Lisbon – Indico Capital Partners today formally announced an investment in five startups totaling $4.6 million (€4.4 million), for a total of six companies accepted into the latest Indico Founders Program Powered by Google for Startups.
The Indico Founders Program, launched in 2020, has selected seven companies out of 154 candidates in its maiden year; six companies selected out of 171 candidates in 2022; and now six companies selected out of a record 292 candidates to date. With an all-time acceptance rate of 1.7%, the Indico Founders Program’s selective nature backs its mission to take founders from local to global.
This edition of the Indico Founders Program counts for the first time with the participation of ocean related companies invested by the Indico Blue Fund, in combination with investment from the Indico Acceleration Fund I. The €50 million climate action fund is fully dedicated to the financing of early-stage startups and to the expansion of innovative sustainable companies across the multiple-sectors of the Blue Economy. The fund counts with a strategy, investment criteria, portfolio management and reporting structure that are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, especially but not limited to SDG 14: Life Below Water.
The six companies selected to date in 2022 are: Relive, Framedrop, Data4Deals, Ittinsect, Inclita Seaweed Solutions and Biomimetx:
Relive was the first company to join the Indico Founders Program earlier this year when it raised €1M funding round while it joined the Techstars Austin 2022 accelerator program. Relive provides a digital ecosystem for real estate brokerage, helping real estate agents become successful entrepreneurs. The company provides real estate agents with a turnkey business model, allowing users to create, manage and grow their own real estate business all while becoming more efficient and earning bigger commissions, faster.
Framedrop aims to recycle live content and use it to recreate the Twitch experience off-stream. The company raised a €500 thousand pre-seed round led by Indico. Framedrop was launched as live streaming has gained huge traction to solve a major problem faced by Twitch streamers: once the live stream is over, viewers disengage and monetization stops. The Framedrop team has developed an AI-powered software based on Machine Learning that can collect and combine the most favorable highlights of the live stream to create an engaging clip. Ultimately, thanks to AI, Framedrop offers live streamers an easy way to monetize their content in the long-run, rather than throwing it away after the live stream ends.
Data4Deals aims to be the leading data monetization platform for financial institutions. The company uses AI to understand customer preferences and behavior from financial data to enable brands to reach new customers and deepen relationships with existing ones. Participating banks get additional revenue and improved user experience, while customers get cashback on their purchases. Data4Deals has already closed deals with major Portuguese banks and has raised a €1 million round, led by Indico, to move beyond the Portuguese market and deliver high growth.
Ittinsect is an Italian biotech company developing a sustainable alternative to marine-sourced protein for aquaculture feed. As aquaculture has become the main source of fish production to keep up with increasing demand, one quarter of all marine-sourced fish is used as a feed ingredient for these farms. The company produces higher quality feed from insects and other by-products, resulting in shorter fish farming cycles and higher fish values, with no increase in feed costs. Ittinsect raised a €600 thousand round, co-lead by Indico.
Inclita Seaweed Solutions is a marine biotechnology company dedicated to the sustainable development, production and commercialization of functional seaweed extracts for the nutraceutical, pet care, food/beverage and cosmetics industries. The company believes that seaweed is the best future source of nutrients and other bioactive compounds to provide their customers with their desired ingredients (eg. minerals), characteristics (eg. color) and bioactivity (eg. antioxidants). As consumers become increasingly aware of the advantages of consuming natural ingredients, and disadvantages of the opposite, ISS offers bioreactive seaweed extracts to promote better nutrition, health and wellbeing. The company raised a round of €3.2 million, led by Indico.
BioMimetx is a biotech startup focused on the development of “biofouling” solutions. Current antifouling solutions offered on the market are made of up to 67% copper oxide, all of which leaches into the sea with evident consequences. BioMimetx developed a non-toxic, biodegradable antifouling solution with great efficiency that is applicable across a broad range of needs from aquaculture to watercraft coating. Indico co-lead the €500 thousand round.
Stephan Morais, Managing General Partner of Indico commented: ”We are very happy to welcome these entrepreneurs to the Indico Founders Program. All six companies have great potential and we are particularly happy to start investing in companies that can have a positive impact in the oceans and hence in the climate change crisis we are facing.”
Bernardo Correia, Country Director of Google Portugal mentioned that “It is a great pleasure to support another batch of this Indico program supported by Google for Startups. The emergence of ocean tech is perfectly aligned with our values and vision of a sustainable future and we are happy ocean related companies are part of the program.”
Patrick Freire, Founder, Executive Director and COO of BioMimetx said: “BioMimetx created an innovative and sustainable approach to control biofouling, and for this, we received €1.5M in support grants from the EU through the SME Instrument and the EEA Grants, among others. We are thrilled to be part of the Indico Founders Program and to have on board the experienced Indico Team through this new round of €500k, that will allow us to achieve a faster commercial launch of this Blue technology into the world.”
The co-founder and COO of Framedrop, Mário Tarouca stated that “As co-founders of Framedrop, our goal is to help content creators leverage live-created content and monetize it off-stream. We are excited to join the Indico Founders Program and benefit from the expertise and resources they provide as we work towards our goal of helping creators grow their communities and monetize their content”, commented.
Indico’s funds now count with over €40 million committed in 34 portfolio companies, which have jointly raised more than €1.7 billion from investors since 2019. The Indico Founders Program is now in its third edition. Powered by Google for Startups, this complementary growth program for Founders at the pre-seed stage and beyond provides access to capital, mentorship, talent and infrastructure. Indico will continue to be committed to investing in the most globally promising Portuguese and Spanish companies within the realms of tech and sustainability.
About Indico Capital Partners
Indico Capital Partners is a leading independent Venture Capital fund manager based in Portugal, investing in Iberian based global and sustainable technology companies. Indico funds invest in web3, software as a service, marketplaces, artificial intelligence, internet of things, fintech, cybersecurity and ocean related companies. Indico´s range of investments goes, mostly, from Pre-Seed to Series B (100k and 10M euros) in Portuguese and Spanish startups. Indico is often the first investor in a startup and, given the teams´ backgrounds, works very closely with portfolio companies. Since 2019, Indico has invested 40 million euros in 34 companies, which have raised more than 1.7 billion euros from global investors.
About Google for Startups
Google for Startups has the commitment to level the playing for startups founders and communities to succeed, connecting them with the best of Google. We offer a wide variety of programs and initiatives to help connect startups of every stage and vertical to the right people, products, and best practices they need to grow and scale. Google for Startups supports organizations and tech hubs across the world to foster diverse, inclusive startup communities, helping founders turn big ideas into successful businesses.
