EDP ​​Ventures ended 2019 with an investment of more than six million euros, the highest amount ever invested by the company in a single year, he guarantees. EDP's venture capital arm completed 16 operations at startups in five countries in the areas of digital innovation, electric mobility and smart grids.
Portugal, Spain, Holland, Brazil and Israel were the countries of startups in which EDP Ventures invested last year. At the national level, the Portuguese Effizency (formerly Save2Compete), Drivit and Hypelabs received financing in 2019, with the latter two in co-investment with the Financial Development Institution.
Effizency has developed a technological solution for utilities to help SMEs reduce their energy bills by adopting energy efficiency solutions, while Drivit has created an app to help companies and drivers determine their driving style and standard behavior. Hypelabs was responsible for a software development kit, which allows communication between different devices without Internet resources, through a mesh network, applicable to all types of objects and any operating system.
2019 was also marked by the first 100% exit at Presenso, an Israeli startup that developed a machine learning solution for predictive asset maintenance. Last year, EDP further consolidated the activity of the investment team in Brazil, with three new investments in local companies: Dom Rock, Fractal and Voltbrs.
In a statement, the director of EDP Ventures, Lus Manuel, considers that 2019 was a very positive year. It was an excellent year in terms of our investment activity "says Lus Manuel, guaranteed that the company now has eight more Portuguese startups in the portfolio.
For this year, EDP Ventures' objective is to "launch an investment vehicle in Spain in collaboration with national and regional public entities", with five million euros available to allocate to the best projects. To date, agreements have been signed for the development of partnerships with the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) and the Regional Government of Astrias for co-investment.
Clean energy, energy storage solutions, smart grids, digital innovation and solutions linked to customers are the priority areas for investment in 2020. Since it was created in 2008, EDP Ventures has invested more than 36 million euros in 34 startups.
