Shilling Founders Fund Launches with $35.6M for Portuguese Startups

Shilling Launches New €30 Million Early-Stage Fund

Shilling, a Portugal-based venture capital firm, has announced the launch of its Shilling Founders Fund, totaling €30 million ($35.6 million). The fund benefits from backing by over 35 accomplished tech founders and prominent European VC firm Atomico.

A key feature of this fund is its profit-sharing model. This structure ensures that returns generated are shared with the founders of all companies within the fund’s portfolio.

Investment Focus and Portfolio

While Shilling primarily focuses on supporting Portuguese startups, 40% of the fund’s capital is reserved for investments in international ventures.

To date, the fund has already made investments in seven companies. These include:

• Rows: A spreadsheet tool designed for application developers.
• Vawlt: A platform providing secure and resilient multi-cloud solutions.
• Promptly: A SaaS platform specializing in health outcomes analytics.
• Modatta: A decentralized marketplace for consented personal data exchange.
• Biocol Labs: A direct-to-consumer pharmacy focused on post-chemical solutions.
• Decipad: A low-code notebook application.
• Detech.ai: An AI-powered platform for application and infrastructure monitoring.

The Shilling Platform

Alongside the fund, Shilling is introducing the Shilling Platform. This platform serves as a centralized resource hub, offering valuable learnings and support materials for startups.

Alignment of Incentives

According to Pedro Santos Vieira, managing partner at Shilling, the fund’s approach is “experience-based acceleration.” He further emphasized that the profit-sharing model creates a strong alignment of interests between Shilling, its Limited Partners (LPs), and the portfolio founders.

Shilling’s History and Team

Shilling was established in 2011 by Hugo Gonçalves Pereira, António Casanova, Diogo da Silveira, João Coelho Borges, Juan Alvarez and Pedro Rutkowski.

Over the past five years, the firm has been strengthened by the addition of tech founders including Ricardo Jacinto (Elecctro), Miguel Santo Amaro (Uniplaces), Pedro Ramalho Carlos (IP), and Pedro Santos Vieira (GoodGuide).

Since its inception, Shilling has been involved in successful investments in companies like Unbabel, Bizay, Uniplaces, and Best Tables, which was later acquired by TripADvisor.

Founder-Friendly Approach

Hugo Gonçalves Pereira, founder of Shilling, highlighted the firm’s commitment to a founder-friendly investment process. He stated that ventures in their pre-seed program can receive funding within 30 days of the initial contact.

Lisbon’s Growing Tech Scene

This launch occurs as Lisbon, Portugal, is rapidly emerging as a significant tech hub, as previously noted in an Extra Crunch survey.

Other Key VCs in Portugal

Indico Capital Partners, Faber, Armilar Venture Partners, Tocha, and Portugal Ventures are also prominent venture capital firms operating within the country.