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Porto

“Porto quickly became an extremely attractive city to live in and invest. I believe that what really makes a difference are the people, the fact that the city is welcoming and that everything is close, the sea, the river and the best of the Portuguese cuisine. I have great admiration and pride for the city and a deep belief in its future.”

José Neves, Founder & CEO Farfetch

“Porto is a seaside city with a river and very good connections to all European capitals. It also has one of the best universities in Europe. There is a lot of talent that can be found here. The Porto inhabitant himself has these entrepreneurship and hardworking characteristics, thus creating the fundamental characteristics to start businesses.”

Pedro Fortuna, Co-Founder and CTO at Jscrambler

“Porto has all the key elements (…). In a very close radius, we have a lot of good universities, easy access to all the international hubs, but also a very good quality of life. I believe this mix makes Porto an excellent hub to grow.”

Felipe Costa, Co-Founder and CEO at Infraspeak
Ecosystem Highlights

  • +500 startups

  • +3k startup jobs

  • +40 accelerators, incubators & workspaces

  • +60 tech communities

  • Startup and scaleup job creation rate above the national average

  • +120m euros raised in the period of 2016-2021

  • Porto and Northern Portugal described as an FDI Magnet (EY, 2019)

  • Portugal ranked #36th in the World Competitiveness Ranking (IMD, 2021)

  • +80 R&D Centers

  • University of Porto in TOP 50 in Information Management (QS World University Rankings By Subject 2021)

  • +180k students enrolled in higher education institutions in Porto’s Macro-Region

  • +30% study Science, Technology, Engineering or Maths

  • +18k researchers

As one of the major urban areas in Southern Europe, Porto has gone through a remarkable development in the ecosystem, being a dynamic birthplace of many startups. The connection between knowledge, an active entrepreneurial community, private and public partners, and the support of the Municipality, make the city a vibrant and competitive hub.

Porto offers a reliable environment for your business with social, political, and economic stability, and a capable public administration.

With an interdisciplinary approach, the city’s well-known strengths are aligned with the excellence of the work developed by the academia. With the support of reference industry partners, hundreds of qualified jobs were created and the city is becoming a place where people, especially young entrepreneurs, are inspired by a new risk culture and integrated into a new multicultural and international ecosystem.

A safe and sunny city, with a rich culture and heritage, that provides high quality of health services, international schools, excellent flight connectivity, a booming tech-driven economy and a stimulating R&D environment.

Noteworthy Content:

Contact

ScaleUp Porto

hello@scaleupporto.pt

Land & Start
SETTLING IN THE CITY
STARTING YOUR BUSINESS
Access to capital
Advice about Capital Major VCs and BAs
  • StartUP Portugal
  • Startup Voucher: a programme that offers financing, mentoring, project development support and several distinctions to projects in the ideation phase that are promoted by young entrepreneurs to benefit the Northern and Southern regions of Portugal.

There are a lot of Venture Capital Firms and Business Angels in Portugal, and some specifically headquartered in Porto. Besides the possibility of connecting with local and national investors, Porto also provides the chance to meet international investors.

View Urban Mobility platforms on Dealroom

Access to talent

Due to the quality of its human resources, Porto offers profiles that are highly valued by companies:-IT Developer (most wanted profile);

-Engineer (mechanics, electronics, electrotechnics, industrial management);

-Finance Manager & Accountant;

-Foreign Languages speaker (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Russian, etc);

Find out more aspects of the pool of talent in Porto here.

If you need help growing your company, visit:

Finally, you can find more about the legal aspects of the Portuguese labour system here.

Tech Ecosystem

Fresh Tech

Innovation keeps growing in Porto. Proof of that are the newest startups of the city. Check out the freshest companies of this vibrant ecosystem.

Hot startups & scaleups

View Urban Mobility platforms on Dealroom

New companies

View Urban Mobility platforms on Dealroom

Markets

Explore business opportunities in Porto. as an active and diversified technological ecosystem. See below what type of markets and industries you can find in the only MEGA (Metropolitan European Growth Area) of the northwest peninsula.
laptop

Enterprise Software

money

FinTech

local_hospital

Health

offline_bolt

Energy

https

Security

Diversity and Inclusion

Inclusion is essential to the development of a healthy tech ecosystem. And that is precisely what you will find in Porto, a friendly environment for everyone.

The highlight goes to the support of female entrepreneurship. Portugal has a well-established Women in Tech Community and many of these female entrepreneurs develop their activity in the city of Porto.

Porto in the media
SWORD Health becomes the newest Portuguese unicorn

The digital physiotherapy startup created and led by Virgílio Bento has raised $110 million across six months, which makes it the sixth Unicorn with Portuguese DNA.

SMARTEX wins PITCH competition at Web Summit 2021

The AI-based machine learning solution that helps textile manufacturers reduce their waste, Smartex, won the PITCH competition at Web Summit 2021 for “having the right business model and addressing the right market”, according to the judges.

MAERSK announces new tech and logistics hub in Porto

The sea transport company will create the new technological centre in Porto Office Park (POP), in Boavista and wants to have around 150 people working in the hub by the end of 2022.

Porto-based tech company Knok raises €4.4 million

The investment round was led by the NOS 5G Fund and Triple Point. The health startup now wants to accelerate its national and international expansion.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE CITY
Porto. The ‘unvanquished city’ conquers the hearts of natives and foreigners. There, in the second-largest Portuguese urban centre, the sun, culture, tradition, the best flavours of gastronomy and well-being abound.
More than a source of security, comfort and happiness Porto is a place to explore opportunities. Meet the startups, incubators, investors, tech service providers, communities, and more, right here.

More about Porto

  • Strong + Innovator: in the Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2019;
  • World-Class R&D Institutes: (I3S), INESC TEC, INEGI, CITEVE, CATIM, CEIIA;
  • Increasing Turnover of Enterprises: increased 28,4% from 2014 to 2019;
  • Highly-qualified labour: 27% of the population with a higher education degree;
  • Low-cost labour: 20% to 60% below the European Union average;

 

 

City Map

ACTIVITIES & CASE STUDIES

Porto strives to support the growth of the ecosystem. Focusing on its role as an aggregator, the city has launched several initiatives, such as:

-Call for activities: a programme that aims to boost the tech startup and scaleup communities of Porto while increasing the impact of their activities on the city’s Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology culture. To achieve this goal, the initiative provides the selected activities with financial support up to €10,000 each, from a total budget of €70,000.

-Doing Business: a match-making event where large companies and startups are challenged to come together to explore opportunities for collaboration, promoting innovation and stimulating the capacity for joint growth.

Find out more about other initiatives here.

This City's Cases
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