🦄 Congratulations to the BRAINR team for raising the largest seed round ever (11M EUR) to bring AI to food factories 🦄

Leiria, September 10, 2025

THE BRAIN, startup Portuguese production management software for the food industry, closed an investment round that could reach 11 million euros, led by the venture capital fund C2 Capital Partners. It is the largest Seed Round ever held in Portugal, surpassing the previous record by around half a million euros.

For Paulo Gaspar, CEO and co-founder BRAINR, it's a”historic investment that marks the beginning of a new era for BRAINR. With it, we will accelerate our investments in R&D and democratize artificial intelligence for the entire food industry - from the smallest to the largest factory - creating an intelligent digital brain that eliminates errors, guides operators in their work, and increases the efficiency and traceability of all operations. ”, adds.

Now André Oliveira, Managing Partner at C2 Capital Partners, states that”BRAINR has a team of highly capable and knowledgeable people in the sector, who are able to transform operations, simplifying and optimizing daily life in factories” . ”BRAINR has everything to lead the digitalization of the food industry”, he adds.

According to the WEF (World Economic Forum), the food industry is one of the least digitized in the world, and that is why BRAINR its clear objective is to build the digital brain of food factories to accelerate this transformation.

The problem that BRAINR Resolve is common to the entire sector: factories that still rely on paper, Excel sheets and manual processes, giving rise to high levels of waste, as well as compromised traceability and food safety. Problems that the solutions available on the market have failed to solve. The system connects all areas of the plant in real time, eliminates errors, improves performance and traceability.

”With a team that combines business experience and in-depth knowledge of the sector, BRAINR seeks to simplify the daily lives of factory operators. The technology it uses achieves what smart manufacturing has promised for years, but which the food industry had not yet been able to materialize. Everything so that teams can focus on producing with rigor and efficiency”, defends Duarte Diniz, Senior Investment Analyst at C2 Capital Partners, responsible for the operation.

BRAINR started operations at the end of 2023 and its software currently manages more than 25% of all meat production in Portugal. With this investment, it intends to expand internationally and prepare for expansion to other food sectors: fish, bakery, confectionery, beverages and food products in general. Some of the successful examples of BRAINR's impact are:

AviSabor (Estarreja): It scaled from 40,000 to 190,000 chickens a day, without risking losing control of operations, and reducing shipping errors by more than 95%.

Campoaves (Oliveira de Frades): It transformed the largest chicken slaughterhouse in the countryside in Portugal, by fully digitizing the factory and managing to practically eliminate paper and excel records and, thus, reduce the time spent on manual data recording by more than 92%.

Comave (Viseu): It digitized production, allowing it to achieve IFS certification in record time and 100% digital traceability, and reinforcing trust in quality processes.

BRAINR It is based on technology Cloud more advanced, integrates artificial intelligence, has integrations plug-and-play with the main equipment manufacturers and more than 100 specific features for the food industry. The system is simple to use, adapts to daily routines and does not take up space, so teams can focus on what really matters: producing with rigor and efficiency.

The work is also beginning to be recognized outside of Portugal. Manufacturing Tech Insights elected to BRAINR as a global reference in cloud production management systems. The international publication StartUS Insights highlighted BRAINR as a “rising star” in the demand planning and forecasting category. And Food4Future chose BRAINR as the best solution for factory digitization. More recently, BRAINR was included in the Europa's 100 ranking, which identifies the 100 startups most promising and with the greatest potential in Europe, a recognition that has already distinguished companies such as Spotify, Wise or Farfetch.

With this investment, to BRAINR doesn't just want to transform meat factories. It wants to accelerate the digitization of the entire food industry and show that Portugal can be at the forefront of this global movement.