Startup Portugal: ‘We’ve created the conditions for any entrepreneur to thrive’

Ahead of Web Summit 2022, we spoke to Startup Portugal executive director António Dias Martins about Portugal’s new entrepreneurship strategy.

Startup Portugal, one of Web Summit’s event partners, is a nonprofit organisation with the mission of promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in Portugal. The organisation acts as a connection between government, entrepreneurs, incubators, accelerators, investors and teaching institutions in order to support the needs of Portugal’s startup ecosystem.

Launched in 2016, Startup Portugal has promoted various programmes and initiatives. The most recent have been the Startup Visa, the Tech Visa and Business Abroad, and the new Startup Vouchers.

We sat down with António Dias Martins, executive director of Startup Portugal, as he explained the strengths of Portugal as a global startup hub and business destination, the state of the national tech ecosystem, and Startup Portugal’s plans for Web Summit this year.

What makes Portugal such a successful global startup hub?

Several factors have contributed to Portugal being one of the most relevant entrepreneurship hubs in the world.

One of the earliest factors was the government’s strategy to set entrepreneurship and innovation as a priority for the Portuguese economy. By doing so, alongside a concerted approach from different public and private players, we’ve created the conditions for any entrepreneur to thrive in Portugal.

António Dias Martins, executive director of Startup Portugal. Image: Startup Portugal

The excellent quality of life has also played a part. This is the sixth most peaceful country in the world, and we’re open to different cultures. Portugal is rated as one of the most friendly countries for expats by Expat Insider and, on the top 10 destinations for digital nomads, we have three Portuguese regions: Lisbon (first), Madeira (third) and Portimão (10th). Porto also makes the list in 12th place, and Lagos is in 17th.

What are some of the advantages of starting a business and investing in Portugal?

Fewer countries in the world offer greater quality of life within such a mature ecosystem, with excellent infrastructure – 11th, globally, in fibre optic connectivity – and community growth.

Access to mechanisms such as Startup Visa or Tech Visa make it easier to attract talent, and consequently lead to the growth of tech companies and startups in Portugal.

Portugal is geographically the closest to the USA in mainland Europe, is historically connected to China, and is in the same time zone as London. Lisbon, Porto and Faro airports have more than 320,000 international flights every year connecting to the world’s major hubs.

Also, Portuguese is the fifth most-spoken language in the world, with 260 million speakers.

Can you talk us through Portugal’s new entrepreneurship strategy?

We’ll disclose this during a session at our Web Summit stand, so if you want to know more, please visit us in Pavilion 4.

I can give you a snippet: we’ve gone through an incredible journey in making Portugal an excellent place for entrepreneurs and investors to settle. But there are still challenges for those who want to grow in Portugal.

We’re committed to helping startups scale from Portugal, creating a regulatory context favourable to the retention of highly skilled talent, to the attraction of foreign investment, and to the growth of startups.

We’re also working on programmes and initiatives to support this vision, such as steadier support for startups that need early-stage investment (through new Startup Vouchers) and the growth of our Business Abroad programme to help startups scale and do business abroad.

How has Portugal’s startup ecosystem changed or matured over the last few years?

Along with all the factors that I mentioned above, I would also highlight the number of global tech corporations that have set up development centres in Portugal.

The community of startups has also grown significantly over the last few years – there are now more than 2,000. We have also increased the number of unicorns founded by Portuguese talent to seven.

In 2021, we achieved a record of €1 billion invested in Portuguese startups. This made our community much more mature, since there’s a more diverse talent pool in the ecosystem. Portugal was also the country that grew the most in the number of patent applications in Europe in 2021. The companies that contributed the most to this record were the Portuguese unicorn Feedzai (17 patents) and a unicorn founded by Portuguese talent, Sword Health (12 patents).

We seem to be experiencing a global economic slowdown, particularly in the tech sector. How is Portugal prepared to weather this potential economic storm?

Most of all, we’re trying to work closely with every stakeholder in the ecosystem to ensure we can act in a timely manner to support our founders’ needs. We’ve seen some impact already, but we believe that the entrepreneur community can quickly adapt to new challenges and context.

If there is a community that can reinvent itself, it’s the entrepreneurial ecosystem. We’ll be here to listen and to help startups overcome the struggles caused by the war and its consequences. We’re working with the government to make sure that new policies take into account the new context.

What part has Web Summit played in Portugal’s development as a startup ecosystem?

Web Summit has highlighted the potential of Portugal as a global hub for entrepreneurs. It’s an opportunity for Portugal to show all the significant advantages of living and doing business in our country, and of investing in it.

It has been great to see the community grow – not only in Lisbon, but all across the country.

What are your plans for Web Summit this year?

This year, we will have our biggest stand ever. At this stand, we will announce a lot of news – the launch of new programmes, our early ecosystem report presentation – and will discuss relevant vectors in the ecosystem, such as the blue economy, and energy and sustainability. So be sure to visit us in Pavilion 4.

Visit the Startup Portugal stand at Web Summit 2022, and check out the reasons you should Sign Up for Portugal now.

​​Main image of attendees working and networking at Startup Portugal’s stand at Web Summit:​​ Web Summit/​​Web Summit (​​CC BY 2.0)