In the beginning of September, a new venture capital fund was launched, which today had a wide scope of disclosure in Portugal TecnolĂłgico.
Sponsored by InovCapital and COTEC, ACTec – Accelerator of Technology Commercialization – counts on 7.5 million euros to support companies in the pre-seed phase and help them to develop the business model and proofs of concept necessary to maximize the ideas generated in university banks.
The first applications start in November, for high potential projects, but only in March will applications and dissemination for medium potential ideas begin.
Clara Braga da Costa, member of the Board of Directors of InovCapital, explained to TeK that this waiting period is due to the fact that COTEC, the operational partner of the fund, already has the processes oiled for high potential companies but not yet for companies.
medium potential.
The differentiation between the two types of projects is due to the potential they have to reach global markets.
Those with high potential have a wider scope, while those with medium potential can be restricted to a European or Iberian scope.
“The idea was already being worked on for three years and arose from the identification of a market failure in supporting innovative ideas and projects still beardless”, explains Clara Braga da Costa.
With the methodology adopted from COTEC’s experience with CoHitec, the intention is to “reduce the failure rate of these innovative ideas, which is very high”.
ACTec is a 15-year project and the aim is to support 2 to 4 high potential companies per year and 13 to 16 medium potential companies. “If we manage to achieve these goals, we leave an unparalleled legacy”, stresses Clara Braga da Costa
The fund currently has 4.1 million euros and was subscribed by Caixa Capital, Cinvest, ES Ventures, Banco BPI, InovCapital and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, with the start of the second round of capital subscription now foreseen.
