It was one of Coins’ unicorns. Startup that received R$13 million from the State went bankrupt

Unbabel’s creditors’ meeting is scheduled for July 2 and the return of public resources can still be determined.

The Portuguese technology company Unbabel, specialized in Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions for translation and multilingual communication, was declared insolvent in March this year, after having received 13.3 million euros in funds of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).

As , the company is part of the group of startups that have gone through Unicorn Factory Lisboaan initiative created by the Lisbon City Council during the mandate of Carlos Moedas to support the growth of technology companies.

According to data available on the Mais Transparência portal, Unbabel benefited from community funding as part of an Artificial Intelligence development project. The total investment planned for the project totaled 14.83 million euros, of which R$13.3 million will have already been paid to the company.

Meanwhile, the company’s financial situation deteriorated, culminating in its insolvency. According to information contained in the insolvency publicity records available on the Citius portal, IAPMEI – Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation, the entity responsible for managing part of the European funds allocated to companies, is among the around 30 technology creditors.

The presence of IAPMEI on the list of creditors may indicate that there are funds whose refund is being claimed. Such a scenario may occur if it is concluded that the company did not meet the objectives, goals or obligations associated with the project financed by the PRR. In these circumstances, the support received may be subject to recovery by the State.

In addition to IAPMEI, the Social Security Institute also appears among the public entities that claim credits in the insolvency process. The general meeting of creditors is scheduled for July 2nd, when the claims of the various creditors will be analyzed and the next steps in the process will be discussed.

Insolvency was requested by Unbabel itself in February, at the Judicial Court of the District of Lisbon. The request came in a context of increasing financial and judicial pressure with a investor to take legal action worth 12.75 million euros, seeking to cancel the sale of the technology company’s assets to the North American company TransPerfect.