It was founded ten years ago, meaning it’s been here for almost as long as the entire ecosystem. And it’s a household name.
We backed game-changers that exited successfully like BestTables (sold in less than two years), which is probably why Sérgio was our first Founder LP. And Shilling invested in Unbabel, Bizay, Uniplaces and Barkyn when they were little more than the beginning of an idea. In fact, we were the very first institutional investor these companies had: they had been running on friends and family funds until Shilling came along.
Now, they’re valued at over $350m.
But times change, and so do we.
Enter Shilling: a new brand, a new fund, a bigger team, a better network, more capital, a platform and a revolutionary idea.
At the core of Shilling are the 7 people that make up the Team.
The new Execs Hugo, Pedro, Miguel, Ricardo, Pedro, are a combination of experienced investors with successful founders. They cover a wide array of areas of expertise from Fintech to Marketplaces, D2C to Digital Health, SaaS to IoT.
Isabel, who was one of the first movers and shakers of the Portuguese startup ecosystem. She helped shape it and is returning now from her spot at Cherry Ventures in Berlin to be our Head of Platform.
And a third Pedro is bringing his keen, experienced, eye to take on the challenge as our lead Analyst.
The investment committee is a dream-team of proven businessmen:
António Casanova, who knows what makes brands run like nobody else.
Diogo da Silveira, a veteran CEO with unmatched experience in insurance and process industries.
João Coelho Borges, a keen, and adrenaline-driven expert in Private Equity Investments and Mergers & Acquisitions.
Juan Alvarez, a multi-skilled serial CEO always on the lookout for outstanding tech teams that want to reshape their industries.
Pedro Rutkowski, a renowned consultant and one of the references in the Portugese Real Estate market.
To this Roster, we’ve also added 35 LP Founders: the entrepreneurs behind successful startups that were handpicked to invest with us. They’ve been chosen to represent building, launching and scaling great ventures in all kinds of markets, and the expertise and experience that they’ve gained will fuel Shilling and its portfolio startups to run smoother, go farther and grow faster.
"Leveraging the collective experience of successful Founders, we accelerate the construction of a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem. When one of our startups triumphs, everyone in the portfolio wins”
Marta Palmeiro, LP Founder at Shilling.
They will be mentoring startups and providing backup to our wider community too: if you want to know more about who they are and what they’ll be doing at Shilling, check this out!
To drive the next generation of founders forward, Shilling has put together more capital and a new fund.
We know that having our eyes on the prize is half the road to get there.
So we established a clear investment thesis, with criteria that were fine-tuned to maximise a culture fit, reduce friction, and increase chances of success:
And to walk the talk, the Shilling GPs are committing €2m upfront. That’s around 7% of the fund’s target: a full 5% higher than the industry’s benchmark.
So you’ll always know that we’re in it to win it.
We believe that to get far, you need a good support system.
Like a racecar needs engineers, fuel, and changing tires.
Enter Platform! Now watch it go: it was designed and devised to push startups in our portfolio and the wider community to run smoother and go global.
It offers access to our Network to everybody, with open office hours, access to mentorship and anything else you might need.
“The Shilling platform will help build the foundations of an even stronger and healthier founder community”
Isabel Salgueiro, Head of Platform.
It has firsthand insights, articles and deep dives that will help first-time founders with growing pains they might experience. It has resources and tools such as frameworks, templates, tools and decks to bring structure to your startup.
And if you’re looking for fundraising, we’ll pave the way for you: helping you prep your pitches and introducing you to our network of international VCs.
Of course, we saved the best for the last stretch.
Our portfolio startups aren’t a vague community to us.
They’re a big team, geared for success, driven and ambitious.
We’re all going in the same direction.
So when one of us wins - everybody wins.
Because the stronger the players, the stronger the ecosystem.
And investing in one is advancing the other.
That’s why the Founder’s Fund distributes its success: our profit sharing model splits proceeds from our funds among all our portfolio founders.
Any company raises a new round, every founder gets a share of the profits.
One startup exits, every startup triumphs.
