Local startups, investors, and operators based in Porto, Portugal.
14 entries.
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.
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.
Intelligent, collaborative facilities and maintenance management (CMMS) SaaS platform managing 50,000+ buildings across 17+ countries; clients include Primark, Siemens and Marriott. Founded 2015.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.