Yesterday, the Portuguese government took the entrepreneurial ecosystem by storm and launched Startup Portugal: an ambitious program that aims to give structure to the ecosystem and provide tools that allow startups and entrepreneurs to create and evolve.
Supporting startups is a top priority for the Portuguese Government so today we launched Startup Portugal – a national public strategy to foster entrepreneurship.
– António Costa, Prime Minister of Portugal
This strategy has some very specific goals that go from building structure for the ecosystem to attract investors/co-finance startups in a very early stage level. As expected, the focus is to promote and accelerate Portuguese startups but it also takes in consideration the possibility of attracting international startups to come and stay in the country.
The announcement was made during the opening ceremony of Uniplaces’ new office – the startup that last year raised a $24 million Series A funding led by Atomico. Photo Credits: Startup Lisboa
Another important step, one that will surely catch the community’s attention, is the willingness to create and implement Government policies for entrepreneurship. The list is long:
- Equity crowdfunding and peer-to-peer promotion
- Ignition and Acceleration Vouchers
- Matching funds with Business Angels
- Matching funds with Venture Capital Funds
- Momentum Programme
- Portugal Free Tech Zone for cutting edge industries (ex: Driverless Cars)
- Startup Portugal Calls
- Startup Voucher
- Portuguese Fablabs Network
- Portuguese Incubators Network
- Portuguese startups promotion in major global tech events
- Seed Programme
- Simplex: fight bureaucracy between startups and Public Administration
- World-class Portuguese Acceleration Program
- Leverage Portuguese presence in the Web Summit
With one of the most vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems in Europe, Portugal is a top destination to create, test, fail fast, try again and succeed. Are you ready?
SEE ALSO: Portuguese Strategy For Entrepreneurship – The Details