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Sonae IM invests in Portfolio Expansion

December 2016 SONAE Sonae IM invests in Portfolio Expansion Sonaecom, SGPS, S.A. (“Sonaecom”) announces that, on this date, its affiliate Sonae Investment Management – Software and Technology, SGPS, S.A. (“Sonae IM”), has reached an agreement with NOVO BANCO, S.A., and its subsidiary ES TECH VENTURES, SGPS, S.A., to be the leading investor in a transaction involving the acquisition of the participation units in 3 venture capital funds from Novo Banco: Fundo de Capital de Risco Espírito Santo Ventures Inovação e Internacionalização (ESV I + I); FCR - Espírito Santo Ventures II (ESV II) and Fundo de Capital de Risco Espírito Santo Ventures III (ESV III). The completion of this agreement is conditional, inter alia, upon the necessary legal and/or regulatory approvals, namely from the Banco de Portugal. With this transaction Sonae IM will reinforce its portfolio namely through sizeable stakes in leading edge companies such as Outsystems and Feedzai, both...
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By SONAE

Google Fund invests 1.6 million euros in Portugal

November 2016 SONAE Google Fund invests 1.6 million euros in Portugal Google invests again in a second support round through the Innovation Fund “Digital News Initiative”. With the DNI, Google had pledged itself to spend 50 million euros a year, during three years, in the modernization of the European media — empowering them in the areas of new products, investigation and formation. In the first round there had been attributed a financing of 27 million euros, summed with the announced values in the second round (24 million euros available for 124 projects of social communication, in all Europe), the DNI fund already distributed 51 million euros in which the considered criteria to select the winners were on impact, innovation and viability. In Portugal, were attributed 1.58 million euros to six Portuguese projects of digital journalism, among which the Plataforma de Meios Privados (900 thousand euros), an association of private media...
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Was it as good for you as it was for me?

November 2016 SONAE Was it as good for you as it was for me? “Sábado” evaluated the real impact of the Web Summit and, to that end, it spoke with some of the companies that attended the summit, namely us as Sonae IM. Between pitches, visit cards, new connections and meetings, the event was a great success, and the recipe was simple: joining entrepreneurs and investors in a big bowl (Meo arena and FIL). This was a tremendous opportunity for the Portuguese entrepreneurial environment, and many Portuguese startups and investors acquired a special relevance and acknowledgment from big companies and other players in the overseas. For us as Sonae IM the opportunity to be in contact with all these tech companies and startups (1.490+) made us one step closer to our objective as Alexandre Santos says in an interview to “Sábado”: “Alexandre Teixeira dos Santos, Director of Portfolio Development at...
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By SONAE

Pixels Camp is not over! It has just begun!

October 2016 SONAE Pixels Camp is not over! It has just begun! The first edition of Pixels Camp ended with a blast this Saturday (8th of October) - more than 50 projects were on stage showing their worth and 10 were awarded prizes by the juri… and this is just the beginning… Pixels Camp is here to stay! We were proud to be a part of the event, namely by having the opportunity of sharing our CEO’s views on the Portuguese Tech Scene in the opening keynote of this first edition of Pixels Camp. It goes without saying that we, at Sonae IM, believe that this event is key to foster a deep link with talent in the tech world. Therefore, we want Pixels Camp to grow next year and reach even more people! To become more international and a reference in Europe. We will be working with Bright Pixel...
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By SONAE

Pixels Camp is coming!

October 2016 SONAE Pixels Camp is coming! A 3 DAYS OF NON-STOP TECH, TALKS, WORKSHOPS AND A 48 HOUR PROGRAMMING COMPETITION! We are all excited and set to be a part of this great event! Check out the agenda! Check out the Press Release!
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By SONAE

The value added of a crystal ball

October 2016 SONAE The value added of a crystal ball Do you know what we did this summer? When everybody was already packing to go on vacations, we managed to close our 4th investment this year in InovRetail, a retail technology company. InovRetail is based in Porto and was founded by a team of IT consultants for retail that added another bunch of experts in areas like software development and data science. The end result? Well, you have a complete set of data-driven solutions focused on improving the customer experience and operations in-store. They leveraged on their retail expertise to collect and analyse store data that could improve revenues and optimize operations. By data I mean anything that can be measured: sales, stocks, store temperature, products displayed, even music loudness and store humidity. From this, they were able to bootstrap and launch another range of complementary products. The most relevant...
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Several key moments in 16 years of history

September 2016 SONAE Several key moments in 16 years of history In 2000, Saphety was totally different from what it is today. During this period, there were mergers, acquisitions, the creation of new business units and respective product development. Also, some segments were discontinued as its interest decreased – in the light of company’s strategic focus – and the company began its internationalization. Over time, Saphety had several key moments that determined its course, especially in the last six years. The acquisition of Softlimits “electronic markets” business area in 2010 was the turning point, which completely transformed Saphety’s strategy. The company then decided to clearly focus on Electronic Document Exchange and Electronic Invoicing, by replacing the already implemented base by the new product. This was a project estimated for six months that ended up being completed pursuant to customer’s needs. Rui Fontoura, Saphety’s CEO, says it was a bold decision...
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The real difference between normal and corporate Venture Capitals

June 2016 SONAE The real difference between normal and corporate Venture Capitals This is the first part of a 3-part blog post called “The real difference between normal and corporate Venture Capitals”. One of the questions we get asked a lot when we meet entrepreneurs as well as other VC’s is “What is a Corporate VC? In what ways do you differ from the regular ones?” Venture Capital firms span a wide range. They go from regular firms, where the partners raise funds from institutions such as pension funds, banks, university endowments or family offices, to corporate VC’s, where large corporations set aside a certain amount of cash to invest in start-ups and scale-ups in different phases of their development for a number of reasons, one of them being, that they don’t want to miss the boat on the next big thing. The truth is that there are advantages and...
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By SONAE

Back to School

May 2016 SONAE Back to School Here at Sonae IM, we are very close to the entrepreneurial ecosystem and follow, on a daily basis, the emergence and development of the next generation of companies. In a way, it is a lot like what happens in the education sector from a teachers’ perspective – he also follows the development of the student’s next generation. During the last 20 years we witnessed so many tens of transformations and still our education system looks yet the same. Many cross-industry big buzz words like big data, mobile, customer-centrism and so on, are yet to enter our education systems. Take the shocking example of college students who are still forced to choose among a restricted set of bundled courses with barely static programs with no saying over their learning path. Besides the limitations this brings, in terms of individual development, it also has repercussions on...
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By SONAE

ScaleUp for Europe is coming to Porto, buckle up!

May 2016 SONAE ScaleUp for Europe is coming to Porto, buckle up! Did you ever feel you might have an interesting technological concept, a very strong team, the perfect business model, grab your first customers, and even managed to raise capital, but somehow it seems your business isn’t growing as much as you would expect or you aren’t sure of which next steps to take, in order to scale? We, at Sonae IM, know (from our own experience) that one thing is to create a business and prove a concept, but an entirely different thing is actually to grow and sustainably scale the business, without letting your company die in the middle of the process. It is hard, definitely hard. One day you’re working with a small team, taking the first steps in your brand new business, and in the next day you’re suddenly overwhelmed with a list of management...
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