# Start Ventures

> Start Ventures is a VC fund in Lisbon backing InsurTech and Software. See 36 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Lisbon, Portugal
- Total investments: 36
- Last investment: Aug 2026
- Lead investor: 14%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bigstartventures
- Website: https://www.bigstart.vc

Start Ventures is a global early-stage Venture Capital investor in B2B startups in the Financial Services sector.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Start Ventures. Shizune tracks 1 team members at Start Ventures. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/big-start-ventures?utm_source=investor_profile

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $1.1M–$8M |
| Series A | $5.3M–$17M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| InsurTech | 10 | 28% |
| Software | 9 | 25% |
| Insurance | 6 | 17% |
| Financial Services | 6 | 17% |
| Information Technology | 6 | 17% |

57 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 14 | 39% |
| Series A | 9 | 25% |
| Venture - Series Unknown | 5 | 14% |
| Convertible Note | 3 | 8% |
| Pre-Seed | 2 | 6% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 7 | 19% |
| United Kingdom | 7 | 19% |
| Portugal | 6 | 17% |
| France | 1 | 3% |
| Poland | 1 | 3% |

9 countries tracked in total.

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| João Freire de Andrade | Executive Director | 2 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jo%C3%A3o-freire-de-andrade-c2b4 |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Humanos | Humanos is building the verification network for AI, designed for a world where autonomous AI agents move money, access data, and execute critical actions across organizational boundaries. Through a single API, organizations can verify an AI agent's identity, who it represents, its delegated authority, human authorization, and executionevidence before any action is performed. Every verification generates cryptographically verifiable runtime trust signals that enable runtime governance and power the next generation of AI insurance.Before any high-stakes action runs, a system makes a single humanos.verify() call, and Humanos runs deterministic checks against the mandate and returns an authorized or not-authorized decision. If an action falls outside what was approved, Humanos pauses it, collects fresh approval in real time, and resumes once verified. Every executed action emits a cryptographically signed receipt that auditors, banks, regulators, and counterparties can verify independently, without trusting the originating system. | $3.2M | Seed | Aug 04, 2026 |  |
| Finovox | Finovox provides a solution for detecting false documents. They offer investigative tools to analyze, understand, and explain fraud. Additionally, they provide users with hard evidence of fraud. | $9.5M | Series A | Jun 08, 2026 |  |
| WeatherPromise | WeatherPromise offers weather forecasts. It provides vacation, outdoor events, and outdoor activity reports. | $12.8M | Series A | Jan 13, 2026 |  |
| ClaimSorted | ClaimSorted is a modern claims TPA providing a 5-star claims experience while also reducing operational and indemnity costs through our industry-leading claims team and advanced automation | $13.3M | Seed | Oct 13, 2025 |  |
| Zango | Zango is an AI-powered compliance automation platform designed to help financial services firms manage regulatory change across multiple regions, including the UK and EU. Leveraging cutting-edge AI, the platform performs real-time horizon scanning, automated gap analysis, and human validation to ensure accuracy and maintain security andtransparency. Backed by industry-leading investors, it empowers compliance teams to dramatically accelerate processes and reduce manual oversight. | $4.8M | Seed | Jul 01, 2025 |  |
| Sonant AI | The AI Receptionist for Insurance | $3.2M | Seed | Mar 06, 2025 |  |
| Fraudio | Fraudio assists businesses of all sizes in the payments ecosystem in combating payment fraud and financial crime. It is built on secure, scalable, and future-proof technology, and it takes pride in being the quickest and easiest to integrate with, delivering value from day one.The company was established in 2019, is headquartered in Amsterdam,Netherlands and has an R&D office in Lisbon, Portugal. |  | Series A | Mar 04, 2025 |  |
| ETHIACK | Ethiack combines AI-powered pentesting with expert insight to continuously uncover, validate and prioritize real risks. Act fast and reduce exposure, 24/7. | $4.2M | Seed | Dec 10, 2024 |  |
| Jove Insurance | Jove is an insurtech company to provide flexible bundled insurance for contractors and freelancers | $4.5M | Seed | Nov 29, 2024 |  |
| Beholder | Beholder is an AI-powered remote sensing platform designed for the investigation of vital minerals and energy resources. It uses machine learning to interpret data from satellites in order to create accurate forecasts on mineral deposits at the same time, thanks to remote sensing technology that does not harm the environment and can be scaledwithout restriction. | $940K | Seed | Mar 14, 2024 |  |

10 of 36 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [EDP Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/edp-ventures) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Iberis Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/iberis-capital) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [NewAlpha Asset Management VC](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/newalpha-asset-management) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Nexus Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/nexus-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Semapa Next](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/semapa-next) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [APEX Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/apex-ventures-12df) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

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## FAQ

### What does Start Ventures invest in?

Start Ventures invests primarily in InsurTech, Software and Insurance startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 36 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Start Ventures's check size?

Start Ventures typically joins rounds of $1.1M–$8M at Seed and $5.3M–$17M at Series A. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Start Ventures participates in.

### How do I contact Start Ventures?

Public channels for Start Ventures include LinkedIn and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at Start Ventures?

The team at Start Ventures includes João Freire de Andrade (Executive Director). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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