Marco Bianchi 
Aon, the world’s second largest insurance broker, appointed Portuguese executive Pedro Penalva as CEO of its Latin America region, effective July 1, 2026. Penalva previously served as CEO of Enterprise Clients for EMEA and brings over 15 years of experience at Aon, having held positions including CEO for Iberia, Africa, and Israel, and CEO of Aon Portugal.
Qivalis, a consortium of European banks based in Amsterdam, has expanded to 37 member institutions from 15 countries to develop a euro-denominated stablecoin as an alternative to dollar-dominated stablecoins. The initiative plans to launch a regulated stablecoin in the second half of 2024, subject to regulatory approval. Portuguese banks are notably absent from the project so far, though it includes major banks from Spain, France, Italy, and Nordic countries.
NanoCo AI has raised $12 million in seed funding to commercialize NanoClaw, an open source enterprise-friendly AI agent harness. The company aims to provide enterprises with secure, one-to-one ‘professional assistant’ AI agents for each employee that build personalized knowledge graphs and execute tasks within sandboxed Docker environments. NanoClaw remains MIT Licensed open source while NanoCo AI offers managed commercial services.
Limenet, a startup developing decarbonization technologies for hard-to-abate industries, partnered with Italian building materials group Fassa Bortolo on a 5 million euro co-development project for an electric kiln that reduces lime production emissions by approximately 22% compared to traditional fossil fuel methods. The deal follows a 7 million euro equity investment in Limenet by CDP Venture Capital and Fassa Bortolo in December 2025.
The Portuguese government authorized Infraestruturas de Portugal to implement a phased payment schedule for the modernization of the Alentejo Railway Line. The project involves a 410.68 million euro investment to replace and electrify 63 kilometers of track between Casa Branca and Beja, enabling speeds of up to 200 km/h for passenger trains and 120 km/h for freight. Disbursements will run from 2027 to 2033, with the government seeking additional European funding through Portugal 2030 and other EU financing instruments.
Overwatch AI, a platform that helps pilots, cabin crew and operations managers working on the front lines of aviation find critical information quickly and make fast and efficient operational decisions, has closed a pre-seed round of 1.3 million euros with participation from United Airlines Ventures.
J+Legal advised BlueCrow Capital in a financing operation for Offcoustic, a Portuguese startup developing acoustic cabin solutions for work environments and co-working spaces. The transaction involved a combined investment and financing structure to support the company’s growth and productive capacity expansion.
Portugal’s Iberian candidacy for a European Commission AI gigafactory project will concentrate all operations in Sines rather than establishing a secondary hub in Pego. The €8 billion investment from public and private funds will create an AI infrastructure facility with 150 MW computing capacity, expected to be fully operational by 2028. Spain’s location is Tarragona in Catalonia.
AM Experience by MK Illumination, a Portuguese company based in Braga specializing in festive illuminations and ice shows, reported 8 million euros in revenue for 2025, up from 6.8 million in 2024. The festive lighting division generated 5 million euros with 2.6 million from Spain operations. The company is expanding its ice show concept to Spain, launching in PuertoVenecia shopping center in Zaragoza in November with plans to expand to Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Corunha and Bilbao. The ice show is expected to attract 60,000 spectators and generate 1 million euros in revenue over seven weeks.
HelloPrint, a Rotterdam-based online print platform, reported revenue growth to approximately 80 million euros in 2025 with 21% operational profit increase. The company bought back shares from early investors and continues its AI-first transformation across 14 countries and 160 employees serving 700,000 customers.