The Startup Ecosystem of Portugal

The business environment in Portugal has greatly improved over the years now that the country has begun to create a favorable climate for entrepreneurship, foreign investment, and digital nomads. Due to the low cost of living, good weather, and solid infrastructure, Lisbon ranks near the top among the attractive destinations for digital nomads, expats, and lifestyle business owners.
One of the most impressive resources of the Portuguese ecosystems is the availability of high quality engineering talent and English speakers. Additionally, Portugal offers plenty of benefits to non-European residents launching startups. To name a few, there are multiple ways of getting a permit to work or set up a company through the StartUP Visa, Tech Visa, or the Non-Habitual Residence Program (NHR). Moreover, due to the non-habitual tax regime and favorable tax policies for cryptocurrencies, Portugal is even more attractive to entrepreneurs interested in decentralized finance.
With easy access to the European market and the Schengen Zone, Portugal has the potential to become one of the strongest startup economies in Europe. The country’s economic ties to Brazil, with whom Portugal shares a common language, also provide Portuguese startups access to the huge Brazilian market.
The nation is home to high-tech companies that play a part in the exchange and sharing of knowledge, as well as to local innovators that have created successful startup stories, such as the exit of FarFetch, a luxury shopping platform, and the Portuguese unicorns OutSystems, TalkDesk, and Feedzai.
That said, Portugal’s startup scene can still improve, mainly by pushing more potential entrepreneurs to create startups.
The public sector is aware of the strategic importance of entrepreneurship, and there are an impressive amount of resources allocated towards improving local startup ecosystems. There are also a growing number of startup support facilities, such as Startup Portugal and Startup Lisboa. With the massive branding benefit for Portugal and its startup economy in the annual global dominating event, Web Summit, we hope to see this ecosystem reach its full potential in the coming years.