Funding Solutions

PacSis was born in 1992 and it is a national company, leader in its sector and a specialist in Discount Coupons Management, which is one of the main services provided, by managing several million of vouchers annually for major brands in the market.

The vision of the company is to be the communication, promotional and digital marketing partner for companies operating in the B2C market.

Recently, the entrance on the market of discount vouchers market made by major retail brands and a bigger dynamic of the digital sector, led the challenge to change the company's business model.

Portuguese company in the sector of discount vouchers develops internationalization project with the support of STEAM consultants.

How to migrate the company's business model to the digital area, simultaneously taking the company to international markets.

Given the need for investment identified by the company, to support the migration processes to digital and internationalization, it was defined as a priority the submission of applications to European incentive programs.

STEAM analyzed the company and its strategy and together with the company´s management team it defined the necessary investments to support the company's strategy, in order to maximize the project's potential for success.

Following this analysis STEAM submitted applications to the Incentive Scheme for the Qualification and Internationalisation of SMEs under the QREN, and also to the Incentive Scheme for the Internationalisation of SMEs, under Portugal 2020.

The applications submitted were approved, having the company received essential support to finance the investments defined as necessary for its strategy.

Currently the company can offer its customers solutions of digital discount vouchers, and is present in new markets such as Spain, Brazil and the Middle East.

Created to manage the Caliço Park, located in Vila Nova de Cacela, TRANSCAMPO invested in a niche market, associated with mobile homes, which allow for residential tourism less subject to traditional market seasonality.

For this, the company has set its mission as:

To provide its users high quality campsites, in order to provide them a relaxed experience, comfortable and practical at an affordable price (no hidden costs) to make your holidays become unforgettable experiences and converted into a permanent residence.

With this mission the company managed to find a balance between traditional camping (very vulnerable to seasonal factor) and residential tourism, that fixes tourists in the park in the winter months, which allowed this company to get positive results, with an exponential growth potential if the capacity of the park increases.

At the same time the company gwas given, by the city of Sines, through public auction, the exploitation of Sines Camping Park. However, once the equipment was subject to abandon, there is a need for its recovery.

How to finance the opportunity to expand the business?

Being limited the ability to finance expansion only with equity and the operating results obtained in Caliço Park, it to research for incentives related to the tourism sector that could support, in part, the investments to be made.

The work done by STEAM was on the individual analysis of each of the campsites managed by Transcampo in order to build specific business plans for each project and also on the identification of synergies that could be obtained by the simultaneous management of the two parks.

After this work, a research was made on the various types of incentives under which the projects could be financed and two opportunities were identified:

• JESSICA initiative;
• Portugal 2020.

Under the opportunity through the JESSICA initiative, STEAM carried out a follow-up work on the relationship between Transcampo and the financial institution responsible for the fund, with a presentation of the detailed business plan of the Sines Camping Park.

With regard to the opportunity through Portugal 2020, the various investments identified in the Caliço Park business plan were divided into two distinct applications (Productive Innovation and Internationalisation).

In both cases STEAM supported the company in providing all the information to the competent authorities responsible for the approval of the applications submitted.

As a result of the work carried out by STEAM, the financing projects were approved and the company managed to get, through these instruments, the external capital to support its expansion strategy.

As a result of the overall success and the demonstrated experience in the tourism sector by STEAM, it was agreed that the STEAM will continue to support the company's management team, contributing daily to optimize its strategy and decision making process.

In 2010, with the national tourism boom and the creation of a market associated with the food industry, Ricardo Sécio had an idea related to an innovative business model, associated to the provision of services through an online restaurant reservation system and marketing services for the promotion of restaurants and a tool for communication and digital advertising.

Given the scarcity of resources by the promoter, which way to go to operationalize the business?

It was decided that the best way was to support permanently the promoter on the development of his idea, which translated on the entrance by the STEAM in the company's capital and on the strategic and decision-making process, namely on the start-up stage.

The support of the STEAM to the BestTables project began with the transformation of the promoter idea into a business plan and subsequent analysis of the economic and financial viability.

Then a go decision was made, and STEAM supported the promoter in identifying and attracting institutional investors and business angels which allowed the financing for the start of the project, thus making it a reality.

With the start of operations STEAM was responsible to monitor the evolution of project and make the monitoring and piloting activity, constructing a information and management control system that proved essential to support the rapid growth of the business.

As originally planned, the success of the project in Portugal led to the decision to internationalize the business for the Brazilian market, specifically to São Paulo.

To complement the financing needs of this new venture of BestTables, STEAM made an application to QREN, which was approved.

Following the several works performed by STEAM, BestTables business model registered a high success with restaurants, raising, in a short time, more than 1,200 restaurants associated with the platform, distributed between Portugal and Brazil.

As a result of its success, the company was acquired during the year 2015 by TripAdvisor, being integrated in the Fork brand.

The creation of the park was made through the deliberate immersion of four slaughtered ships proviede by the Portuguese Navy, putting Portugal on the route of the best places in the world for diving. This project presented an innovation in Portugal and Europe.

This initiative had its genesis in the development of the foundations for the creation in the Algarve region of a new factor for tourists attraction, having as features:

• The practice of physical activity;
• Specific natural conditions, as well as the use of own equipment and techniques;
• Extremely high potential for mass consumption.

The purpose was to also transform the Algarve into a worldwide diving destination, attracting underwater tourists from all backgrounds, nationally and internationally.

Being a completely innovative project, it was necessary to define the path to follow in order to allow the implementation of the underwater park in Portimão.

A major difficulty was how to articulate the various public bodies involved in the project, namely, the city of Portimão, the Secretary of State and the Sea, the Portuguese Navy, the National tourism body, the Algarve Tourism, the CCDR - Algarve, the ICNB (Institute for Nature Conservation and Biodiversity), the IP and the ISQ: Environmental body.

Moreover, being this a project of public interest, it would be necessary to define a financing model which allowed to support the investments to be made in order to make it viable.