StartUP Portugal - Portuguese Strategy for Entrepreneurship
Startup Portugal is the Portuguese Government’s strategy for Entrepreneurship. More than fostering an entrepreneurial spirit, it aims to support those who are already entrepreneurs, ensuring the longevity of the companies created and increasing the impact they have on job creation and economic value. It means to organize, free up and promote the sharing of benefits, best practices and resources, identify regional and sectoral flaws and fill gaps.
Devised as a four-year plan, it is focused on three areas of operation: Ecosystem, Funding and Internationalization.
Ecosystem
This pillar of StartUP Portugal’s intervention shall be developed with the purpose of identifying and overcoming sectoral and regional gaps in the acceleration programme, business incubators, fablabs, maker spaces and design factories. It will also strive to increase the international competitiveness of these assets, to promote the sharing of physical resources and know-how, to promote greater professionalization of teams and of the services offered to entrepreneurs and companies being incubated.
Funding
The public financing policies for start-ups will be focused on offering alternatives to bank loans, namely by promoting new methods of financing, such as equity crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending, co-investment with the best national and international investors, bolstering Portugal Ventures’ intervention as the body responsible for public venture capital investment, in strategic sectors for the national economy and in projects at a stage at which the risk is perceived to be too high for private investors and where there is currently a gap in the market. Within this scope, vouchers will be created for start-ups to acquire professional incubation services, and for young people who live in Portugal or abroad who wish to create a start-up in Portugal, regardless of their financial situation, to support the establishment of the most favorable tax regime for the start-ups and to provide job creation incentives.
Internationalisation
In this area, a number of initiatives will be carried out to strengthen the objective to position Portugal as a global destination to attract foreign start-ups, investors, incubators and accelerators, to promote the national ecosystem in the markets, namely by supporting the presence of Portuguese start-ups at the main sectoral trade fairs, at the largest global tech events, in official delegations, in State visits aboard, and State receptions for foreign entities.
Portugal is a country rich in talent and diversity. The public investments made in the past decade in education, infrastructures and technology pave the way for those wanting to start or invest in a new business. With one of the most vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystems in Europe, Portugal is a top destination to create, test, fail fast and try again.
The strategy intends to strengthen different qualified and creative entrepreneurship levels, through direct support to entrepreneurs, encouraging the emergence of new business opportunities, particularly in creative and innovative fields .
It also includes the activities of cultural and creative industries, which make use of creativity, cultural knowledge and intellectual property, resources to produce tradable and international goods and services with social and cultural significance (such as the performing and visual arts, cultural heritage, crafts, cinema, radio, television, music, publishing, educational software and entertainment and other software and computer services, new media, architecture, design, fashion and advertising).
Thus, this strategy supports individual projects aimed at creating companies that carry out activities in sectors with dynamic and strong growth, including the built-in creative and cultural industries and / or sectors with intensive knowledge or technology.
Different projects and mechanisms are envisaged: Ecosystem - National Incubators Network, National Makers Network, Free Zone – Technology, Simplex for Start-ups and Inclusive and job-oriented Entrepreneurship; Funding - Startup Voucher, Momentum Programme, Incubation Voucher, Seed Programme, Hiring Incentives, New Financing Methods, Calls Portugal Ventures, Co-investment with Business Angels, Co-investment with Venture Capital Firms; Internationalisation - Portuguese start-ups at the largest global tech events, Portuguese start-ups at the main national sectoral trade fairs, Portuguese start-ups at official receptions and State events, Creation of a Portuguese accelerator of reference in Europe, Web Summit.
As referred above, the public financing policies for start-ups will be focused on offering alternatives to bank loans, namely by promoting new methods of financing, such as equity crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending, co-investment with the best national and international investors, bolstering Portugal Ventures’ intervention as the body responsible for public venture capital investment, in strategic sectors for the national economy and in projects at a stage at which the risk is perceived to be too high for private investors and where there is currently a gap in the market.
Within this scope, different instruments and support schemes are being created and planned, such as vouchers for start-ups to acquire professional incubation services, and for young people who live in Portugal or abroad who wish to create a start-up in Portugal, regardless of their financial situation, to support the establishment of the most favorable tax regime for the start-ups and to provide job creation incentives, monthly incentives given to young entrepreneurs, among others.
For the moment it was impossible to indicate an ammount for national investment, since it will combine national and european funds, structural funds along with crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending and most of the instruments and schemes are still being designed.