Indico launches Fund III with €125 million

Indico Capital Partners, a Portuguese venture capital company that manages five funds, has lunched a new fund VC Fund III with €125 million.

In an interview with Jornal Económico, co-founder Stephan de Morais said that the fund had already secured an upfront commitment of €30 million from the European Investment Fund and would attract the remaining €90 million from investors.

The founder of the fund management company that has contributed to the growth of several leading technology companies in southern Europe, including four unicorns, said that “you don’t need thousands of startups to create a unicorn”.

“We expect to raise this amount [€125 million] within about two and a half years with the support of our current investor base, as well as new public and private institutions in the fund’s three target countries.”

He also announced a new development: “By the end of the year, we will also be accepting SIFIDE investors up to a limit of €12.5 million, as this is the last year for indirect SIFIDE funding”.

SIFIDE stands for Sistema de Incentivos Fiscais à Investigação e Desenvolvimento Empresarial (Tax Incentive System for Business Research and Development). It is a tax benefit in Portugal that allows companies to deduct part of their R&D expenses from the collection of IRC (Corporate Income Tax), promoting investment in innovation and competitiveness. Companies can recover up to 82.5% of eligible costs through a deduction that can be carried forward to subsequent years if the tax payable is less than the benefit.