The Portuguese Venture Capital Association (APCRI) praised Banco Português de Fomento (BPF) for following the “good practices” in the Consolidar program, of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), the leader Martim Avillez Figueiredo told Lusa.
In this Consolidar program, which is the first to follow good international practices in all the countries of the Western world, in my opinion and in the opinion of APCRI, the Development Bank did everything as it is done in these countries,” Martim told Lusa. . Avillez Figueiredo, from the association’s board.
The official spoke about the Consolidar program, the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), which has 250 million euros for the consolidation of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and its expansion into new business areas.
APCRI assured Banco de Fomento this week that the national venture capital industry is ready to invest the millions of private capital needed to fully implement the Consolidar program.
According to APCRI, its members “mobilized, through 33 applications, capital above the 30% necessary for the private counterpart“.
For Martim Avillez Figueiredo, the banking institution headed by Beatriz Freitas “called the entire industry and listened, realized exactly what the needs are, what the criteria are for venture capital and the success that it demonstrates and uses its instruments with private capital, and tried to understand reality well.”
According to the head of the direction chaired by Luís Santos Carvalho, the program also complies with the “peculiarities of the portuguese economy” way out of the Covid-19 pandemic, and its consequences on companies.
Thus, Consolidar, according to the head of APCRI, targets companies “without defined sectors”, but with “defined criteria”: “companies that have been impacted by Covid but have economic viability.”
Martim Avillez Figueiredo did not mention the names of the companies, especially since the investments are not yet closed, but he recalled that the venture capital funds, in Portugal, “invest in the industry”, in the “technology industry”, a “manufacturing industry” and in “sightseeing“.
“Only with venture capital funds, with private investment funds, interested in investing, does public money arrive. And the choice of these investments corresponds to the management companies“, he said, explaining that Consolidar is designed so that there is only “public money when there is private money”.
As for an upcoming tender in the sector also announced by the bank, according to APCRI, it is already aimed at companies that “are no longer the objective of the Consolidar program”, but “all those that are not SMEs impacted by covid, but economically viable”, such as “‘startups’, companies at the beginning of life”.
“Here, once again, the Banco de Fomento listened to the industry, and well understood the criteria that the industry prioritizes, its investments in ‘venture capital’ [capital de risco para startups]and what are the variables that you consider most important in the selection, in the follow-up, and if we want triggers of this intervention in these companies”, he detailed.
Asked about a possible setback, the director of APCRI ruled out changes in direction, stating that “the venture capital industry in Portugal is now a more mature industry, after those times when there were very few funds.”
Source: Observadora
