Frederico Gonçalves, managing director, EDP Ventures, is one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2025 Powerlist.

Frederico Gonçalves

Frederico Gonçalves joined EDP Ventures, the CVC unit of Portuguese electric utilities company EDP as a principal in 2010. In June last year, he was made managing director.

The unit invests globally in startups in sectors including renewable generation, grid capacity and optimisation, and energy systems monitoring. It mainly looks for startups and scale-ups that can bring value to EDP in the short-to-medium term, but also makes deep tech investments which promise returns over a longer period.

“We do not run away from innovation that has impact, or potential impact, in five years’ time,” says Gonçalves. He cites Captura, a company developing technology to capture carbon from the ocean, as an example. The present business has been focused on carbon avoidance via renewables; now, the Captura investment allows EDP to explore new growth avenues in the carbon removal sector.

“We do not run away from innovation that has impact, or potential impact, in five years’ time.”

Gonçalves manages a team of eight, split between Lisbon and Madrid. He says that an important source of opportunities for EDP Ventures is its network of contacts at other funds – both CVC and regular VC – who the unit is in regular contact with. Some promising startups come to its attention through the wider innovation system within EDP, which runs accelerator programmes as well.

Recent successful investments include Splight, which uses an AI system for real-time energy grid monitoring. The startup is working with EDP’s renewables division to minimise curtailment orders – where power output from renewables must be restricted due to oversupply or capacity issues.

“Curtailment is an increasingly significant challenge for renewable energy operators, given the growing penetration of renewables on the grid, combined with congested or inadequate transmission and distribution networks.”

He says the unit thinks solar power-related technology is a strong investment area. In his view, it is the only renewable energy source cheap enough and quick enough to deploy that can meet the vast power demand expected from the growth of industries such as AI. And while he believes the green energy transition may slow down at times, it will not reverse. “The train has already departed the station and will not come back,” he says.


The Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist represents the 100 individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry.

These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.

See the full 2025 Powerlist here.