There is already another unicorn with Portuguese DNA. Sword Health now joins the “club” made up of Farfetch, Outsystems, Feedzai, Talkdesk and Remote, companies with Portuguese origins that have reached a $1 billion valuation. In total, these unicorns are already worth around $38.5 billion (€34.2 billion).
This value corresponds, for example, to 16% of Portugal’s GDP (which is about €204 billion). Compared to the PSI-20, the set of unicorns with Portuguese DNA represents 44% of the index’s value (approximately €75 billion, according to Reuters data).
SwordHealth, created in 2015 by Portuguese startup Virgílio Bento, is the most recent unicorn, which announced on Monday that it has closed a Series D round of $189 million. After this operation, the Portuguese startup was valued at $2 billion, reaching unicorn status.
This was already the third company with Portuguese DNA to become a unicorn this year. In March, it was Feedzai’s turn, founded by Nuno Sebastião, which raised $200 million in a Series D financing round and saw its valuation rise to $1.5 billion, according to information shared by the company in October.
Remote was the other unicorn of 2021, closing a Series D round of $150 million (€126.4 million) last July. The company, which has Portuguese Marcelo Lebre as one of the founders, develops technology that helps banks and other financial companies prevent payment fraud, money laundering and other types of illicit initiatives, using artificial intelligence and machine learning, is now worth over $1 billion (€886.6 million).
The club of unicorns with Portuguese origins also includes three other companies. The first unicorn with national blood was Farfetch, founded by José Neves, which joined the New York Stock Exchange in September 2018. The luxury retailer has a $14.57 billion market capitalisation, according to the most recent data from Reuters.
The second unicorn with Portuguese DNA was OutSystems, founded by Paulo Rosado, which achieved this status in 2018. The company raised $150 million in a round of funding last February, bringing the company’s valuation to $9.5 billion.
Finally, Talkdesk completes this group of Portuguese unicorns. The company was born in Lisbon in 2011, by the hands of Cristina Fonseca and Tiago Paiva, and has a $10 billion valuation, reached after a $230 million financing round on August 12.
(Article updated on November 24, with information regarding Feedzai’s market valuation)
