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Movendo Capital
Movendo Capital was established as the investment vehicle for the Soares dos Santos family, whose wealth originates from Jerónimo Martins, the...
Movendo Capital
Movendo Capital was established as the investment vehicle for the Soares dos Santos family, whose wealth originates from Jerónimo Martins, the Portuguese-listed food distribution group that operates the Pingo Doce supermarket chain. The firm is held by Sociedade Francisco Manuel dos Santos (SFMS), the family's central holding company, and is run by CEO Pedro Pereira Gonçalves, who also serves as a director of Hansa Investment Company. Its founding year is not publicly recorded. The firm pursues a generalist mandate spanning venture capital, growth equity, and control buyouts. It invests across the capital structure, targeting early-stage startups, expansion rounds, and mature industrial assets. A signature deal is the acquisition of Verescence — the French glass bottle manufacturer for the perfume and cosmetics industry — in consortium with Draycott, giving Movendo direct exposure to manufacturing facilities in France, Spain, the United States, and South Korea. The firm also holds operating concessions, including the Oceanário de Lisboa, and participates in venture co-investments across Europe. Investment stages explicitly range from seed to late-stage venture, with no publicly declared sector exclusions. The firm has made at least two European industrial and consumer-facing investments of scale, with its Verescence position demonstrating willingness to underwrite cross-border manufacturing deals alongside co-investors. Pereira Gonçalves chairs NovaForum, the professional network of Nova Business School in Lisbon, which creates linkages into Portuguese and European deal origination. The family's philanthropic architecture is housed separately through Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos (FFMS) and the Oceano Azul Foundation, with no commingling of investment and grant-making capital apparent from public filings. No recent fundraising or deployment figures are publicly available. The defining structural feature is Movendo's position within a holding company that owns both operating businesses and purely financial investments — SFMS acts as the parent, giving the investment team direct access to family operating expertise in consumer retail across four continents. This hybrid architecture, sitting between a pure single-family office and a diversified holding company, provides permanent capital with no external LP pressure on hold periods.
General information
Firm type
Single Family Office
Year founded
—
AUM
$500M - $1B (Altss estimate)
Location
Region
Europe
Country
Netherlands
City
Amsterdam
Corporate office
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Principals
Pedro Pereira Gonçalves
CEO
Alexander Scharzenberger
Investment Director
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Movendo Capital?
Pedro Pereira Gonçalves serves as CEO and is the primary investment decision-maker, supported by Investment Director Alexander Scharzenberger. Gonçalves also holds a board seat at Hansa Investment Company, the externally focused investment trust, giving him visibility into third-party manager selection and public-market dynamics alongside Movendo's private capital deployment.
Where does the underlying wealth come from?
The capital originates from the Soares dos Santos family, who built their fortune through Jerónimo Martins — the Portuguese retail conglomerate listed on Euronext Lisbon. The group operates the Pingo Doce supermarket chain in Portugal, Biedronka in Poland, and Ara in Colombia, making it one of Europe's largest food retailers by market share in its core geographies.
Is Movendo Capital structured as a single family office or an asset manager?
Movendo operates as the direct investment arm of Sociedade Francisco Manuel dos Santos (SFMS), making it a single-family office in function. However, it sits alongside Hansa Investment Company — a publicly traded investment trust also linked to the family — and the holding structure allows it to behave more like a permanent-capital investment company than a traditional family office limited to third-party funds.
Does Movendo participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
Movendo's public record emphasizes direct investing, with its most prominent disclosed position being the direct acquisition of Verescence alongside co-investor Draycott. The firm lists venture capital stages from seed to late-stage in its strategy, suggesting direct equity deployment rather than fund-of-funds activity, though any parallel LP commitments to external managers are not publicly disclosed.
What is Movendo's known posture on co-investments alongside external GPs?
Movendo actively co-invests with external partners on large transactions. The Verescence acquisition was executed in consortium with Draycott, demonstrating willingness to share deal economics and due diligence with external investors. The firm's generalist mandate and permanent capital base make it a flexible co-investment partner for other European family offices and institutional managers.
Does Movendo Capital maintain philanthropic structures, and how are they separated?
The family's philanthropic activities are housed in separate entities: Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos (FFMS), which focuses on Portuguese public policy research and education, and the Oceano Azul Foundation, dedicated to ocean conservation. Neither foundation is commingled with Movendo's investment capital — the holding company structure maintains legal separation between grant-making and principal investing.
Which sectors does Movendo explicitly avoid?
No sector exclusions are publicly declared. The firm's known positions span industrial manufacturing (Verescence), consumer concessions (Oceanário de Lisboa), and venture-stage opportunities across generalist categories, suggesting broad appetite without publicly stated negative screens for industries such as defense, energy, or tobacco.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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