Joao Duarte
Senior Manager at eBay Ventures
Lucerne Metropolitan Area
Overview
Work Experience
Principal @ eBay Ventures
2025 - Current
Senior Manager
2022 - 2025
EBay Ventures invests in disruptive companies that are revolutionizing the commerce landscape.
Principal
2025
Senior Manager
2022 - 2025
Board Observer
2025
Open-source GraphQL Federation [eBay Ventures investment]
Investor
2024
poolside is building next generation AI for software engineering [eBay Ventures investment]
Poolside is an artificial intelligence platform that offers foundation concepts and infrastructure to write software codes.
Raised $626,000,000.00 from eBay Ventures, PremjiInvest, Motier Ventures, Schroders Capital, BAM Elevate, Inovia Capital, Capital One Ventures, Citi Ventures, HSBC Ventures and Adams Street Partners.
Board Observer
2023
SidelineSwap makes it easy for athletes and sports families to buy and sell their gear [eBay Ventures investment]
SidelineSwap is an online marketplace for athletes, spectators, and sports families to purchase and trade athletic products.
Raised $12,549,322.00 from FJ Labs, DSG Ventures, eBay Ventures, DSG Ventures, FJ Labs, PEAK6 Sports, RiverPark Ventures, Global Founders Capital, FJ Labs and Admiral Capital Group.
Board Observer
2023
The Volte is one of the largest designer fashion rental marketplaces globally. [eBay Ventures investment]
Investment Manager - Lead for Nordics / CEE
2020 - 2022
Led full investment process for European Series A/B investments in SaaS, Marketplaces, and AI. Executed seven new investments with top-tier co-investors, resulting in a high follow-on funding rate (90%). Actively involved in portfolio management, including serving as a board observer at several companies. Select Investments: Druid AI – Enterprise focused Generative AI platform Minut – Rental property protection using edge computing and ML / AI Soter Analytics – Workplace injury prevention using wearables, ML / AI and computer vision Threatray – Enterprise Malware Analysis and Detection using AI Bob W – Tech-enabled short-term rentals company Fractory – B2B marketplace for industrial manufacturing
Expert
2020 - 2022
Expert monitor for Point.IOT project, a program designed to empower innovation using Galileo and IoT technologies
Venture Partner
2019 - 2020
Managed full investment process for pre-seed/seed investments in B2B SaaS, AI, and marketplaces across Central and Eastern Europe. Led five investments, including pre-seed investment in Investown, the leading Czech crowdinvesting platform, and AhoyConnect (exit to Commsor)
CEO & Co-Founder
2015 - 2019
Built and scaled Techloop, leading CEE marketplace for hiring tech professionals, to 5 countries and 10,000s of users. Exited to Alma Media group in 2020