On January 12th, 2023, the National Innovation Agency (ANI) held a virtual Local Stakeholders Group Meeting. This session, focusing on “Financial Instruments for Innovation: Success Cases and Perspectives for 2030”, aimed to stimulate discussion on the role of financial instruments such as venture capital in financing innovation, as well as the prospects for using Cohesion Policy funds to create innovative financial instruments.
Taking advantage of the online setting, the meeting was opened beyond the core stakeholder group to the FI community in Portugal, gathering 142 participants.
The session began with an opening speech by Diogo Gomes Araújo of ANI, followed by a presentation on the main results of the Innova-FI project & action plan by Alexandre Almeida of ANI. The session then moved on to a broad discussion of financial instruments in Portugal, with presentations from stakeholders Pedro Magalhães of Banco Português de Fomento and Rui Ferreira of Portugal Ventures. Success stories were then shared by entrepreneurs - Pedro Pestana of Neroes, Nuno Marujo of Ablute, and Hugo Trindade of SCEMAI. The session ended with a panel discussion on financial instruments, including lessons from the past and prospects for the new ESF framework, moderated by Alexandre Almeida of ANI and featuring participants from IAPMEI, Banco Português de Fomento and Portugal Ventures.
The session provided valuable insights into the current state of financial instruments for innovation in Portugal and their future prospects, as well as highlighting successful case studies in the field including those identified by the Innova-FI project.
