Delta Ventures just unveiled its 2024 roadmap, and according to our new Director, Pedro Sá, a member of the Delta family for over six years, it’s a game-changer. Forget crystal balls – this vision is clear, defined, and brimming with potential.
What are your overarching goals and priorities for Delta Ventures in 2024?
Delta Ventures just unveiled its 2024 roadmap, and according to our new Director, Pedro Sá, a member of the Delta family for over six years, it’s a game-changer. Forget crystal balls – this vision is clear, defined, and brimming with potential.
Delta Ventures is, itself, a new organisation within a very large and established corporation such as Grupo Nabeiro – Delta Cafés. We have followed a learning path, together with our startups, looking for the best synergies with the existing organisation for each of them. We focus our efforts on obtaining a better market fit for each of the ideas and on growing business volumes, so that startups can develop to higher levels of autonomy and economic sustainability.
During this process, we learned a lot, namely the critical role that Delta Ventures plays in the dialogue between both parties (startups and the organisation). Therefore, I would say that for 2024 our main priorities and objectives will be: clarifying our purpose as promoters of open innovation via interaction with the outside world, namely with the startup ecosystem; communicate better, internally and externally, what we do and the results and achievements we are already having in our projects; improve the way in which the structure of the Delta Ventures team responds to the needs of startups and improve the dialogue with the various decision-makers within the Group, in order to more effectively promote the accelerated growth of these new businesses.
Are there any specific sectors or industries you plan to focus on in terms of startup investments?
Yes, we will continue to focus on early-stage startups that bring us disruptive ideas with a strong emphasis on food tech, sustainability, and digital transformation. The Nabeiro Group wants to continue to grow not only in business volume but also in know-how and mastery of new channels and categories of products and services. Focused on creating global brands that respond to people’s needs.
In terms of portfolio management, what changes or adjustments are you considering for 2024?
Our oldest investments date back to 2019, and given their large exposure to the Horeca channel, they were obviously greatly affected by the pandemic period. Therefore, we do not envisage, for now, any exits from our portfolio. In terms of new investments, we are currently on pilot projects with 3 startups – Skizo, Plantz and Yogan. Additionally, we are already in the selection phase for our annual Disruption program. It is expected that 2 to 3 more startups will also enter our investment radar this year.
How do you see Delta Ventures contributing to Grupo Nabeiro’s overall growth and innovation strategies?
From what we have learned from the experiences of recent years, Delta Ventures, and specifically the businesses of the startups in which we are developing partnerships, bring us visions, insights and challenges that are complementary to our core business. Whether through approaches to new business models, new distribution channels, or through the need for agility and speed of implementation, or even emerging technologies and new trends. All of this will help our growth as an organisation.
Could you provide insights into how Delta Ventures plans to address challenges and opportunities arising from the ever-changing startup ecosystem?
We have a scouting area within the Delta Ventures team, whose responsibility is also to always be alert to new opportunities that may arise. In addition to actively collaborating with entities such as Startup Portugal, Startup Lisboa, Unicorn Factory Lisboa, we directly support some acceleration program events such as “From Start to Table”, which has had our involvement since the first edition in 2018. Furthermore, every year we have our own program, Disruption, in which we stimulate open innovation and challenge startups to rise to the occasion alongside Grupo Nabeiro, in collaboration with imatch, to boost disruptive solutions, in the areas of foodtech, sustainability and digital transformation.
