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Bright Pixel Capital, that belongs to Portuguese group Sonae, is investing USD 5 million in US startup Mayan, according to Negocios. With this investment in Mayan, that develops advertising software for the Amazon platform, Bright Pixel Capital is increasing its stake in foreign tech startups. According to the Portuguese venture capital firm, Amazon has an ecosystem of 6 million vendors spending USD 31 million on advertising, since their pay per click advertising model is getting more expensive. The Mayan platform allows users to increase their return on ad-spend by 28% and their return on sales linked to advertising by 47%, without increasing their ad budget. #BrightPixelCapital #Sonae #Mayan #Amazon #techstartups #portugueseventurecapital #investmentnewsportugal #portugalnews #portugalbusinessnews #digitalnewsportugal

US fund Platinum Equity is acquiring industrial waste company SUMA from Portuguese group Mota-Engil through Spanish company Urbaser. Urbaser, that already had a 40.80% stake in SUMA, will create a new company, Industrial Waste Newco according to elEconomista. Platinum Equity, that acquired shares in Urbaser from China Tianying in 2021 for $ 4.2 billion, will strengthen its position in the industrial waste sector in Portugal. Urbaser, that is a leading global environmental management company with a presence in 25 countries, operates in three segments, namely urban services for waste collection and green infrastructure, municipal waste treatment as well as Industrial Waste Treatment. #PlatinumEquity #SUMA #Urbaser #industrialwastesectorPortugal #investmentnewsportugal #portugalnews #portugalbusinessnews

Portuguese Banks register profits of EUR 7 M per day, namely Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Santander, Montepio, Novo Banco, BPI and Millennium BCP according to Dinheiro Vivo. Portugal’s banking sector registered a 70% increase in profitability in 2022, with profits increasing by over EUR 2.5 billion. Heading the list of the most profitable banks in Portugal is Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), that registered a historical high with profits reaching EUR 843 million, that is an increase in profitability of 44.5% compared to 2021. Private bank Santander Totta increased its profitability nearly two-fold, registering profits of EUR 568.5 million. The highest percentage increase was registered by Montepio, which, while being the smallest bank, registered a five-fold increase in net profits with profits going from EUR 6.6 million in 2021 to reach EUR 33.8 million in 2022. Novo Banco registered a three-fold increase in profits to reach EUR 560.8 million. Millennium BCP obtained a 50.3% increase in profitability in 2022 compared to the previous year, with profits reaching EUR 207.5 million and BPI registered a 19% increase in profits to reach EUR 365 million. #bankingsectorportugal #portuguesebanksprofitability #Caixa #Santander #Montepio #NovoBanco #BPI #MillenniumBCP #bankingnewsportugal #portugalnews #portugalbusinessnews

Portuguese home décor was honored by Elle Décor following the Paris Maison&Objet exhibition. The Fileira Casa Portuguesa stand stood out and was recognized as one of the best by the prestigious magazine. According to Elle Décor, one of the promises of a fair like Maison & Objet is to showcase design from around the world, and the fair made good on that this year in the form of the Portuguese Quartier. The booth showcased the very best of the country’s craftsmanship, with brands like MainGuilty and Paulo Antones contributing furniture and Glammfire adding dramatic firepits to the setting. Fileira Casa Portuguesa comprises 44 Portuguese brands in the Home Décor sector, including a number of companies such as RILUC, JOSE LEITE DE CASTRO, VICARA, RILUC, EVO FABRICS, KARPA, AIRE LIMESTONES, VISTA ALEGRE, AMALIA HOME COLLECTION, AMR – INDUSTRIAS TEXTEIS, LASA HOME, ARCASHMERE and COLUNEX. The prestigious Maison&Objet exhibition shows design trends in the Home Décor sector that comprises furniture, textiles, wellness, tableware, lighting and decorative objects. #homedecorportugal #madeinportugal #ElleDécor #MaisonetObjet #FileiraCasaPortuguesa #madeinportugalnaturally #Glammfire #MainGuilty #PauloAntones #RILUC #JOSELEITEDECASTRO #VICARA #RILUC #EVOFABRICS #KARPA #AIRELIMESTONES #VISTAALEGRE #AMALIAHOMECOLLECTION #AMRINDUSTRIASTEXTEIS #LASAHOME #ARCASHMERE #COLUNEX #portugueseproducts #portugalnews #portugalbusinessnews

Private investments of over EUR 60 billion are expected in Portugal’s Energy sector by 2030, according to Portugal’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Duarte Cordeiro. The total value of investments in the energy sector will be equal to around 25% of Portugal’s GDP. The Iberian Mechanism has already generated EUR 570 million and has led to a market price reduction of EUR 43.78 for each MWh. It is to be noted that, according to Portugal’s statistics office, INE, the inflation on energy products was 1.96% and the impact of the Iberian Mechanism was not only on prices but it also led to lower inflation. The Iberian Mechanism is a temporary measure that places a price cap on gas prices since June 2022 has led to a market price of EUR 60 per MWh in Portugal and Spain. Portugal’s national plan for energy and climate 2030 lays out the goal of increasing the country’s wind capacity by 3.4 GW, that would require an investment of around EUR 4 billion. For solar energy, the country needs to increase production capacity by 6.4 GW, that would require an investment of around EUR 4.5 billion. For offshore wind energy, a tender will be launched for 10 GW, that will require an investment of around EUR 35 billion. For hydrogen production, investments of around EUR 8 billion are expected, while investment support will reach around EUR 900 million by 2030. The Green Corridor for the hydrogen pipeline that will go from the Iberian Peninsula to France will require an investment of EUR 204 million. Investments of EUR 430 million were approved for Portugal’s national transport network to be implemented by 2026. There will also be additional investments of EUR 760 million from the operational sustainability and efficiency program, POSEUR, and from the recovery and resilience plan, PRR. #energysectorportugal #energyinvestmentsportugal #IberianMechanism #INE #energypricesportugal #inflationportugal #energyprojectsportugal2023 #renewableenergyprojectsportugal2023 #portugalnews #portugalbusinessnews #investmentsenergysectorportugal

The 1st injection of Green Hydrogen in Portugal’s natural gas network was done on the 7th during a ceremony with Prime Minister António Costa. The hydrogen was injected by Floene, that has nine regional operators for gas distribution in Portugal. Portugal’s Prime Minister announced that the country has a clear strategy for developing Green Hydrogen as this will not only lead to energy freedom but will also allow the country to become an exporter of renewable gas. He added that Portugal has a modern infrastructure with a well-developed distribution infrastructure for natural gas. Portugal’s Prime Minister stated that no country can be dependent on a single energy supplier or even on external suppliers for its own energy consumption. For Portugal, energy independence equals freedom. Moreover, each time 5% of hydrogen is injected into the network, it equals to 5% less natural gas imports. Energy prices in Portugal are not as high as they might have been since the country produces renewable energy and this is further protection for both consumers and industrial production. #greenhydrogennaturalgasnetworkportugal #Floene #greenhydrogenportugal #renewableenergyportugal #energypricesportugal #portugalnews #portugalbusinessnews

Portugal Investments breaking news - Portugal startup Rely.io has just announced that it has raised €2 million for its Site Reliability Engineering platform for cloud-native companies to monitor data reliability. Rely.io, that is a Portugal-based platform for Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), has raised a €2 million seed round led by J12 Ventures, reports founder and CEO José Velez. Mr. Velez explains that his “goal is to be the most user-friendly Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Platform, in order to empower organizations to easily adopt SRE to improve decision-making and the reliability of their systems.” Rely.io works with Google SRE director as investor and advisor. Founded in 2020, Portugal-based Rely.io will use the funding to support its development of SLI artificial intelligence technology. SLI Systems mean the predictive cloud-based platform of tools for e-commerce websites that accelerates business in three ways: By generating more traffic, converting shoppers into buyers and maximizing order values. The use of Software as a Service (SaaS) as a way of delivering applications over the internet as a service means that, instead of installing software, it may be obtained over the internet. Rely.io is building a SaaS platform for cloud-native companies. Thus, engineers can easily plug the platform into their existing monitoring and define acceptable reliability levels for each service. To summarize, this means that teams can make data-driven decisions and see a higher ROI. Rely.io will use this new investment to take it to market and scale-up globally, with a special focus on cloud-native companies as Design Partners. Traditionally, when someone wants to order a product online, the experience is disrupted and customers quickly switch to a competitor, thus making companies lose money and damaging their brand's reputation. This means reliability and application performance has become the number 1 priority for most businesses. Rely.io provides Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) designed to help cloud-native companies monitor and optimize software reliability. The Rely.io platform transforms monitoring data into actionable information and automation in an intuitive way, allowing users to create Service-Level Objectives (SLOs) in minutes. The Future of the Reliability Intelligence Market is what drives Rely.io, as it empowers organizations to easily adopt Site Reliability Engineering practices in order to improve the reliability of their systems. This is just the beginning for Rely.io… The Portugal-based company’s vision for the future is to bridge the gap between engineering and non-technical areas by leveraging the power of reliable data, with a team of talented and humble people who are fun to work with and who are passionate about helping cloud-native companies run more reliable products. Source: https://www.portugalbusinessesnews.com/post/portugal-cloud-investment-rely-io

Investment of USD 24 million in Portugal Decentralized Finance start-up Immunefi Digital Investment News Portugal – The start-up Immunefi, which specializes in securing cryptocurrencies against hackers, has boosted its investment in Portugal by securing funding through US company Framework Ventures. The venture capital fund will enable the company to work on securing blockchain applications through Decentralized Finance (DeFi). DeFi is an emerging financial technology based on blockchain, that is also used for cryptocurrencies. Since the DeFi infrastructure is constantly evolving, the use of this peer-to-peer financial network is linked to a high risk of fraud and scams despite its security protocols. Immunefi, which is located in Lisbon, developed a digital platform for providing a bug bounty to its white-hat hackers that detect weaknesses and lead to enhancing cybersecurity. Its team, that specializes in hacking practices, focuses on securing funds that pass-through cryptographic systems by detecting weaknesses within the system. With the emerging use of Web3, which incorporates block-chain technologies, comes the difficulty of regulating a decentralized web that makes it more difficult to prevent cybercrime. The success rate of Immunefi is due to the increase of financial hacking and it is now developing its activities by recruiting more white-hat hackers. Since the start of its operations, its use of the bug bounty solution has already saved USD 25 million in user funds blocked in smart contracts. The company also paid-up to its white-hat employees an amount of USD 60 million as rewards to programmers that reveal codes that threaten cybersecurity. With Portugal attracting more investments in the industry of Digital Technology, the field of financial cybersecurity is becoming more and more relevant with the use of Decentralized Finance on Web3, ensuring increasing success for Immunefi. Source: www.portugalbusinessesnews.com/post/portugal-investment-decentralized-finance

Investment News Portugal - VW Group among top foreign investors in Portugal. Investment News Portugal - The VW Group is among the top foreign investors in Portugal. It has now increased its market share with VW Group Services opening an additional hub in Lisbon. The VWGS has concentrated its 3 hubs in Lisbon and, by 2023, intends to double its workforce to reach 400 people. While in 2021, Volkswagen Autoeuropa accounted for 1.5% of the GDP of Portugal and for 5% of goods exported, since Portugal obtained exclusivity for producing the Volkswagen SUV T-Roc that is their best-selling model in Europe. With an increasing share of the export market, Autoeuropa is setting record sales and increasing production to meet consumer demand. The plant that is located in Palmela is one of the largest foreign industrial investments in Portugal and collaborates with nearly 700 parts’ suppliers. After an initial investment in 2018, with VW Digital Solutions (VWDS), the group has now consolidated its investments with the creation of its Innovation & Engineering Hub. This allows the VW Group to separate its engineering and digital functions. The VW Group Services provides services in the fields of logistics, fleet management, accountancy, payroll, recruitment, PR and marketing, exclusively for companies that belong to the VW Group. The new Innovation & Engineering Hub is the second hub that is part of the MAN Engineering Hub in Portugal. This hub also comprises the MAN Truck & Bus Portugal based in Lisbon, which provides both goods and innovative services for the heavy goods vehicle sector (HGV). This sector includes new and second-hand trucks, urban and long-haul buses, long-haul coaches, as well as after-sales and financial services. While the Automotive Industry is receiving a larger share of investments for Made in Portugal goods, the Volkswagen Group has increased its sales and export market share in Europe. Source: https://www.portugalbusinessesnews.com/post/volkswagen-largest-foreign-investment-portugal

Portugal is the No. 1 Best Place in the world to retire in 2023 according to the Annual Global Retirement Index by International Living. The ranking of best countries to retire is as follows: Portugal, Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Spain, Greece, France, Italy, Thailand and Colombia. Why is Portugal the most popular retirement destination in the world? According to International Living, the country offers something for everyone including vibrant cities like Lisbon and Porto with buzzing nightlife, as well as culture, history and culinary delights. Portugal encompasses coastal havens along the Atlantic Ocean where the camel-colored sand meets the turquoise water, along a coastline that is embellished with jagged rock formations, caves and grottoes. For those who prefer a simpler life, inland Portugal is dotted with medieval villages comprised of stone cottages that lie below castle ruins and that are surrounded by emerald rolling hills and stunning vistas. Portugal’s Top ranking is also due to the people of Portugal who are some of the kindest and most genuine in the world and who welcome foreigners with open arms and kisses on both cheeks. Moreover, since English is taught in Portuguese schools, many of the locals, especially the younger generation, speak the language fluently. Portugal is also one of the safest countries in the world, ranking 6th in the Global Peace Index. Healthcare in Portugal is both affordable and excellent and is ranked 12th by the World Health Organization. Residents of Portugal have access to both the public and private healthcare systems. Portugal’s infrastructure is on par with the U.S. and Canada with fresh drinking water from the tap, reliable electricity and high-speed fiber internet that makes it easy to work from home. Portugal’s road network is one of the finest in Europe and it is also easy to charge electric vehicles. Unlike some other European countries that require foreigners to take a driving test, in Portugal it is a straightforward exchange of the current driving license for a Portuguese one. With over 500,000 foreigners from around the world living in Portugal, it’s easy to fit in and it is often impossible to tell the expats from the locals. Making friends is easy, especially in the popular expat havens like Porto, the Silver Coast, Lisbon and the Algarve. Porto in the north is Portugal’s second largest city and the region is famous for its production of port wine, for the terraced vineyards along the Douro River as well as the colorful riverfront area that attracts lots of tourists. Porto also includes an international airport, one of three in the country, that makes it easy to connect with the rest of the world. Winters in the north are rainy and cold, while it snows in the mountains. Portugal’s Silver Coast offers various options for expat living, from coastal villages to mid-sized cities like Caldas da Rainha, and lush farmland blankets the hillsides. Winters along the Silver Coast are cold and wet while summers are mild. For those who prefer big city living where a car is not needed, Lisbon is the city of choice. It is full of museums, restaurants and shopping venues down cobbled lanes bordered by historical buildings. It is a city where English is spoken by most people due to the mix of expats and tourists. Since Lisbon is built upon seven hills, visitors may hop aboard one of the iconic yellow trams to get around. Portugal’s primary international airport is in Lisbon and is close to the city. The nearby coastal town of Cascais has long been popular with expats who sip coffee at sidewalk cafes, who gather with friends for wine tastings or go for walks on the beach before dancing the night away at local clubs. South of Lisbon is the Alentejo region that includes the cities of Beja and Évora. In the largest and most rural region of the country, springtime brings fields of fragrant wildflowers that blossom around stately cork oak trees, while the wind carries the sound of church bells that chime in tiny, historical villages. Outside of Évora, less English is spoken and expats who choose to settle there will need to be able to communicate in Portuguese. The Algarve, Portugal’s southernmost region is the sunniest, boasting over 300 days of sunshine per year. Traditional towns like Lagos and Tavira offer an array of old-world charm that blends in cobbled streets, a café culture and a sizeable expat community. For a permanent vacation, Albufeira offers waterparks as well as a lively strip packed with tourist shops, restaurants, pubs and golden beaches. As expat communities are easy to find everywhere in the Algarve, those who choose to live there can easily get by while speaking only English. According to International Living, the cost of living in Portugal is relatively low. As a general rule, a couple can live comfortably on around $3,000 per month. It is to be noted that Lisbon, Porto, and the Algarve are more expensive than inland Portugal. Source: https://www.portugalbusinessesnews.com/post/portugal-no-1-best-place-to-retire-in-2023 #bestcountriestoretire2023 #retirementportugal #InternationalLiving #costoflivingportugal #expatportugal #bestplacestoliveportugal #portugalnews #portugalbusinessnews https://traveltourismdirectory.com/

Portuguese company Coverflex just acquired EatsReady, an Italian company providing digital meal vouchers. Coverflex, that just obtained an investment of EUR 15 million, is now extending operations to the Italian market. Coverflex developed an app and a card to provide a wide array of benefits aimed at increasing customer loyalty for companies. This is their 4th acquisition since the company was launched in 2021 and the acquisition of EatsReady includes a client portfolio of 50 companies as well as a network of over 2,000 customers that include restaurants, supermarkets and online delivery services. The customers of EatsReady will be migrated to the Coverflex platform. The Portuguese company chose an innovative startup in Italy to extend to their first foreign market since Italy has a strong demand for the digital management of customer benefits. A large number of Italian companies are seeking new ways of encouraging loyalty through intermediaries that are not flexible enough. Coverflex intends to bridge the gap with an innovative self-service solution that is fully digital for the management of benefits, discounts and meal vouchers. #Coverflex #EatsReady #digitalmealvouchers #customerbenefits #customerloyaltyapp #portugalnews #portugalbusinessnews #digitalnewsportugal

Portugal’s energy grid operator REN will distribute hydrogen under a new agreement signed with Spanish Enagás that operates infrastructure across Europe, French GRTgaz and French Teréga that operates infrastructure in Europe. The Green2TSO initiative will lead to the transformation of the gas network for distributing hydrogen. The project uses new technologies for including hydrogen in the transport network in line with the EU’s goals for European operators to distribute clean, safe and efficient energy on a large scale. Priority areas will be in the field of technology for developing detection and measurement systems for hydrogen compression and storage, as well as alternatives for the coating of hydrogen pipelines. According to the CEO of Teréga, the Green2TSO initiative will create a European Hydrogen Backbone for decarbonizing the industry and transport sectors. The CEO of REN believes that this agreement will lead to energy transition in Europe and to the large-scale use of green hydrogen that will effectively counter climate change. #REN #hydrogennetworkeurope #Enagás #GRTgaz #Teréga #Green2TSOinitiative #europeanhydrogenbackbone #hydrogenpipelineportugal #greenhydrogen #renewableenergyportugal #portugalnews #portugalbusinessnews