Top 10 Most Valuable Unicorns in Portugal 2022
Nothing sounds more exciting than becoming a part of the phenomena of starting a business that one day might achieve a valuation of $1,000,000,000 or, in other words, develop from first seed investment to eventual Unicorn status. Portugal is a hotspot in Europe for investors and entrepreneurs looking to launch something fresh and unique in the global market. Since early 2015, the country has seen continuous growth in technology and new platforms, attracting European and global attention, thanks to a roster of attractive startups and unicorns including Unbabel, Outsystems, Talkdesk, Farfetch, and Sensei.
Even with a global pandemic still looming, the confidence about Portugal’s vibrant startup environment hasn’t died down in 2022. Several online and other activities have been organised to promote the idea that Portugal, notably Lisbon, is the European Silicon Valley. The country is always seeking ways to invest in and collaborate with initiatives that will attract young, brilliant, and varied people to work and reside in Lisbon, or even throughout Portugal.
Even though the Mediterranean climate is an influential positive for most residents, with an average of 300 days of sunlight, it’s the opportunity to invest that’s drawing people in from all over the world. It could be a big company, a new or current startup, or a potential unicorn company. Not only is the amount of these opportunities growing, but so is the quality of what Portugal has to offer to those entrepreneurs conditioned to believe and establish themselves.
It’s no surprise that Lisbon, Portugal was named the European Green Capital of 2020 by the European Economic Association (EAA). But Europeans aren’t the only ones who are thrilled by the small country’s rapid development, the rest of the world has taken notice of the gleam emanating from Europe’s south-western corner. The Mediterranean environment and way of life are appealing, but it is the promise of possibility and growth that keeps people coming to Portugal.
With an influx of ex-pats and migrants flocking to Portugal in search of a better life, establishing a business or startup to provide access to these opportunities has become increasingly enticing. So much so that major organisations like Google, Bose, Samsung, Nokia, and automobile manufacturers like Volkswagen and Mercedes Benz have relocated their innovation hubs to the country to take advantage of all of these new, mostly young, talented sources.
Hundreds of startups are launched in Portugal each year, with the common factor among their founders being the assumption that they have created the next great thing. According to research from Nationalbusinesscapital.com, only 78.5 per cent of new businesses survive the first year, with that number dropping to 30% if we look ahead ten years.
Farfetch was the first unicorn in Portugal in 2015, followed by OutSystems and Talkdesk in 2018, then Feedzai, Remote, Sword Health, and Anchorage Digital in 2021. When compared to unicorns from neighbouring countries, Spain, Italy, and Greece, this data is even more incredible. The cumulative value of these seven Portuguese unicorns is believed to be almost 15% of the country’s GDP.
Over the last several years, Portugal has converted into a startup hub with several notable unicorns, thanks to a large part of government-backed and private-sector efforts like Startup Portugal, a self-described ‘one-stop-shop’ for all your problems, wants, and interests about ‘how-to’ establish a business in Portugal. Portugal Startups is a news site dedicated to the newest trends and innovations in the country’s development. Startup Lisboa is a private-sector non-profit organisation that provides a support system for entrepreneurs along with a community built on knowledge and sharing.
EIC Pilot is a large endeavour spearheaded by a council of EEA members to accelerate the launch of excellent unicorns and startup concepts. Although tourism, hospitality, and service centres are the most common sources of employment, telecommunications, real estate, aerospace, IT, programming, and biotechnology are also viable options for upcoming startups in Portugal.
These are the Most Valuable Unicorns in Portugal in 2022.
1. Sword Health
Sector- Digital Health, E-health and Healthcare
Products & Services- Digital Therapeutics
Founders- Ivo Gabriel, Virgilio Bento, Marcio Colunas and Andre Eiras Dos Santos
Date Of Starting- 2015
Geographical Range- Europe and US
Company Stage- Series D
Number of Investors- 27
Key Investors- Sapphire Ventures, Founders Fund, General Catalyst Partners and Khosla Ventures
Funding Rounds- 7
Total Funding Amount- $ 295 Million
Valuation- $ 2 Billion
Based in Portugal, SWORD Health is a digital health company that specialises in physical therapy. It was founded in 2013 to use technology to give physical rehabilitation to people all around the world. The unicorn was named one of Europe’s most innovative startups by the European Commission in 2015, resulting in a nearly one-million-euro grant from the Horizon 2020 programme for research and innovation to additionally design SWORD Phoenix, its medical technology solution. The firm is a digital therapeutics provider for physical rehabilitation.
SWORD Phoenix is a technology developed by SWORD Health that combines portable motion sensors with strong software to provide a cost-effective rehabilitation solution. Pain prevention, acute problems, chronic pain, and post-surgical recovery are all covered by the programmes. Patients are also paired with physical therapists for counselling through the site. As a result, SWORD Phoenix is currently being tested in several institutions in Portugal, China, the United States, and Sweden, as well as being commercialised in the EU as medical equipment with CE Marking.
This unicorn is the world’s fastest-growing virtual musculoskeletal (MSK) care provider, on a mission to relieve chronic and post-surgical pain for two billion individuals. Expert physical therapists and FDA-listed wearable technology are combined in the company’s clinical-grade virtual therapy platform to create a personalised treatment plan that is more effective, easier, and less expensive than traditional physical therapy. The startup thinks that patients can heal at home without the use of imaging, surgery, or narcotics.
It has worked with insurers, health systems, and businesses in the United States, Europe, and Australia since its start in 2015 to make quality physical therapy more accessible to everyone. New York City, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Sydney, and Porto are all SWORD Health locations. The unicorn is a healthcare organisation that specialises in virtual and digital physical therapy. The unicorn business valued at $2 billion in November 2021, was founded in Portugal in 2015 by Virgilio Bento and Márcio Colunas.
SWORD Health Professionals provides clinical services through a group of independently owned professional practices. It pairs members with a Doctor of Physical Therapy who diagnoses issues, develops a treatment plan that evolves as they progress, educates, and trains them for long-term transformation. The company’s FDA-listed Digital Therapist walks customers through a custom-designed exercise programme, provides real-time feedback, and corrects their form, all while being monitored online by their physical therapist.
SWORD Health has a mobile app that assists participants in making long-term adjustments. Members utilise the mobile app to communicate with their physical therapist, learn more about their condition, and engage in guided cognitive behavioural therapy sessions. The firm has already formed alliances with several leading rehabilitation centres in Europe and the United States. The company has teamed with Genesis Rehab Services, one of the leading rehabilitation chains in the United States, for the latter.
Bond, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Green Innovations, Khosla Ventures, LocalGlobe, Sapphire Ventures, Sozo Ventures, Transformation Capital, and Willoughby Capital invested $163 million in the unicorn on November 22, 2021. It is a corporation that provides physical and digital therapeutic services. SWORD Health Professionals is a group of independently owned professional practises that includes Sword Health Care Providers, P.A., SWORD Health Care Providers of NJ, P.C., and SWORD Health Care Physical Therapy Providers of CA, P.C.
2. SaltPay
Sector- Financial Technology
Products & Services- Financial Services and Online Payment Processing Services
Founder- Eduardo Pontes
Date Of Starting- 2019
Geographical Range- Global
Company Stage- Series C
Number of Investors- 7
Key Investors- IP Group, Tiger Global Management, Glynn Capital and Hedosophia
Funding Rounds- 4
Total Funding Amount- $ 845 Million
Valuation- $ 1 Billion
SaltPay is a payment service and software unicorn startup that helps small businesses automate and develop by providing them with the tools they need. Based in Portugal, SaltPay is a FinTech business focused on helping retailers achieve a brighter future by providing payment and administration tools. It assists retailers in growing by focusing on efficiency, technology, and people. The unicorn develops payment acceptance technology and helps merchants leverage the power of smart terminals and integrations at the point of sale.
For enterprises, an online payment processing solution is available. It enables companies to take online payments through a variety of methods, including NFC-enabled contactless payments, POS payment terminals, payment link solutions, and more. The unicorn offers a loyalty programme solution to businesses that want to keep their customers loyal by offering prizes and cashback. It also provides local services including bill payment, smartphone recharges, and digital wallet top-ups, among other things.
SaltPay was formed in 2019 to provide small and medium-sized businesses with affordable, fast, and secure payment solutions to help them better manage and grow their operations. Small businesses, which are taken for granted by banks and traditional service providers, have had a particularly difficult time obtaining the financial services and software they require. It seeks to alleviate small businesses’ operational pains by developing technology that automates many of the activities they face today.
The unicorn is a pan-European company with a global footprint. Its global reach is growing every day, with over 1,500 employees in 12 countries. It also provides a variety of other services and software to worldwide FinTechs, payment providers, banks, and MNOs, including issuer payment processing, cloud-native payments, and company management Software-as-a-Service. Tax-free, currency conversion, instalment payments, and safe payments for orders conducted over the phone are also available.
Salt Pay, which was founded in 2019, is establishing a payments company that it defines as “different.” The unicorn startup provides SMEs with an ecosystem of quick services to help them automate their operations and increase earnings. It helps them on board in minutes (rather than days) and offers a personalised experience. Inventory and order management, appointment scheduling, and business performance tracking are all included. The firm, which has grown to approximately 200 workers, has received around €136 million in total, with the most recent round taking place in November 2020.
The unicorn wants to provide its customers with the greatest tools possible to help them expand by attracting new visitors and keeping them coming back. Customer loyalty, marketing efforts, and customer behaviour tracking are all important factors that it considers. It believes in establishing long-term partnerships with the clients. It helps the clients, whether it’s the field agents assisting them in selecting the perfect product for their company needs, its logistics team assisting them with quick onboarding, or its customer relations team assisting them in getting the most out of the solutions.
3. Talkdesk
Sector- Saas and Artificial Intelligence
Products & Services- Software Solutions
Founder- Tiago Paiva
Date Of Starting- 2011
Geographical Range- Global
Company Stage- Series D
Number of Investors- 23
Key Investors- Franklin Templeton Investments, Salesforce, DFJ and Lead Edge Capital
Funding Rounds- 8
Total Funding Amount- $ 501 Million
Valuation- $ 10 Billion
Talkdesk was founded in Lisbon, Portugal in 2011. The unicorn company offers a cloud-based call centre solution for businesses that includes an algorithm that finds information on callers to assist their clients in maximising customer satisfaction. It is now headquartered in San Francisco and employs roughly 2500 people. While Talkdesk sells to a wide range of businesses, it has focused its contact centre as a service (CCaaS) solution on the financial services & insurance, retail & e-commerce, healthcare & life sciences, travel & hospitality, and public sector industries.
It is a call centre and artificial intelligence software company that operates in the cloud. Talkdesk is the world’s leading cloud contact centre for customer-focused businesses. The startup’s automation-first customer experience solutions help its clients improve their most important customer service processes. Its commitment to ensuring that businesses can deliver better experiences across any industry and through every channel, resulting in higher customer happiness and faster business outcomes, is shown in its pace of innovation, vertical knowledge, and worldwide footprint.
Cristina Fonseca and Tiago Paiva created Talkdesk in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2011. The unicorn startup is an omnichannel contact centre software on a cloud-based platform. For optimising customer experiences, the platform provides solutions for engaging customers via real-time support across numerous channels. Workforce management, omnichannel communication and experiences, customer experience analytics, and other solutions are available through the platform. It is based on AI technology and operates on a subscription basis.
The company had almost 1,000 employees by 2019, and its headquarters are now in San Francisco, California. The startup had grown to 2,000 people by 2021. It has largely supported its expansion through successive investment rounds, and because it is privately held, it does not disclose revenue figures. IBM, Acxiom, Hunter Douglas, and Trivago are among its top 1,800 customers as of 2021. Their most recent investment round, Series C, provided them with 143 million dollars, bringing their total capital to 267.5 million dollars raised over seven rounds.
Salesforce, Zendesk, Slack, Microsoft Teams, ServiceNow, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and a variety of other systems are all integrated through its services. The unicorn had stated in November 2020 that it would use BICS to supply cloud numbers and SIP Trunking to its customers. It was recognised by Forbes Cloud 100 in 2021 for its achievements. The startup was even named to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CCaaS in 2021.
4. Farfetch
Sector- E-commerce, Fashion and Lifestyle
Products & Services- Fashion Apparel and Accessories
Founder- Jose Neves
Date Of Starting- 2007
Geographical Range- Global
Company Stage- Public
Number of Investors- 36
Key Investors- Tencent, Temasek, Industry Ventures and Index Ventures
Funding Rounds- 15
Total Funding Amount- $ 709 Million
Valuation- $ 1.6 Billion
With over 700 stores and brands across the world, Farfetch is a British-Portuguese online luxury fashion retailer. José Neves, a Portuguese entrepreneur, launched the unicorn company in 2007, with headquarters in London and significant operations in Lisbon and Porto in Portugal. Guimares, Braga, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, So Paulo, Dubai, New Delhi, and Moscow are among the company’s many offices around the world.
Designers’ multi-category fashion products are sold online on its platform. Men, women, and children are all catered to by the company. Apparel, bags, shoes, jewellery, and other items are among the startup’s offerings. Its mobile app is accessible for both Android and iOS devices. Farfetch’s in-house fashion brand, There Was One, debuted in October 2021. The unicorn startup receives over 10 million monthly site visitors and ships to consumers in nearly 190 countries. Annual retail sales on the Farfetch site exceeded £167 million as of September 2020.
José Neves, a Portuguese programmer with a passion for fashion, created Farfetch in Portugal in 2007 with its headquarters now in London. It provides luxury fashion retail companies and boutiques with an online e-commerce platform. Farfetch currently employs 4500 people and has operations in 45 cities. It also has over 700 brands and boutiques to choose from. The unicorn is currently post-IPO and has raised 1.6 billion dollars in 12 fundraising rounds.
Browns and Stadium Goods, which sell luxury goods to customers, and New Guards Group, a platform for the development of global fashion brands, are among its other enterprises. Under its Luxury New Retail project, the unicorn startup offers the luxury business a wide range of consumer-facing channels and enterprise-level solutions. Farfetch Platform Solutions, which provides enterprise clients with e-commerce and digital capabilities, as well as in-store innovations like the Farfetch Connected Retail suite of technology products, are part of the Luxury New Retail programme.
Browns, a London boutique retailer, was acquired by Farfetch in May 2015. CEO Holli Rogers, who joined the company in July 2015, runs this boutique independently of Farfetch. Rogers was the former fashion director of Net-A-Porter, an online store. Farfetch also paid $250 million for online sneaker marketplace Stadium Goods in December 2018 to acquire it. Farfetch and JD.com agreed to merge their Chinese businesses in February 2019. The unicorn startup paid US$675 million for New Guards Group, the parent company of the Off-White designer label, in August 2019.
In 2015, Farfetch launched the Farfetch Black & White and Store of the Future business segments. Farfetch was also named a Unicorn firm in May 2015, according to Private Eye. The company went public in September 2018. In English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, German, Portuguese, Korean, Italian, and Russian, the e-commerce corporation runs local-language websites and mobile apps for worldwide markets. Farfetch has 14 locations and employs approximately 4,500 people. José Neves established Farfetch in 2007.
5. OutSystems
Sector- Software Development and Enterprise Software
Products & Services- Application Development
Founder- Paulo Rosado
Date Of Starting- 2001
Geographical Range- Global
Company Stage- Series D
Number of Investors- 14
Key Investors- CPP Investments, General Atlantic, North Bridge and KKR
Funding Rounds- 7
Total Funding Amount- $ 572 Million
Valuation- $ 9.5 Billion
OutSystems is a low-code platform that allows businesses to create, deploy, and manage multichannel enterprise apps. The unicorn company was formed in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2001. It can deliver solutions in the public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises environments. Case and business process management, legacy modernisation, and other capabilities are included in the solution.
Thousands of customers around the world rely on OutSystems, a contemporary application platform that enables businesses of all sizes to tackle any essential application, from legacy modernization to workplace innovation to customer experience transformation. Customers can build apps fast, build them right, and build them for the future using the services of this platform. Vodafone, Intel, FICO, HONDA, AXA, Mercedes Benz, and others are among the company’s clientele.
Paulo Rosado started Outsystems in Lisbon, Portugal in 2001. Its platform was designed to give Enterprise clients the tools they need to develop, deploy, and manage their apps. The unicorn has operations in 11 cities and is currently headquartered in Boston. It released a free version of the platform in 2014, allowing developers to construct and deploy web and mobile applications in their cloud environments. The most recent version is 11, which is available in both paid and free versions.
Every component of the OutSystems platform was designed with obsessive attention to detail to help enterprises build enterprise-grade apps and transform their businesses faster. This unicorn’s the only platform that combines the power of little coding with powerful mobile capabilities, allowing for the visual development of complete application portfolios that interact seamlessly with current systems. Thi unicorn startup is a platform for developing low-code applications.
The startup is a low-code platform for building mobile and online enterprise apps that can run in the cloud, on-premises, or a hybrid environment. OutSystems is a member of the IT Software Quality Consortium. OutSystems became a Unicorn in June 2018 after receiving $360 million in capital from KKR and Goldman Sachs. OutSystems secured $150 million in a round co-led by Abdiel Capital and Tiger Global Management in February 2021, for a total valuation of $9.5 billion. Their most recent funding round (Series E) supplied them with $150 million, bringing their total investment to 572.1 million dollars through seven funding rounds.
6. Feedzai
Sector- Information Technology, Financial Technology and Artificial Intelligence
Products & Services- Financial Services and Cloud-based Fraud Prevention Services
Founders- Patricia Kemp, Joaquim Rodrigues, Nuno Sebastiao and Keith Willey
Date Of Starting- 2009
Geographical Range- Global
Company Stage- Series D
Number of Investors- 22
Key Investors- KKR, Citi, Sapphire Ventures and Data Collective
Funding Rounds- 6
Total Funding Amount- $ 282 Million
Valuation- $ 1.6 Billion
Feedzai is a data science unicorn specialising in omnichannel fraud detection. The company based in Portugal, analyses large data in real-time using machine learning to identify fraudulent payment transactions and reduce risk in the financial industry. It’s fraud detection, data analytics, risk management, financial services, and a fintech platform that protects banking and commerce operations with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data. The headquarters of Feedzai is in Coimbra, Portugal and the United States in San Mateo, California, in Silicon Valley.
For a variety of industries, cloud-based fraud prevention solutions are available. It provides fraud detection with a minimal number of false positives. Its machine learning capabilities discover new fraudster methods in real-time, allowing it to halt fraudulent transactions before they occur, rather than waiting for semi-annual analytic model changes. It includes alert process management for manual review and disposition, reports, and fraud department performance KPI tracking. Profiles of users, cards, merchants, and scams in real-time and in the past are also detected.
Feedzai was founded in Coimbra, Portugal in 2008. It was founded to use AI and Machine Learning to fight financial crime and fraud. The unicorn currently employs over 500 people and has offices in six cities. The most recent investment round (Series D) provided the startup with 200 million dollars, bringing its total capital to 277.5 million dollars across seven rounds. In 190 countries, its technology protects 800 million people.
With today’s most powerful cloud-based risk management platform, backed by machine learning and artificial intelligence, Feedzai is the market leader in securing global trade. The unicorn startup is facilitating digital trust in every transaction and payment type while guaranteeing the transition to a cashless society. Feedzai is trusted by the world’s leading banks, processors, and retailers to protect trillions of dollars and control risk while improving the customer experience for everyday customers while maintaining privacy.
Feedzai is a data science unicorn that creates real-time machine learning technologies for the financial services, retail, and eCommerce industries to identify fraudulent money transactions and reduce risk. The unicorn began marketing its technology in Europe in 2011 when it was created. In 2014, it expanded to the United States. After a Series D fundraising round raised the company’s valuation above $1 billion in March 2021, it was classed as a unicorn. Fast Company highlighted the startup’s Fairbank technology in 2021.
Feedzai enables businesses to evaluate data precisely in real-time to keep their customers’ data and transactions safe. Customers utilise Feedzai’s software to lower the dangers of banking and shopping, whether in person, online or on mobile devices, by detecting fraud through extensive historical and behavioural analysis of the company’s data. According to Forbes, Feedzai handled $1 billion in total payments volume every day in February 2016.
It was just recognised as one of the top seven startup unicorns pioneering the big data game by harnessing data in novel ways by Entrepreneur Magazine. Forrester has also named the company and its services as one of the companies leading the next wave of machine learning. Feedzai was named a cool vendor by Gartner for its online fraud detection and operational intelligence systems. Feedzai is a Series D startup that has raised $282 million to far and is valued at well over $1.5 billion.
7. Remote
Sector- Human Resource and Software Development
Products & Services- HR Software Services
Founders- Nick Macario and Job Voort
Date Of Starting- 2019
Geographical Range- Europe and US
Company Stage- Series C
Number of Investors- 23
Key Investors- Accel, Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures and General Catalyst Partners
Funding Rounds- 4
Total Funding Amount- $ 496 Million
Valuation- $ 3 Billion
Remote is the newest of the Portuguese unicorns, having only been established two years ago. Job Van der Voort and Marcelo Lebre, a Portuguese engineer, designed it in Portugal. It now has roughly 220 people and is headquartered in San Francisco. It functions as an HR startup that assists with all aspects of remote employee recruitment. It is currently operable in 50 different countries. It offers HR software for dispersed teams that are hosted in the cloud. Job van der Voort, the cofounder of Remote, stated last year that he expects 40% of workers to continue in hybrid or entirely remote employment once the pandemic is over.
Remote unlocks the globe’s tremendous potential for every individual, business, and country, creating a world where everyone and everything belongs. Contractor management, employment, payroll, IP protection, and security & compliance are just a few of the functions available on the platform. It’s a tool with a subscription-based price structure. The unicorn makes it possible for businesses of all kinds to pay and manage full-time and contract employees all over the world. In 50+ countries, Remote makes it simple to manage foreign payroll, benefits, taxes, stock options, and compliance.
Its best-in-class global employment solutions give the finest experience for your staff no matter where they live or work. The unicorns’ industry-leading intellectual property protections and security guarantee provide you with peace of mind around the world. Remote never charges percentages or fees. Its modest flat pricing keeps your budget in check, allowing you to focus on expanding your business. Remote, an HR digital platform fueled by the shift to online employment, has raised a $150 million Series B round, making it the newest unicorn to be formed in Portugal.
Their most recent round, Series B, saw them receive 150 million dollars, bringing their total to 196 million dollars in barely two years and three rounds. Sequoia, Index Ventures, Two Sigma, General Catalyst, and Day One Ventures were among the investors in the round, which was led by Accel. It comes after Remote’s Series A round in November of last year, bringing the startup’s total funding to $196 million. Remote has witnessed a 65-fold rise in revenue in the last year. During that time, it has also hired 170 workers, increasing the total number of employees to 220.
This investment was made at a time when demand for Remote infrastructure technology is expanding due to the growing use of remote teams, which has resulted in a major increase in payroll administration complexity. Remote’s advising services will now encompass counselling on global benefits, capital incentive planning, visa and immigration support, staff relocation, and much more, according to the startup’s management. The unicorn was started in Portugal and is now headquartered in San Francisco.
Remote, which debuted in early 2020, is a platform that allows businesses to hire and pay people from anywhere in the globe, as well as handle international payroll, taxes, and immigration. Companies like Remote, which let firms hire workers from all over the world, are garnering investor support as the epidemic has shifted labour online. While there are no dedicated funds for future work firms in Europe, most sector-agnostic or SaaS-focused VC funds have one in their portfolio. The unicorn startup currently operates in 50 countries and wants to expand to 80 by 2022.
8. Anchorage Digital
Sector- Financial Technology and Cryptocurrency
Products & Services- Financial Services and Cryptocurrency Custodian Services
Founders- Diogo Monica and Nathan McCauley
Date Of Starting- 2017
Geographical Range- Global
Company Stage- Series D
Number of Investors- 35
Key Investors- KKR, Khosla Ventures, BlackRock and Visa
Funding Rounds- 4
Total Funding Amount- $ 487 Million
Valuation- $ 3 Billion
Portugal-based Anchorage Digital is a digital asset platform and infrastructure provider that specialises in bitcoin and cryptocurrency-related holding, investment, and infrastructure. It is the first federally chartered cryptocurrency bank, with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency giving its permission in 2021. Quorum-based approvals, behavioural analytics review, and hardware security modules are among its features (HSMs). It also provides online trading, staking, governance, and crypto-based financing services.
The unicorn startup is a digital asset custodian for financial institutions, including banks, venture capital firms, and fintech, as well as governments. The unicorn stores and secures cryptocurrency using biometric authentication and hardware security modules. It also offers digital asset loans and trading, as well as the infrastructure needed for businesses to develop bitcoin products. It allows users to collect staking and inflation yields, as well as vote on investment governance matters.
As the first federally licensed digital asset bank, Anchorage Digital makes it simple and secure for institutions to build products and get exposure to digital assets. The startup is the top partner for institutions and enterprises, with secure custody at its core. Anchorage provides financial solutions for the now and future. The unicorn now provides institutional custody and banking with the best of current security engineering. Anchorage is a company that provides businesses with cryptocurrency custodian services.
Anchorage Digital raised $350 million in a Series D investment round in December 2021, valuing the company at over $3 billion. Goldman Sachs, Andreessen Horowitz, Apollo credit funds, BlackRock funds and accounts, Blockchain Capital, GIC, Lux Capital, PayPal Ventures, Thoma Bravo, and Wellington Management were among the participants, led by global investment firm KKR. Stanley Druckenmiller, Kevin Warsh, Max Levchin, and Elad Gil are among its advisors.
Anchorage Digital was established in 2017 to increase institutional investment in digital assets. It began as a leader in digital asset custody, overcoming the problem of private key security, and has since expanded its capabilities to include Lending, Trading, Financing, Staking, and Governance, all of which are connected with secure, regulated custody. In January 2021, Anchorage Digital Bank changed from its South Dakota trust charter to earn the first federal banking charter for a digital bank in the US.
With the purchase of Merkle Data in 2020, Anchorage Digital made its first acquisition. Trading and lending services were offered the same year by the startup. Anchorage, the first cryptocurrency unicorn with a presence in Portugal, built an engineering campus in Porto in 2020. Anchorage Digital was valued at over $3 billion in December 2021, thanks to funding from KKR, Goldman Sachs, GIC (Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund), and Wellington Management.
9. Unbabel
Sector- Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing and Language Localisation
Products & Services- Translation Services
Founders- Joao Graca, Hugo Silva, Bruno Silva and Vasco Pedro
Date Of Starting- 2013
Geographical Range- Europe, Asia and USA
Company Stage- Series C
Number of Investors- 26
Key Investors- Scale Venture Partners, Greycroft, Salesforce Ventures and Headline
Funding Rounds- 5
Total Funding Amount- $ 91 Million
Valuation- $ 1.5 Billion
Portugal-based startup Unbabel is a translation tool powered by artificial intelligence. It breaks through language borders, permitting businesses to thrive across various cultures and boundaries. It has AI and human-powered translations, multilingual assistance, a single platform for managing customer service language operations, and integration with CRM and chats platforms. Microsoft and Logitech are among the unicorns’ clientele.
The firm’s language processing platform integrates advanced artificial intelligence with human editors to produce translations that are speedy, accurate, and of high quality that improve over time. Thanks to its seamless integration in any channel, agents may provide continuous multilingual assistance from inside their existing workflows. This unicorn startup is making it simple for businesses to expand into new markets and gain customer trust around the world.
Unbabel, which originated in Portugal with its headquarters now based in San Francisco, collaborates with top customer service teams at companies like Microsoft, Booking.com, Udemy, and Panasonic to help them interact smoothly with clients all around the globe, irrespective of the language they speak. The company now has over 100,000 registered translators on its website that provide translation services. It defines these workers as freelancers, claiming that it pays them online, into an Unbabel account, for each translation project they finish.
To set itself apart from other translation services, Unbabel blends Neural Machine Translation with machine learning and a crowdsourced approach. The unicorn specialises in customer service communication translation. Unbabel was named one of Y Combinator’s fastest-growing Seed stage firms in early 2015. Unbabel secured $5 million in late 2016 from Notion Capital and Caixa Capital as lead investors.
It is a business located in Lisbon that has developed a platform for translating customer support messages at scale by combining the speed of machine translation with the delicacy and knowledge of native (human) speakers and has raised $60 million in a Series C financing. Point72 Ventures led the investment, with e.ventures, Greycroft, and Indico Capital Partners joining in. In January 2018, the unicorn, which was formed in 2013, raised a $23 million Series B round. The current round takes the company’s total investment to $91 million.
Its current capital will be used to accelerate growth in the United States, Europe, and Asia, as well as to improve the capabilities of its AI, including the establishment of an artificial intelligence research facility in Pittsburgh, which was just announced. Every month, the startup translates approximately 1,000,000 customer service messages. Unbabel is a human translation platform powered by artificial intelligence. The company’s headquarters are in San Francisco, California, and Lisbon, Portugal.
Unbabel calls its method “AI augmentation” and “translation as a service,” implying that it combines machine translation’s speed and low cost with a layer of human expertise provided by a “global community” of human translators. The unicorns’ platform is used by over 150 business customers, mostly in the travel, high-tech, gaming, and e-commerce industries. It boasts cost savings of up to 76 per cent when compared to traditional translation processes, as well as higher client satisfaction.
10. Sensei
Sector- Software Development, Artificial Intelligence and Retail Technology
Products & Services- AI Solutions
Founders- Joana Rafael, Nuno Moutinho and Vasco Portugal
Date Of Starting- 2015
Geographical Range- Europe
Company Stage- Seed
Number of Investors- 10
Key Investors- Seaya Ventures, Techstars, Sonai IM and Impact Accelerator
Funding Rounds- 4
Total Funding Amount- $ 7.11 Million
Valuation- $ 1 Billion
Based in Portugal, Sensei Tech is a provider of self-service and check-out-free solutions for brick-and-mortar retailers. It provides real-time video recognition software that aims to digitise physical stores by providing self-service and check-out-free solutions to all existing stores. The unicorns’ software uses AI-powered algorithms and computer visions to collect and analyse data about people and product performance in stores, allowing physical businesses to better understand their customers.
Sensei is the leading European provider of autonomous stores, providing retailers with a secure and dependable AI-powered solution to help them run more efficiently and create a frictionless shopping experience. It builds a full-service solution that is scalable across different formats using AI, computer vision, and machine learning. The startups’ cutting-edge technology will change how people buy by providing them with complete control over their time. Scanning merchandise and waiting in queues are no longer necessary.
The startup is a computer vision unicorn established in Lisbon, Portugal which provides autonomous shop technology that enables ubiquitous check-out-free purchases. It has raised $6.5 million (€5.4 million) in a seed round. Seiya Ventures and Iberis Capital lead the funding round, with participation from its current investor LeadX Capital. This is the highest Seed round ever raised by a startup in Portugal, bringing Sensei’s total funding to $7 million. Sensei is also the first European vendor of self-driving retail technology to raise funds.
This round of capital will be used to improve the company’s capabilities to develop R&D, fulfil rising demand, speed up new shop openings, and roll out its solution to cement its market leadership in Europe. The unicorn startup’s technology is a patented technology platform that can automate stores, both new and old, utilising a combination of cameras, sensors, and AI algorithms to give a fast, convenient, and smooth shopping experience.
Sensei’s proprietary “computer vision-first” technology can be readily retrofitted into existing stores and allows businesses to provide their consumers with a seamless, enjoyable, and efficient shopping experience that is fully check-out free. Retailers can manage their inventory in real-time and gain access to unique data insights about their customers and how they interact with their stores at the same time.
The unicorn supports a new era of omnichannel retailers by capturing in-store product data and shoppers’ activities to provide a wealth of insights and a seamless shopping experience through an integrated system of sensors and AI algorithms. Retailers may minimise stockouts, and customer lines, and redeploy workers to customer service, improving customer care and creating relationships.
Sensei aims to be a global leader in autonomous retail, enabling all merchants to make in-store buying more frictionless, enjoyable, and efficient. It is a store-wide, scalable, and seamless solution that empowers self-contained businesses. The startup provides a secure and trustworthy AI-powered end-to-end solution to capture a plethora of retail insights and a seamless, frictionless checkout and cash-free shopping experience with an integrated system of cameras, sensors, and AI algorithms.
Conclusion
Even though a pandemic can be a deterrent to making a major shift or committing to your next investment, Portugal welcomes anyone to help establish a new, fresh, young, and inspirational country. Despite the country’s tiny size, there’s plenty of room for everyone to advance their jobs, expand their businesses, invest in their aspirations, and come up with the next big idea that will create yet another Unicorn.
Because if there’s one thing we enjoy more than innovative businesses, it’s witnessing one become a legendary Unicorn and being a part of its success story. Portugal has become an open door not only for tourists, but also for enterprises and, in particular, for digital talent and innovative entrepreneurs.
In case you want to move to Portugal and start a business there, you’re making a smart choice. Portugal has become a rising star in the entrepreneurial world, offering a vibrant startup ecosystem, competitive tax benefits, and a great quality of life. Whether you’re launching a tech startup, opening a restaurant, or starting a small enterprise, Portugal provides a welcoming environment for foreign entrepreneurs.
One of the first steps is to ensure you have the proper visa. The D7 Visa is ideal for self-sufficient individuals, while the D2 Visa is specifically designed for entrepreneurs who want to establish a business in the country. If you have substantial capital, the Golden Visa may also be a viable option, offering residency through investment.
Setting up a business in Portugal is relatively straightforward. You can register your company online through the “Empresa na Hora” platform, which allows you to establish a company within hours. You’ll need to choose the right legal structure, whether a sole proprietorship or a limited liability company (Lda). Additionally, you’ll have to familiarize yourself with the tax system, which includes a corporate tax rate of 21% and a value-added tax (VAT) of 23%.
Portugal also provides ample opportunities for funding and growth. With government support programs, access to venture capital, and a growing network of incubators and accelerators, entrepreneurs can find the resources they need to succeed. Cities like Lisbon and Porto are becoming startup hubs, attracting international talent and investment.
In addition to the favorable business environment, Portugal offers a high quality of life with affordable living costs, a pleasant climate, and a rich cultural history. If you’re looking for a place to both work and live, Portugal presents a compelling option for entrepreneurs.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
