The Venture Capital industry, acting as an efficient resource allocation tool, is fundamental to promote economic development and to open new horizons for innovation and to establish Europe as a global platform for the harness and transfer of knowledge. However, despite the creation of the European Single Market more than two decades ago, the VC industry remains highly fragmented and there have not been solutions to foster capital market integration. Read more

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Newsletter #14, 11th May, 2012
e-Teams III @MIT Sloan 3 Weeks to deadline!
2nd Ed Finalist's - MediaOmics, All Desk, IS Deadline: 31st May – 24H00 GMT
Green, Musikki, Honorable Mentions - Alpha SIP,
Watt IS and Go-to-Market wizards - Actual SUN Submit your project now.
and Metablue, just returned from an immersive trip
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Now you have up to 3 weeks to send
us your application.
You too can be part of the Alumni
group that day by day continually
increases the value of their start-ups
and teams:
2 Weeks of intensive networking, business
development and value proposition validation took  €7,0 million in investment
place at Sloan with focused events at CIC,
Masschallenge, Startup Clinic, Ideastream,  72 jobs created
International Showcase event, Dogpatch, among
others. Teams focused on strategies on de-  4 start-ups with international
risking, building an advisory board, building a delegations
team and a compensation package. The feedback
from guests’ speakers, investors and potential
partners was very encouraging! Being one of the 20 selected teams
A special thanks to all the speakers involved in really depends on your effort!
this uniquely developed bootcamp by our co-
organisers, Charles Cooney, Leon Sandler, Bill
Aulet, José Estabil, Luis Barros and Flavia ____________________________________
Cardarelli.
Wi-GO wins Imagine Cup 2012 in Portugal The role of a dynamic Venture Capital eco-system
in creating economic value
2nd ed. Honorable Mention (P&S), By José Furtado
won the Imagine Cup 2012 in Portugal. They now
qaulify for the finale in Sydney, 6-10th July with Board Member Caixa Capital and International Venture Club
other candidates from 182 countries. Good luck!
The Venture Capital industry, acting as an efficient resource
allocation tool, is fundamental to promote economic development
and to open new horizons for innovation and to establish Europe as
a global platform for the harness and transfer of knowledge.
The Microsoft Imagine Cup is the world’s premier
However, despite the creation of the European Single Market more
student technology competition, aiming at than two decades ago, the VC industry remains highly fragmented
Imagining a world where technology helps solve and there have not been solutions to foster capital market
the toughest problems. integration. As the EU Council itself recently recognized, it is

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necessary to address such a key issue and alleviate several barriers
to cross-border operations. This fragmentation, although a natural
result from the uniqueness of each country, is also partly due to the
transaction costs that the national players come across when
expanding outside their regions and areas of expertise.
Building Global Innovators advancing The current crisis creates opportunities for new high growth
Commercialization standards with ICA investments and is signaling the need to find creative solutions to
support the promising entrepreneurial pool that continues to
Building Global Innovators was part of an expert strengthen all over Europe. The turmoil brought on by the sovereign
group at ICF bringing together worldwide debt crisis, however, has also created significant difficulties in
innovators engaged in focused sessions on fundraising for VC operators across Europe, as large institutions are
exemplary practices in commercializing research
short-term biased and risk-averse. As a result, we are likely to face a
results and evidence-based effective innovation
models. more sustainable trend regarding the sources of funding allocation
for this industry, with a more substantial decrease in the willingness
of private investors such as pension and endowment funds to invest.
Given the difficulties to ensure long-term sustainable funding, it is
increasingly important to strengthen relationships within the industry
and with potential investors who are continuously looking for new
investments and opportunities to diversify the assets classes of their
portfolios.
In Portugal, there is a firm commitment to direct our economy toward
Watch the summary video of the event. more knowledge based industries with a greater focus on
entrepreneurship, with the capacity to compete in the global market
Forbes: Top Startup Incubators And place and regain the path to higher economic growth. Given its
Accelerators ambitions, Portugal faces major challenges in developing a robust
Incubators have become an increasingly important ecosystem supporting innovation and entrepreneurship, enhancing
part of the tech startup scene in recent years. A the capabilities and availability of all actors involved within the
number of hot startups have emerged from these educational, scientific, technological, business and financial
programs, encouraging more new entrepreneurs environment.
to apply.
The main goal should be to generate a value channel of ideas to the
market, leading to new and fascinating technologies and
entrepreneurial endeavors ready to embrace the world. To do this,
They’ve become so popular that about one however, it is fundamental that Portuguese start-ups and early stage
accelerator a day launches these days, says ventures gain access to international funding and markets so as to
David Cohen, head of TechStars. Not only are achieve global scale and reach their true potential. It is also
they popping up in many cities, but also in specific important to encourage and support top tier venture investors with
verticals, such as education. Read more. multi-local internationalization strategies to expand their investment
activities outside their natural markets, namely through a regular
presence in Portugal.
Energy Night, save the date to an exciting
event Caixa Capital, as part of the CGD Group, is focused on developing a
pragmatic collaborative platform that greatly facilitates transnational
Energy Night Portugal is an exciting event aiming access to co-investors, investee companies, funding and industrial
at energy enthusiasts to share the most exciting partners. This is the rationale that inspired it last year, when it took
research emerging from Portugal eco-system. the initiative to invite some of the most successful smart fund
managers and corporate, to launch the International Venture Club
(iVC) in Lisbon, as a Pan-European operational alliance of direct
venture capital investors.
Professionals from industry, companies, start-ups, The iVC’s mission is to promote the venture investment activities of
universities, research institutions and general

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public are invited to attend and share their results its members, optimize access to capital and bring growth to their
next 1st June, 18h30. Free upon registration. portfolios, through partnering, co-investing or promoting international
exits. The members are committed to working together, promoting
cross border investments, gathering financial and venture investors,
The Next Big Idea – What’s yours?
sharing experiences and opportunities, and establishing bridges to
different capital market platforms and trade sale markets.
Do you have a great idea? For a company, a
social initiative, a research or creative project? On
May 16th SIC will listen to it and the most At the same time, Caixa Capital also participated in the launch of the
promising ones will join a mentoring program. European Venture Fund Investors Network (EVFIN), gathering the
They will be featured at The Next Big Idea, SIC most active fund of funds operators in Europe. EVFIN aims to
Notícias TV show (Portuguese TV channel). facilitate cooperation, with one of its main projects being the creation
Registrations on Facebook. Ends May 14th. of a European-wide Fund of Funds. The goal is to establish the
ground work for a pan-European market platform that will be
available to any certified VC in Europe who has the intention to cover
new regions.
Based on both complementary networks, and the CGD Group’s
relationship with the EIF as well as local public and private
institutional partners, it is now promoting a Venture Capital Hub,
LABS Lisboa starts off aiming to be a catalyst to scale-up start-up companies with an
innovative high -growth value proposition. The Venture Capital Hub
LABS – Innovation Incubator of Lisbon just will contribute to enhance the Portuguese VC market by increasing
launched a 2.000 m2 incubator in the heart of the the supply side of smart capital to finance venture initiatives and exit
University of Lisbon campus. Managed by Audax, routes, the transfer of best practices and specialized know how, and
the centre for entrepreneurship. the international networking and visibility. This represents a good
opportunity to bring together our international partners and the
Portuguese community involved in the private equity and venture
capital arena.
Check our site for new great job offers here The Venture Capital Hub, supported by local main players, will offer
to international VCs operational support by means of introduction
into the local ecosystem, shared human resources, pipeline of
Save the Dates – update your calendar now: investment opportunities, premises and logistics, as well as direct
co-investment into venture deals and prospects for institutional
15.05.2012 MIT $100K Finale investment in their funds.
15-17.05.2012 Google AdAdwords course
16.05.2012 Beta talk@Braga It is up to the key players within this environment to create strong
17.05.2012 Entrepreneurs Coffee Break
@ ISEG
cross border liaisons among financial investors, venture investors,
21-23.05.2012 BioMed Israel 2012 universities, public agencies, and entrepreneurs, inducing a true
23-25.05.2012 Genera 2012 – Brokerage economic network that can effectively provide noteworthy added
event in energy & value contributions. Only this way can we create an effective market
environment for state of the art entrepreneurial activities and innovation in
24.05.2012 TCN UpStart Roundtable Portugal.
01.06.2012 Energy Night 2012
7-8.06.2012 Open Innovation Forum:
Design meets Technology The Organization wishes to thank José Furtado for his contribution to the current
Newsletter issue with this opinion article.
More events around Europe? Here
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