Portugal — especially Lisbon — has quickly become one of Europe's most popular startup destinations. Affordable living, a welcoming visa regime for tech workers, and marquee events like Web Summit have attracted international founders. Strengths include SaaS, travel tech, and sustainability, with growing VC activity and government-backed startup incentives. The directory currently lists 84 organisations across 9 cities.
84 entries.
The Alentejo Accelerator is a regional startup acceleration programme run by ANJE, the Portuguese National Association of Young Entrepreneurs, supporting early-stage founders in the Alentejo region around Evora. It provides training, mentoring and networking to help new businesses develop and grow.
Independent alternative Android app store and distribution platform with 430M+ users and 1M+ apps, one of the largest Android stores globally, with an AppCoins crypto rewards layer. Founded 2009.
Armilar Venture Partners is a Lisbon-based venture capital firm that spun out from Portugal's Novabase group in 2016, building on a venture investment track record dating back to 2001. The firm invests from seed through growth stage in deep tech, enterprise IT, and healthcare, with a focus on Portuguese and Iberian founders with global ambitions. Armilar manages over EUR 200M and has backed companies including Feedzai (AI fraud detection unicorn), Outsystems, Sword Health, and Codacy. The team provides strategic support in US market entry and international scaling.
Bandora is an AI-powered virtual facility manager that integrates with existing building management systems to optimize energy efficiency, reduce costs, and maintain comfort in commercial buildings. The startup has reported about USD 1M-1.5M in pre-seed/seed backing and won the CTA CEO Summit startup pitch in Lisbon, earning a complimentary exhibit space at CES 2026 in Las Vegas.
Beta-i is a Lisbon-based innovation and acceleration organisation founded in 2009 that runs startup programmes, including its well-known Lisbon Challenge accelerator, and helps corporates innovate through open-innovation initiatives. With a presence spanning Lisbon, Brussels, Boston and Sao Paulo, it has supported thousands of startups across Europe and beyond.
Life sciences partnering conference in Lisbon built around structured 1:1 meetings between biotech startups, pharma companies, and investors. Registration costs about EUR 2800+. Covers drug discovery, clinical development, and licensing. Essential for biotech startups seeking licensing deals, co-development partnerships, and Series A+ funding from specialized life-science investors.
Residential solar company offering panels, batteries, EV chargers and backup systems via a no-upfront-cost subscription model, aiming to cut household electricity bills by up to 50%.
Bloop is a Lisbon-based social-commerce startup founded by Francisco Rodrigues (CEO) and João Neves (CTO), both alumni of companies including Amazon, Farfetch, Microsoft and Uber. Conceived in 2022 and formalised in 2024, it operates what it calls the world's first social shopping network — a platform that fuses a product marketplace with the mechanics of a social feed, turning ordinary consumers into paid recommenders. Users earn wallet credits of up to 10% of a purchase's value for publishing authentic recommendations, and up to 5% commission on referral sales, while sellers gain community-generated exposure instead of paid ads. At its July 2025 public beta the platform carried 200,000+ products from 150+ brands and reported a ~4.5% conversion rate. Bloop has raised about €1.5M in pre-seed capital co-led by Monarque Funds and Insure Broker, including one of Portugal's largest retail crowdfunding rounds, and targeted a €5M seed to expand into Spain and France.
Bright Pixel (formerly Sonae IM) is the technology investment arm of Portugal's Sonae Group, operating as a corporate venture studio from Porto and Lisbon. Founded as Sonae IM and rebranded in 2020, Bright Pixel invests EUR 1-5M at Series A and B in cybersecurity, retail tech, telecom, and fintech companies across Europe and Israel. The firm manages over EUR 200M and has backed companies including Outsystems, Feedzai, and S21sec. Bright Pixel provides portfolio companies with strategic access to Sonae's retail and telecom operations for piloting and commercial partnerships.
Brisa Boost is the corporate startup accelerator and open-innovation programme of Brisa, Portugal's largest motorway operator. It works with early-stage startups in mobility, smart infrastructure and sustainability, offering pilots on Brisa's road network, mentoring and access to its business units.
A community-run technical infosec conference at ISEP Porto — workshops on Friday, then main tracks, villages, an electronic badge, and a Capture-The-Flag on Saturday, with roughly 800 attendees. Valuable for security-minded founders and engineers, and for any startup wanting to plug into Portugal's cybersecurity talent pool.
Builders Circle Porto is a small, application-only, operator-led one-day session organised by Product Circle for product managers and product leaders. Held at MC Digital in Porto, it covers product strategy, AI-era decision-making, discovery and growth for startup and scaleup operators in an intimate format.
Founded in 2016, Bynd Venture Capital is a Lisbon-based early-stage VC managing over EUR 60M, investing EUR 0.5-2M at seed and Series A in digital transformation, consumer internet, and e-commerce startups across the Iberian Peninsula. Portfolio companies include Kitch (ghost kitchens), Sensei (autonomous retail), and Nutrium (nutrition SaaS). Bynd focuses on product-driven founders and leverages Lisbon's growing tech ecosystem to connect Portuguese startups with European and US investors.
Casa do Impacto was founded in October 2018 in Lisbon's Convento de São Pedro de Alcântara under the umbrella of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, in partnership with Lisbon City Council, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and other institutions. It serves as Lisbon's main hub for social entrepreneurship, offering incubation, acceleration (including the Maze Impact program), coworking, and investment readiness support to startups working on social and environmental challenges. Within its first three years it had incubated 48 startups, supported over 190 projects, and established 30 national and international partnerships.
Class of Wonders is an impact-focused edtech startup building gamified classroom tools and inclusive learning experiences, including language-learning adaptations for migrant children. Through Lisboa Innovation for All, the team presented MAGOS for All, and it has also participated in ecosystem initiatives such as Techstars Startup Weekend in Viseu.
Automated code-quality and security platform (static analysis, SAST, secret and dependency scanning, AI guardrails) supporting 40+ languages; used by 15,000+ organizations. Founded 2012.
Comudel develops a business operating system that automates workflows, legal contract handling, and AI-assisted financial operations for companies. Founded in 2022, it is associated with Unicorn Factory Lisboa and Instituto Pedro Nunes, operates from The Fintech House in Lisbon, and participated in the SPRINT accelerator focused on compliance and enterprise operations.
IoT data-pipeline platform built on MQTT, offering a managed broker, browser-based control hub, multi-protocol routing and the Language of Things scripting layer for real-time device integration.
Coverflex is a Portuguese startup that builds a compensation management platform bringing together every part of employee compensation beyond salary, including flexible benefits, insurance, meal allowance and exclusive discounts in a single product. Employees manage their benefits, meal allowance, insurance and discounts through the Coverflex app and card, and can direct part of their balance toward savings products. Founded in 2019, it operates across European markets including Portugal, Italy and Spain. In February 2023 it raised a €15 million Series A round to support its European expansion.
General Partner at Indico Capital Partners and co-founder of Talkdesk, the contact-centre software unicorn. A Forbes 30 Under 30 alumna and one of Portugal's best-known tech entrepreneurs, she invests in early-stage software and AI companies across Southern Europe.
Dojo AI is a Lisbon-based agentic marketing platform, founded in 2024 by Duarte Garrido (a marketing leader from Coca-Cola and Sky) and António Alegria (an AI architect from Portuguese unicorns Feedzai and OutSystems). Marketed as an Intelligent Marketing System, it uses multi-agent AI to autonomously monitor, analyse and act across marketing channels, built on a proprietary DOJO Graph that maintains a living digital twin of each customer's marketing operation. Its AI agents track paid and organic campaigns, audit SEO visibility, generate on-brand content and execute workflows in real time, positioning the product as a marketing operating system that consolidates many traditional tools. Serving challenger and enterprise brands primarily in the US and UK, Dojo AI has raised around $7M — a $1M pre-seed (2025) led by Berlin's Heartfelt VC and a $6M / €5.1M seed (2026) led by Lisbon's Armilar Venture Partners at a reported $30M valuation — with capital focused on US expansion.
EDP Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of EDP — Energias de Portugal, one of Europe's largest energy utilities. Established in 2008 and headquartered in Lisbon, with investment teams in Madrid and São Paulo, it manages €150M and makes five to eight investments a year, writing €1–10M cheques from Seed through Series B with follow-on capacity. Its mandate is tightly aligned with EDP's decarbonisation strategy, targeting renewable energy, grid infrastructure, distributed energy resources, green hydrogen, storage and flexibility, electric mobility and energy-use decarbonisation, plus AI and digital. The fund has backed 40+ active companies across Europe and the Americas, including Portuguese AI unicorn Feedzai, battery-recycling firm Green Li-ion and grid-data platform Energyworx (acquired by Gridspertise in 2025); four portfolio companies featured in the 2024 Global Cleantech 100. By end-2023 EDP Ventures had deployed a cumulative €70M and generated over €115M in contract value for EDP group companies.
Lisbon-based blockchain derivatives trading platform providing on-chain perpetual futures and options markets with institutional-grade execution infrastructure for algorithmic traders. Raised €1.7M seed at a €17M valuation in May 2026.
10th edition at Nova SBE Carcavelos, theme 'Reignite Democracy'. Free convening of Nobel laureates, heads of state, activists and young leaders across five pillars including AI & Tech, Health & Preparedness and Global Peace. Limited seats.
ETHGlobal is the leading organiser of Ethereum and Web3 hackathons and summits worldwide, running flagship in-person events and online hackathons that bring together developers, founders and protocol teams to ship onchain applications. Its Lisbon editions anchor Portugal's recurring Onchain Lisbon ecosystem week.
ETHGlobal's flagship Ethereum hackathon returns to Lisbon. 36 hours of building with hundreds of Web3 developers, sponsor bounties, workshops & mentorship from leading protocols, closing with judged demos and prizes for the best on-chain projects.
Autonomous ethical-hacking platform combining AI agents and human hackers to run continuous penetration testing across external assets, internal networks, mobile apps and cloud environments.
Faber is a Lisbon-based venture capital firm investing in early-stage deep-tech startups across Southern Europe and selectively across the wider continent. It concentrates on two theses, applied science and digital transformation, and climate and ocean tech, backing technical teams and supporting them through a dedicated network of expert advisors.
Faber is a Lisbon-based venture capital firm founded in 2012, investing in early-stage deep tech and climate technology companies at the intersection of science and technology in Southern Europe. The firm has backed notable startups including Unbabel, SWORD Health, Codacy, and Smartex, typically writing cheques of €100,000 to €2.5 million. Its latest fund, Faber Tech III, has a target size of €60 million and is anchored by the European Investment Fund and the NATO Innovation Fund.
AI-native fraud and financial-crime prevention platform for banks and payment networks, securing trillions in payments annually. Founded 2011; unicorn since 2021; selected by the ECB for Digital Euro fraud prevention.
European debut of the meetings-first fintech event: 2,500+ senior attendees, 650+ hosted buyers from banks & PSPs, and 25,000+ pre-scheduled double opt-in meetings across payments, banking, lending and embedded finance. 70% C-suite.
FIZ is a Lisbon-based fintech building a mobile-first "neo accountant" for Portugal's self-employed professionals and small businesses. The platform pairs AT-certified invoicing with automated VAT and Social Security filings and an AI fiscal assistant, and backs declarations with an "Escudo Fiscal" guarantee that covers up to EUR 1,500 of penalties per declaration. It runs on a freemium model, offering a free invoicing tier alongside paid plans at EUR 9.99 and EUR 14.99 per month, and reports more than 15,000 users invoicing over EUR 8M through the platform each month. For the directory, FIZ illustrates how vertically integrated tax-automation tools are reaching independent workers in markets where compliance has traditionally required a human accountant.
A week-long founder retreat in Madeira combining business education, partnership-building, and wellness, aimed at established founders running profitable businesses rather than first-timers. Its value is high-trust networking and strategic-partnership formation in a small-group island setting, plus a tie-in to Madeira's digital-nomad ecosystem.
Managing Director at EDP Ventures, where he leads energy-transition and cleantech investments for the corporate VC arm of EDP across Europe and the Americas, working closely with portfolio companies to deploy their technology within EDP's operations.
Networking night hosted during Web Summit week by the French Embassy and the French Tech community in Lisbon. Brings together French founders, international investors, and ecosystem partners for informal drinks and introductions. Valuable for French startups attending Web Summit and seeking warm connections with the Franco-Portuguese tech network.
Greenfest is the organiser of Portugal's largest sustainability festival, running for over eighteen years around pillars such as circular economy, green entrepreneurship, energy and biodiversity. It convenes companies, public bodies, NGOs and the public through talks, exhibitions and activities promoting sustainable development.
Greenfest is Portugal's largest sustainability festival, with the 2026 edition moving to Braga. Structured around eight pillars including circular economy and green entrepreneurship, it mixes talks, exhibitions and activities for sustainability professionals, green founders and the wider public.
Launched 2017. Corporate venture program connecting startups with the Jose de Mello Group in healthcare, energy, and infrastructure. Support: pilot agreements, corporate guidance, and potential customer contracts. Scope: National.
Indico Capital Partners is Portugal's first and leading independent early-stage venture firm, founded in Lisbon in 2017 by Stephan Morais and Ricardo Torgal (both ex-Caixa Capital) and Cristina Fonseca (co-founder of Talkdesk). Since its first fund close in 2019 it has built a >€244M multi-fund platform spanning six vehicles, including VC Fund I (€54M), an Acceleration Fund, an Opportunity Fund, the €50M Indico Blue ocean-economy fund, VC Fund II, and the newly launched VC Fund III (€125M target with a €30M EIF anchor, 2025). The firm invests from pre-seed to Series B with €100K–€10M cheques, focused on Portugal, Spain and Italy and the Southern European diaspora, across enterprise SaaS, AI, deep tech, fintech, cybersecurity, spacetech and the blue economy. Backed by the European Investment Fund, Banco Português de Fomento and Draper Esprit (now Molten), Indico bridges Southern Europe's talent to global capital. Its portfolio includes unicorns Anchorage Digital, Sword Health, TIER Mobility and Remote, with exits including Unbabel (TransPerfect, 2025) and Cargofive (cargo.one, 2026).
Intelligent, collaborative facilities and maintenance management (CMMS) SaaS platform managing 50,000+ buildings across 17+ countries; clients include Primark, Siemens and Marriott. Founded 2015.
AI-powered debt-collection SaaS that automates accounts-receivable management, using machine learning to optimise the timing, tone and channel of debtor outreach for faster recovery.
Coimbra's flagship developer conference: technical sessions plus a hands-on workshop day across Java, JavaScript and TypeScript, cloud, AI and ML, security, and architecture. For technical founders and engineers who want practical depth and to connect with Portugal's developer community beyond the Lisbon–Porto axis.
Executive Vice-President of Portugal Ventures, helping lead the state-backed venture firm's investment activity across digital, industrial, healthcare and tourism technology companies in Portugal.
Client-side security platform that protects JavaScript and web pages from tampering, supply-chain attacks and data leaks, with PCI DSS and GDPR compliance tooling. Trusted by Fortune 500 firms.
Billed as the biggest Kubernetes and cloud-native event ever held in Portugal — two days of keynotes, technical talks, and a sponsor expo at SuperBock Arena, run together with DevOps Days Portugal. For infrastructure-heavy startups and platform or DevOps engineers wanting deep cloud-native content and hiring reach in northern Portugal.
Part of ANJE, LINC Evora (est. 2011) incubates tech startups in the Alentejo region with office space and a collaborative community. Focus on software, mobile apps, and social media; reports 69 investments and 6 exits. Scope: Regional (Alentejo).
A builder-focused AI conference at the Champalimaud Centre, capped at around 400 engineers and researchers actively shipping models in production. For technical AI founders and ML engineers who want substance over marketing, with direct access to top labs and founding teams.
A one-day enterprise-AI gathering at the Lisbon Congress Centre with 30+ keynotes and workshops across three stages. Aimed at senior tech executives, founders, and policymakers — strong for AI startups seeking enterprise buyers, real implementation case studies, and curated networking.
A curated investor-founder matchmaking event in Lisbon connecting 200+ VCs and angels with 100+ pre-screened startups. Structured around 1:1 meetings and themed roundtables on fintech, healthtech, and climate tech. Backed by Beta-i and Portugal's startup visa ecosystem. Tickets from EUR 300 for startups.
Year-end informal meetup organized by Startup Lisboa for the Portuguese founder community. One evening of mulled wine, 3-4 short founder fireside chats, and open networking at Startup Lisboa's Lisbon office. 200+ attendees. Free with RSVP.
Catolica-Lisbon's annual sustainability convening at Beato Innovation District & Santander Center. ~700 attendees across keynotes, academic sessions & workshops on sustainable finance, policy and business under the theme 'Building Sustainability Together'.
One-day hiring event in Lisbon connecting 2,000+ developers and product professionals with 50+ companies recruiting in Portugal, including major European scale-ups and locally established tech employers. Free for candidates. Useful for startups looking to hire in the Portuguese market and for understanding local salary benchmarks and talent supply.
General Partner at EDP Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Portuguese energy group EDP. He leads investments in renewable energy, grid, storage and energy-transition technologies, aligning startup innovation with EDP's decarbonisation strategy.
Lyzer is a Logistics-as-a-Service platform for retail and e-commerce operations, covering order management, warehouse picking optimization, and last-mile orchestration. In July 2025, the company announced a EUR 10M Series B and reported over EUR 160M in GMV plus more than 500,000 fulfilled orders across the Iberian peninsula.
President and CEO of Portugal Ventures for the 2025–2027 term, leading Portugal's state-backed early-stage venture firm within the Banco Português de Fomento group. He oversees the firm's pre-seed to Series A investments across technology, health and tourism startups nationwide.
Founded 2018 with backing from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Runs the Maze X 3-month accelerator for social impact startups, providing tailored mentoring, impact investor access, and a EUR 50K stipend. Notable alumni include Speak. Scope: International.
A Web3 and creative-economy summit bundling eight sub-events — including the Non Fungible Conference, Stablecoin Day, an agents-vs-agents hackathon, and Longevity Day — at Lisbon's Unicorn Factory. Useful for web3, AI, and creative-tech founders wanting exposure to major brand sponsors and the crypto-creative crossover.
Porto's annual tech conference showcasing the city's growing engineering community, with talks on software architecture, AI/ML, DevOps, and product management from local and international speakers. 2,000+ attendees. Tickets EUR 30-100.
Portugal's largest decentralised innovation festival — 250+ mostly-free events across 15+ cities, themed on AI, Web3, sustainability, and the future of work, anchored around Web Summit week. The single best week for a founder to tap the whole Portuguese ecosystem at once, with pitch sessions, tech days, and investor meetups nationwide.
Portugal Ventures is Portugal's principal state-backed early-stage venture firm, established in 2012 through the merger of Inovcapital, AICEP Capital Global Ventures and Turismo Capital. Headquartered in Porto with a Lisbon office, it operates within the Banco Português de Fomento group and manages roughly €288M across 16+ funds. Its mandate is to stimulate Portuguese entrepreneurship with risk capital at pre-seed, seed and Series A, writing tickets of €50K–€1.5M across digital and technology, industry, healthcare and tourism. Since inception it has deployed over €230M into 256+ companies. Its portfolio has produced unicorns including BitSight (cybersecurity), Fever (live entertainment, exited 2026 at 15x) and Glovo, alongside exits in OutSystems and Farfetch (NYSE IPO, 2018). Other notable holdings include Feedzai, Aptoide, Codacy, JScrambler and Sword Health. New leadership for the 2025–2027 term is led by CEO Marco Neves.
Pragma Lisbon is a curated single-track Web3 summit organised by ETHGlobal, featuring high-signal talks from industry leaders for founders and builders. Held the day before the ETHGlobal Lisbon hackathon as part of the Onchain Lisbon week, it focuses on protocol design, scaling and the future of onchain applications.
Developer-first Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) and API vulnerability scanner. Founded 2016 in Portugal; raised EUR 7.7M Series A in 2022; acquired by Snyk in November 2024.
Product Circle organises small, application-only, operator-led sessions for product managers and product leaders across European cities. Each intimate gathering focuses on product strategy, discovery, AI-era decision-making and growth for startup and scaleup operators.
A two-day product conference — a workshops day plus a talks day — at the Museum of the Orient on Lisbon's riverfront, for product managers, designers, founders, and leaders. Practical, craft-focused content on building better products, teams, and strategy, strong for early-stage founders refining product discovery and delivery.
Global employment platform offering Employer of Record (EOR), global payroll, contractor management and compliance across 100+ countries on owned infrastructure. Founded 2019 in Lisbon; a Portuguese unicorn.
General Partner and CFO of Indico Capital Partners, which he co-founded after a career at Caixa Capital. He leads fund operations and investments across enterprise software, fintech and deep tech in Portugal, Spain and Italy.
SBC (Sports Betting Community) is a global media and events company organising large-scale gaming, betting and igaming-technology conferences. Its SBC Summit in Lisbon is one of Europe's biggest industry gatherings, bringing together operators, suppliers, payments and technology companies for exhibitions, conference tracks and networking.
SBC Summit is Europe's largest gaming, igaming and sports-betting industry conference, hosted across the Feira Internacional de Lisboa and MEO Arena in Lisbon's Parque das Nações. It convenes thousands of operators, technology suppliers, payments providers and investors for exhibitions, conference tracks, a startup and investment angle, and large-scale networking.
Second Home Lisbon is a design-forward coworking and community space located in the Time Out Market building at the Mercado da Ribeira in Lisbon's waterfront Cais do Sodre neighborhood. Part of the London-founded Second Home network, the Lisbon location opened in 2016 and provides workspace and community programming for startups, creatives, and remote tech workers in a distinctive plant-filled, architecturally acclaimed environment. Beyond desks, Second Home Lisbon hosts cultural events, startup workshops, speaker series, and cross-disciplinary programs bringing together founders from technology, design, and the arts. The space has become a gathering point for Lisbon's international startup community, particularly attracting founders from the UK, US, and Northern Europe who have relocated to Lisbon for its quality of life, timezone advantages, and growing tech ecosystem.
Semapa Next is the corporate venture capital arm of Semapa Group, one of Portugal's largest industrial conglomerates (pulp, paper, cement). Launched to invest in industrial tech, environmental solutions, mobility, and fintech, Semapa Next deploys EUR 1-5M at Series A in startups aligned with the group's strategic interests. The fund provides portfolio companies with access to Semapa's industrial operations for piloting and commercial partnerships, focusing on sustainability, circular economy, and digital transformation of traditional industries.
Sensei is a Portuguese startup that builds autonomous, checkout-free retail stores using computer vision and artificial intelligence. Its proprietary platform combines cameras, sensors and AI algorithms to automate both new and existing stores, letting customers shop without queues or manual scanning while their cart updates automatically for a ready-to-pay checkout. Founded in 2017, the company is headquartered in Castelo Branco, Portugal, with additional offices in Lisbon, São Paulo and Milan, and works with partners including Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Mastercard. In October 2024 Sensei raised a €15 million Series A round to expand its autonomous retail technology.
Shilling (Shilling VC) is a Lisbon-based early-stage venture capital firm, running a fund of around 52 million euros that backs entrepreneurs from pre-seed and seed stages. Known for a founder-friendly model that shares fund profits with its portfolio founders, it invests primarily in Portuguese and Southern European technology startups and supports them as they scale internationally.
Innovation hub and accelerator supported by Microsoft, nurturing deep-tech startups in biotech, nanotech, and digital sectors. Provides acceleration, access to University of Minho labs, and corporate partners; backed 120+ companies. Scope: Regional (Northern Portugal).
Startup Lisboa is a key incubator in Portugal’s capital, established in 2012 as a public-private initiative to boost entrepreneurship in the city. Situated in downtown Lisbon’s Baixa district in renovated historic buildings, Startup Lisboa provides mentorship, workspace, and networking for early-stage startups across sectors. It was launched with backing from the Lisbon City Council, bank Montepio, and IAPMEI (the Portuguese SME agency), reflecting strong civic support. Over an incubation period of up to 3 years, startups receive guidance on refining their business model, access to strategic partners, and help connecting with investors. Office space is a big draw: Startup Lisboa offers subsidized offices and co-working spots to dozens of startups, easing a major burden in early stages. The incubator runs several vertical programs, including dedicated tracks for tourism, social innovation, and fintech in partnership with corporates. Lisbon’s booming tourism industry spurred Startup Lisboa to create initiatives for travel-tech and “Smart Tourism” – alumni in this space include Unbabel (AI translation for customer service, now a scaleup with $90M+ raised). Other success stories from Startup Lisboa’s portfolio are EatTasty (food delivery, expanded to Madrid) and Hole19 (a golf app with millions of users). Besides incubation, Startup Lisboa manages events like the Lisbon Challenge (an international acceleration program) and interfaces with Portugal’s Startup Visa program to attract foreign founders. They also collaborate with Web Summit (the major tech conference hosted in Lisbon) to showcase local talent. A distinctive project is the “Made of Lisboa” community brand, which Startup Lisboa spearheads to unite the city’s tech scene. The incubator has supported over 300 startups, which have created an estimated 3,000+ jobs. Startup Lisboa also played a role in rejuvenating Lisbon’s downtown, turning it into a lively startup hub. With Lisbon now on the map as a startup-friendly city (helped by initiatives like €200M VC fund of funds from the government), Startup Lisboa continues to be at the heart of it – fostering new companies in an open, founder-centric environment, and solidifying Lisbon’s reputation as a launchpad for international startups in Southern Europe.
Startup Lisboa is Lisbon's pioneering startup incubation and innovation hub, founded in 2012 as a public-private partnership between the Lisbon City Council, Banco Montepio, and several corporate sponsors. Operating from multiple buildings in the historic Baixa district and a dedicated food-tech hub, Startup Lisboa provides workspace, mentorship, and structured incubation programs to early-stage startups across technology, social innovation, food, and creative industries. The hub has supported over 600 startups since launch, with alumni including Uniplaces, Codacy, and Landing.jobs. Startup Lisboa offers programs ranging from 3 to 18 months, with access to a mentor network of 200+ experienced founders and executives, investor introductions, and internationalization support. It is a cornerstone institution in Lisbon's rise as one of Europe's most attractive startup destinations, alongside Web Summit's relocation to the city.
A two-day founder–investor conference at the Beato Innovation District with 150+ speakers and around 2,000 attendees from 40+ countries. Built around fundraising, AI, product, growth, and scaling, with speed networking, 1:1s, and investor office hours — high value for founders raising or hunting deal flow.
Managing General Partner and co-founder of Indico Capital Partners, Portugal's leading independent venture firm. Formerly an executive at Caixa Capital, he has built Indico into a >€244M multi-fund platform and is one of Southern Europe's most prominent early-stage investors, backing companies such as Sword Health and Anchorage Digital.
Sword Health is a Portuguese digital health company focused on musculoskeletal care delivered through a mix of sensors, software, and remote clinical support. The company became prominent by showing that physical therapy does not need to depend entirely on repeated in-person visits when patient motion can be measured remotely and paired with continuous guidance from licensed professionals. Its model combines wearable motion tracking, AI-assisted feedback, and human clinicians into a structured care program that large employers and health plans can offer at scale. That makes Sword Health more than a telehealth app; it is a vertically integrated care-delivery product with hardware, data, and clinical workflow built together. In the European startup ecosystem, Sword Health is a strong example of how deep health-tech products can emerge from the region and sell into highly demanding enterprise buyers in healthcare and HR. It also broadens the directory's coverage of sensor-driven health platforms by linking medical use cases with the kinds of product, data, and device capabilities that have made other European health companies successful.
Cashback platform that links shopping rewards to the stock market: a share of each purchase at 300+ partner brands is invested in stocks, with rewards fluctuating daily and a guaranteed minimum.
AI-powered Language Operations (LangOps) platform combining machine translation with human editors for multilingual customer support and content. Founded 2013 in Lisbon; acquired by TransPerfect in August 2025.
Venture Catalysts is an innovative venture studio and venture builder program based in Porto, Portugal, specializing in spinning up companies from scientific research and technical projects. Founded around 2015 (with roots as a university initiative), Venture Catalysts takes a hands-on approach to pair scientists and engineers with business co-founders to create startups in fields like medtech, cleantech, and AI. The program identifies promising technologies (often from local universities like University of Porto or from labs across Portugal) and provides a structured process to form a company, develop an MVP, and obtain early funding. Each year, it selects a batch of projects and offers resources such as lab access, initial capital (seed grants or investment from partnered funds), and a network of corporate partners for pilots. A distinctive feature is how it integrates venture building with funding: Venture Catalysts can provide seed capital through grants or its partnered VC funds (often up to €200k), and also connects teams with larger investors for follow-ons. The studio’s track record includes helping create SWORD Health (digital physiotherapy startup that became a unicorn) and AddVolt (electric truck battery solution acquired by Daimler). These successes highlight the model’s efficacy – both companies started as technical projects in Portugal and through Venture Catalysts’ support, gained product-market fit and international traction. The venture studio is backed by both private and public stakeholders (it has worked with Portugal’s innovation agency and corporates like EDP in energy tech). Located in Porto’s up-and-coming innovation district, Venture Catalysts has contributed to making Porto a deep-tech startup hub beyond the usual Lisbon scene. The program puts heavy emphasis on team formation – often recruiting experienced entrepreneurs or MBAs to join scientific founders as CEOs or business leads, ensuring startups have both technical depth and commercial acumen. With a regional focus, it has kept many high-tech startups in Northern Portugal, strengthening the local ecosystem. In summary, Venture Catalysts serves as a venture co-founder for scientists – turning lab breakthroughs into viable companies by providing the missing pieces (business talent, early capital, industry links). Its portfolio’s achievements, like SWORD Health’s growth, demonstrate the powerful potential of the venture studio model in catalyzing innovation.
An invitation-style investor summit gathering roughly 300 vetted VCs, angels, family offices, and capital allocators during Web Summit week, a short walk from the main venue. For founders raising larger or later rounds, it concentrates curated deal flow and co-investment conversations away from the Web Summit crowd.
Global conference organizer behind Web Summit, one of the world's largest annual tech gatherings held in Lisbon since 2016. Drawing over 70,000 attendees from 150+ countries, the event features the PITCH startup competition, investor matchmaking through Alpha and Beta programs, and has become a cornerstone of Lisbon's booming startup ecosystem.
Major global tech conference in Lisbon attracting 70,000+ attendees, featuring one of the largest French national pavilions and a dedicated French Tech lounge. Covers AI, climate tech, fintech, and deep tech across multiple stages. Essential for European startups seeking global investor access, media coverage, and corporate partnership opportunities.