Innovation” we run incubation and acceleration programs with only one purpose in mind: take advantage of the high-income 500 millions european consumers.
Know MoreInvestment Sectors
We are looking for disruptive technologies such as the application of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Virtual Reality, Blockchain, BigData in the following sectors:
INDUSTRY 4.0
DIGITAL TRANSITION
CLIMATE TRANSITION
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
BLUE ECONOMY
TOURISM
LIFE SCIENCES
BIOTECHNOLOGY
HEALTH
Investment Strategy
The Fund’s investments will be made in startups in the early-stage (pre-seed, seed) without sales, and in startups who already have some market presence (traction). Here the focus is on making sure there is an alignment between the long-term vision of the company and the investors. Our goal as investors is to multiply investment aggressively. This vision must be a combination of innovation, creation of competitive differentiation and the potential for accelerated growth.
Corporate Governance/Legal Structure
The Fund will be registered with the CMVM (Comissão de Mercados de Valores Imobiliários / Portuguese Securities Market Commission), the financial authority tasked with supervising and regulating the portuguese financial markets.
Board of Directors
The fund will be administered by a Board of Directors elected by the Investors in General Assembly. The Board of Directors will propose to the General Assembly the members of the Investment Committee.
Investment Committee
The Investment Committee will be composed of five individual people, with experience and technical competence in the area of analysis of investment opportunities in companies, of which one must be a member of the Board of Directors. The selection of the investments is the responsibility of the Investment Committee, which will present it to the Board of Directors for approval.
Advisory Board
An Advisory Board will be established to advise the Board of Directors in the implementation and consolidation of the Fund’s management policy. Will be composed of prominent figures from each market – country managers – invited by the Board of Directors to raise money from that market as well as identifying startups to the Fund´s pipeline. The Board of Directors will propose an incentive scheme to the Investors General Assembly.
Golden Visa
Portugal Golden Visa is the most attractive investment citizenship program or residence for investment in Europe and with it you can live in Portugal, and subsequently obtain Portuguese citizenship. You can aplly to the StartUP Visa – a residence visa for entrepreneurs, which aims to attract to Portugal investment, talent and innovation capacity.By investing and creating qualified employment, entrepreneurs can integrate a startup incubator in Portugal and benefit from all the incentives and support of the StartUP Portugal Program.
Any citizen who’s NOT part of the EU (European Union), EEA (European Economic Area) or Switzerland, and who makes a qualified investment in Portugal, will be entitled to Golden Visa and residence in Portugal.
Our Programs
Training
Knowledge is the basis for good decision making and you must make good decisions if you want to be successful in your enterprises. Check out our Workshops.
Softlanding
With our program, Softlanding, they will have access to 500 million European high-income consumers. In this program, we help startups and companies with a small investment to enter the European Union.
Open Innovation
We have developed Open Innovation program’s based on the most prominent, advanced and successful acceleration programs developed so far. Our goal is to provide startup ventures with faster growth and consequentially to provide corporations with innovations and higher return-on-investments.
Our Workshops
To make the most of the event, we have developed three workshops that will help you prepare.
Check out!
Business Opportunities in Portugal and Europe
Before embarking on the trip, we will reveal, in this Workshop, the main opportunities that Portugal can offer for your startup to capture public (non-refundable) and/or private investment, how to prepare to apply for these resources, as well as outline its internationalization strategy.
Best Practices PITCH
Not sure what European investors expect from a Pitch? Many entrepreneurs may think that every pitch is always the same, but some points are crucial and make all the difference to attract investors. The Venture Builder will get you ready to put on a show!
AMBASSADORS
Ambassadors represent a group of key influencers in the target startup ecosystems who actively support Fund activities.
Brazil
Marino Thobias
Bachelor’s degree in Economic Sciences, is a Founder / CEO of M.A.Thobias Consulting, a company focused in Digital Transformation processes in S.Paulo. Having over 42 years of professional experience, working in large multinationals companies in Banks and Technology industries. Participates in mentoring startups and is enthusiastic about the 4th industrial revolution and the cognitive era, and for radical innovation. Believes that innovation is the result of the sum of the training of people with creativity.
Colombia
Camilo Rodriguez
Industrial Engineer with a MSc in Information System, MBA studies. Entrepreneur with more than 10 years of experience supporting entrepreneurship projects and social impact projects in developing business plans and obtaining and managing financial resources.
Executive with a distinguished career in sales and manager field, developing all the experience mainly in IT, Telecommunications, Government, Finance, Health and Education industries, consolidating high-level operations with a high focus on sales and new products positioning for all Latin America market. He is currently a Co-Founder and the CEO of Paway Latam, a company specialized in business investment and development of financial vehicles.
Hong-Kong
Cyron Chan
Cyron is an entrepreneur, venture builder, and design thinking advocate based in Hong Kong. Currently, he is leading a start-up centre in a higher education institute, advising various start-ups in different sectors, founder of impact ventures, author about social innovation, vice-chairman of youth organization and actively mentoring early-stage startups. He is passionate about coaching founders and creating new businesses. Also, he is a speaker in global events, including Hong Kong, Beijing, Lisbon, etc. He graduated from The University of Hong Kong (Computer Science) & The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Social Service Management) and continued his study of impact investing in Singapore.
Mexico
Gustavo Castellano
Specialist in the Infrastructure Sector, Energy, Real Estate, Agriculture, Technology, Bank and Financial Services, as well as in the Public Sector; had worked for the Latin America Regions, North América, Europe, India, Australia an Pacific; also Speaks the English, French and Portuguese languages.
Our Network
Our Association has been operating since 2005, with a large network of partners in Europe and Latin America, supporting the growth and innovation of entrepreneurship through many projects and activities:
STARTUPS / SME’S
PARTNERS
COUNTRIES
Our Team
Carlos Cortes
Mariana Nogueira
Dora Gomes
Lucca Zennaro
Contact us
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