Portugal Ventures Backs Three Leiria Startups With €2.75 Million as National Startup Funding Passes Last Year's Total

Portugal Ventures, the venture-capital arm of the state-owned Portuguese Development Bank (Banco Português de Fomento), has put more than €2.75 million into three young companies from the Leiria region, in a round that underlines how much momentum Portuguese start-up funding has built this year. The money went to audio-software firm Sound Particles, factory-software company Brainr and biotechnology venture Nutrivalley.

The largest cheque, €1.5 million, went to Brainr, which builds cloud software to run food-production factories and has already raised up to €11 million as it eyes expansion into the United States and Brazil. Sound Particles, whose spatial-audio tools are used across the film and games industries, received €1 million and is now piloting its technology in defence applications. Nutrivalley took €250,000 for LusoTurf, a natural biomaterial designed to replace the synthetic rubber granules used to infill artificial sports pitches.

A recovery cheque for a weather-hit start-up

Two of the investments came through the Call Leiria Crescimento programme and Nutrivalley’s through Call Leiria Recuperar, initiatives launched in 2024 and financed by Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR). Portugal Ventures said its backing of Nutrivalley would “allow recovery from extreme-weather delays, completion of the pilot production unit, validation of the technology in a real context and acceleration of market entry.” The Leiria call alone drew 133 applications requesting more than €90 million — a sign of how much unmet demand for early-stage capital sits outside Lisbon and Porto.

The deals land in a standout year for Portuguese venture funding: national start-ups and scale-ups had already raised around €577 million by mid-2026, surpassing the total for all of the previous year.

Money flowing beyond the big two cities

What stands out is where the money is going. All three companies are rooted in Leiria, a mid-sized city better known for moulds and plastics than for deep tech, and their sectors — audio, industrial software and advanced materials — sit squarely in the “deep tech” niches the government has been courting. It is the same investment thesis behind Galp’s planned innovation district on its old Matosinhos refinery: build clusters where research turns into companies and jobs.

What this means for residents

• Jobs: state-backed rounds like this tend to anchor skilled engineering and R&D roles in regional cities, not just the capital — relevant for anyone weighing a move outside Lisbon.
• Founders: the oversubscribed Leiria calls show public co-investment is a realistic route for early-stage teams doing R&D in Portugal, with applications tied to PRR timelines.
• The wider economy: a record funding year strengthens the case that Portugal’s tech scene is maturing beyond a handful of unicorns into a broader base of exporters.

With PRR money due to taper before the plan closes, the coming months will test whether private investors keep the pace once the public co-financing that primed this year’s record begins to wind down.