Forgive me for boasting, but Portugal has always been a magical place, a country full of rich history, beautiful architecture, and amazing food and wine. We also offer a good quality of life, an advanced educational system with free and compulsory schooling until the age of 18, and a cost of living that is much lower than in other European countries. This symbiosis of character, history, and a modern way of life is, I’m convinced, helping to drive Portugal’s growing startup scene.
Portugal is, in short, a place to be inspired.
To be fair, the current entrepreneurial boom was initially the result of several dismal years for Portugal’s economy. But the upside of the downturn was more young people choosing to take a chance on starting their own company. Faced with a rising unemployment rate, these young entrepreneurs have been finding inspiration in the real world, recognizing needs in the marketplace, and applying creative solutions. The result has been an explosion of startups, and a rising GDP, up 1.6 percent this year and .9 percent in 2014, after several years in recession.
To help boost entrepreneurship even more, the Portuguese government created an investment agency called Portugal Ventures, a €450 million fund focusing on investments in innovative, scientific, and technology-based companies as well as in companies from the more traditional Portuguese tourism and industrial sectors.
A number of startup incubators have also mobilized, offering new businesses an office or desk to get them off the ground. Startup Lisboa, for example, one of the largest incubators in the country, hosts around 80 startups at any one time from various areas of business, from tech to tourism and everything in between.
Up north there’s Startup Braga, which has partnered with Microsoft Ventures to focus on pre-acceleration, acceleration, and incubation programs for startups with global growth ambitions.
The Lisbon Challenge is recognized as the fourth most active accelerator program in Europe by Fundacity, promoting growth and internationalization. In just three years, it has sent three alumni to Y Combinator, two alumni to Seedcamp, and one to TechStars. Forty percent of the companies coming out of Lisbon Challenge have secured investment, and one has been acquired.
