The state of VC in Southern Europe with Stephan de Moraes

In this episode, we sit down with Stephan Moraes, Founder and Managing General Partner at Indico Capital Partners, Portugal’s leading tech-focused VC firm. With a rich private equity and entrepreneurship background, Stephan has played a pivotal role in shaping Southern Europe’s venture scene.

Under his leadership, Indico Capital has backed innovative, high-growth companies across AI, fintech, SaaS, and cybersecurity sectors. Notable portfolio companies include Unbabel, a groundbreaking machine translation platform; Tier, a popular ride-sharing service; and Anchorage Digital, a crypto custodian with global backing.

Before founding Indico, Stephan held senior positions at Caixa Capital and launched multiple successful ventures. His expertise lies in scaling businesses and identifying high-potential opportunities in emerging technologies.

In this conversation, Stephan shares his journey into venture capital, insights on investing in cutting-edge tech startups, and his vision for the future of the European startup ecosystem. He also provides actionable advice for entrepreneurs seeking growth and investment opportunities.

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Hosts:

- Yuri Rabinovich (http://linkedin.com/byuric)

- Niko Leon (http://linkedin.com/nikoleon)

Chapters:

* 0:00 Intro

* 5:30 From founding a water exchange to starting aa VC firm

* 11:16 Southern Europe for entrepreneurship

* 13:10 How to leverage formal education

* 16:30 Successful investing

* 26:40 The journey of Indico Capital

* 42:00 Analysing data (or not)

* 45:23 Spain vs Portugal vs Italy

* 50:00 Work/life balance

Follow Stephan:

* https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanmorais/

* https://www.indicocapital.com

Stephan's Bio:

Stephan de Moraes (aka Stephan Morais) is the founder and Managing General Partner of Indico Capital Partners (www.indicocapital.com), a leading venture capital tech and sustainability focused firm based in Portugal. He has invested in 5 unicorns over the last decade and is current President of APCRI - the Portuguese Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.

Indico focuses on software as a service, artificial intelligence, web3, fintech, cybersecurity, digital and climate tech companies, targeting investments at Pre-Seed to Series B level. Founded in 2017, the team at Indico have backed or founded, in the last decade, the majority of the Portuguese global tech success stories, including 6 global unicorns, as investors and entrepreneurs (Farfetch - PT/UK, Talkdesk - PT/USA, Anchorage - PT/USA, Remote - PT/USA, Tier - Germany and Fever - Spain).

With a diversified background as an investment banker, consultant, entrepreneur and CEO, he has lived in 8 countries and 4 continents over the last 27 years. Stephan was formerly an Executive Board Member at Caixa Capital, a Private Equity and Venture Capital fund management company. He is also a former Advisor to the European Commissioner of Science and Innovation, Past Chairman of the European Venture Finance Network and Past Council Member of Invest Europe and Board Member of the International Venture Club. He has been and is a Non-Executive Director and Board Observer in numerous companies.

He is an Entrepreneurship and VC Expert with the oNetwork at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, President of the Portuguese Private Equity Association (APCRI) and Advisory Board Member at AMROP, Executive Search. He is co-Chair of YPO Portugal (Young Presidents Organization), Advisory Council Member of Portuguese American Leadership Council (PALCUS) and Past President of the Harvard Club of Portugal.