Portugal is one of the most exciting and innovative startup ecosystems in Europe, being particularly noted for its capability in AI technology and software development. Portuguese startups benefit from increasing VC activity in the country, as well as government policy aimed at promoting innovation and growth for startups. Startups in Portugal are also well distributed across the country, despite the fact that Lisbon is the country's primary startup hub. This shows that entrepreneurship is growing stronger across all of Portugal.
There are more than 120 VC firms in Portugal to help startups reach the next stage in their development. Additionally, early-stage startups in Portugal can also benefit from the support of more than 40 incubators and accelerators that provide funding, in addition to mentorship and much-needed resources, to help startups survive and thrive.
The Portuguese government is beginning to implement policies to support the growth of the country's startup ecosystem. One such example is the creation of the public-private think tank, Startup Portugal to advise the government on policy impacting startups so that a more startup friendly economy can be created. Additionally, the government has also introduced a range of funding programs to financially support the country's most impactful and innovative startups.
1. Ethena Labs
Year Founded: 2023
HQ: Lisbon, Portugal
Size: 11-50
Founders: Guy Young
Ethena Labs is a Portuguese startup that was founded in 2023 and is currently headquartered in Lisbon. Ethena has created a new stablecoin that has built-in yield. What this means is that you can actually earn income through holding the stablecoin. USDe can earn you + 2.50% APY and due to its pegging against the US dollar, it is relatively stable, due to the US' strong economic position. The high yields on this stablecoin offer you a realistic, yet less risky method of diversifying your portfolio into crypto.
Ethena Labs has been very successful in raising startup funding, particularly for a crypto-based offering. In its most recent funding round, which took place in February 2024, it managed to raise a total of [$14 Million](https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/02/16/ether-based-crypto-dollar-issuer-ethena-raises-14m-opens-access-to-public/#:~:text=A%20press%20release%20circulated%20by,Maelstrom%20(the%20family%20office%20BitMex) in startup funding. This funding has allowed it to increase its headcount rapidly and continue the development of the technology behind USDe.
2. ETHIACK
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Coimbra, Portugal
Size: 1-10
Founders: Jorge Monteiro, Andre Baptista
ETHIACK is a startup in Portugal that was founded in 2022 and is currently headquartered in Coimbra. This cybersecurity startup helps you to automate your attempts to identify your network vulnerabilities using ethical hackers. This is achieved by using a blend of human-led but machine assisted ethical hacking service. You'll be able to identify the problems in your security in record time and get information on how those vulnerabilities can be patched out to ensure they don't become a problem.
ETHIACK has seen some success in raising startup funding, initially to help develop its product offering. This funding came in the form of a Pre-Seed round which took place in February 2023. During this funding round it managed to raise a total of $83,370.
3. Rauva
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Lisbon, Portugal
Size: 51-100
Founders: Jon Fath, Sam Mizrahi
Rauva is a Portuguese startup that was founded in 2022 and is currently based in Lisbon. Using Rauva's app, you can control all of the financial aspects of your business in one place. Set up a business account easily in minutes and have unified capabilities for invoicing and expense management. In addition to this, you can also get support with your accounting, so everything related to money in your business is logged and kept under one platform. This makes everything faster and easier for you.
It is not clear whether Rauva has received external startup funding, however, it has access to serious capital as it was disclosed in September 2023 that Rauva would complete the acquisition of Banco Empresas Montepio for around €30 Million. This acquisition has allowed it to strengthen and diversify its service offerings.
4. Stratio
Year Founded: 2017
HQ: Lisbon, Portugal
Size: 51-100
Founders: Ricardo Margalho, Rui Sales
Stratio is a Portuguese startup that was founded in 2017 and is currently headquartered in Lisbon. It allows you to minimise the potential disruption caused to your operations through fleet vehicles breaking down. This is achieved through connecting your fleet with large scale processing and machine learning capabilities. This allows you to strategically schedule maintenance so you don't have to deal with any downtime in your operations.
Stratio has seen marked success in raising startup funding since being founded, with its most recent funding round taking place in November 2021. During this funding round, it managed to raise a total of $12 Million in funding. This round was led by Forestay.
5. SheerMe
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Paco De Arcos, Portugal
Size: 11-50
Founders: Miguel Alves Ribeiro
SheerMe is a Portuguese startup that was founded in 2020 and is currently headquartered in Paco De Arcos. If you run a business in the health and wellness market, SheerMe is the platform for you. From it, you're able to handle bookings and payments, giving your customers great convenience, as well as benefit from cashback as part of the ecosystem. You will see your bookings massively increase as a result of using SheerMe.
SheerMe has gone through a single round of startup funding since being founded. This funding round was completed in July 2023, when it managed to raise a total of $2.51 Million in funding from Lince Capital and another pair of investors. This Seed Funding will be used to fuel further expansion for SheerMe.
6. Casafari
Year Founded: 2018
HQ: Lisbon, Portugal
Size: 101-250
Founders: Dmitry Moskalchuk, Mila Suharev, Nils Henning
Casafari is a startup in Portugal that was founded in 2018 and is currently headquartered in Lisbon. Casafari puts Europe's largest real estate database right at your fingertips, allowing you to compare accurate and relevant information about millions of properties, as well as gearing you up to find private seller leads in a matter of seconds. With this, you get a real estate CRM, a property valuation tool, trend analysis and much more to provide you with the most complete real estate package on the market.
Casafari has been incredibly successful in raising startup funding since being founded, highlighting the strength of its model and high investor confidence. Its most recent funding round took place in July 2021 when it raised a staggering $120 Million mandate to fuel rapid and aggressive expansion into markets across Europe in addition to $15 Million Series A funding, which has been a huge success for the team at Casafari.
7. Bloq.it
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Lisbon, Portugal
Size: 51-100
Founders: João Lopes, Miha Jagodic, Ricardo Carvalho
Bloq.it is a Portuguese startup that was founded in 2019 and is currently based in Lisbon. It provides a more convenient method for you to manage picking up and delivering parcels in your e-commerce store by introducing a range of smart lockers which can be designed to fill the gap in your last-mile logistics. These safe units can also be integrated with software and provide an integrated network to manage your requirements.
Bloq.it has secured a single round of startup funding to support the building and technological development of its smart locker networks. This funding round took place in June 2021, when it raised an undisclosed amount from Fil Rouge Capital. It is unknown whether Bloq.it will seek further funding in the future.
8. Enline
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Mirandela, Portugal
Size: 11-50
Founders: Manuel Trigueiros Rafael Ferreira, Manuel Lemos
Enline is a Portuguese startup that was founded in 2019 and is currently based in Mirandela. It operates in the energy sector and allows you to get full visibility into the efficiency and health of your energy networks. It utilises sensorless AI technology to minimise the disruption to your space and avoid lengthy and risky installation. It also gives you the capability to predict critical failures and ongoing faults. You can ultimately save money on pre-empting and preventing these faults.
Enline has seen good recent success in securing startup funding, with a pre-Series A round of funding being completed in February 2024. During this funding round, it managed to raise a total of 3.5 Million Euros. This funding will be used to develop its underlying AI to improve its predictive capabilities and predicate and increase in headcount to fuel further growth in the future.
9. NeuropsyCAD
Year Founded: 2017
HQ: Braga, Portugal
Size: 101-250
Founders: Ricardo Maximiano, Hugo Alexandre Ferreira
NeuropsyCAD is a startup in Portugal that was founded in 2017 and is currently based in Braga. It provides you with the capability of using AI to identify biomarkers for Neurology and Psychiatry. This allows you to get an earlier diagnosis result from your tests, more personalised care, along with support through earlier detection. Furthermore, the costs of achieving a diagnosis are reduced by 5x, which makes it a much more efficient and streamlined solution for any neurology department.
NeuropsyCAD hasn't sourced external startup funding since being founded, however it has received grant funding. This grant funding was received from EASME, this grant came to the value of 50,000 Euros. It is unclear whether it has any ambitions to gain external funding to further its research.
10. AlphaGuilty
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Lisbon, Portugal
Size: 11-50
Founders: Yehor Polishchuk.
AlphaGuilty is a Portuguese startup that was founded in 2022 and is currently headquartered in Lisbon. With it, you can host your Web 3.0 games and encourage a community of hundreds of thousands of users. As a user, you can participate in hundreds of quests and earn crypto rewards. In addition to this, you can also unlock a range of key benefits to help support you.
As it stands, AlphaGuilty has not attempted to raise any external startup funding. All of its growth so far has been organic, however, if it wishes to pursue aggressive expansion then it is more likely that we may see AlphaGuilty pursue external startup funding.
11. Akurateco
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Santarem, Portugal
Size: 51-100
Founders: Alex Dolia, Andrew Riabchuk, Vladimir Kuiantsev
Akurateco is a startup in Portugal that was founded in 2019 and is currently headquartered in Santarem. It allows you to implement a white label payment gateway and additional payment infrastructure into your business. This allows you to save significant time and money on development costs. This helps you, whether you're a payment provider, an online business, a marketplace platform or a bank. All of your data is also stored in one place to ensure ease of analysis.
Akurateco has gone through a single round of startup funding since being founded, with this funding round taking place in December 2022. During this round, it managed to raise a total of $105.8K in startup funding. This funding has been used to further support the development of its white label solutions.
12. Exclusible
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Lisbon, Portugal
Size: 11-50
Founders: Pierre Guigourese
Exclusible is a Portuguese startup that was founded in 2021 and is currently based in Lisbon. It helps your business to expand into new marketing channels by appealing to new customers in a range of games, including Roblox and more. This is achieved through its innovative technological approach. The potential of gaming as an avenue for marketing is immense and many companies aren't currently leveraging it.
Exclusible has seen some good success with raising startup funding since being founded, with its most recent funding round taking place in October 2022. During this funding round, it managed to raise a total of $5 Million in startup funding led by Tioga Capital. This funding has allowed it to grow and continue to grow its share in the market.
13. Flair
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Lisbon, Portugal
Size: 1-10
Founders: Jim Hartung, Pavel Racu
Flair is a Portuguese startup that was founded in 2022 and is currently headquartered in Lisbon. It helps you, as a sales manager, to drive the performance of your sales teams. By connecting with your call solution, it allows for AI-powered monitoring of any sales calls. This allows you to identify common and individual issues, which allows you to coach individual agents and a larger collective. The platform also provides you with key insights on how those agents can improve on the call.
Flair has seen some success in raising startup funding since being founded, going through two funding rounds in that time. Its most recent funding round took place in July 2022, at the beginning of Flair to allow it to build on its concept and achieve initial viability. This funding totalled $169,000 in Pre-Seed funding.
14. CleanWatts
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Coimbra, Portugal
Size: 51-100
Founders: Basilio Simões, James McDougall, Jorge Landeck, Luisa Matos, Michael Pinto
CleanWatts is a Portuguese startup that was founded in 2020 and is currently headquartered in Coimbra. It has created Renewable Energy Communities that allow you to save money by buying green energy communally, decreasing the overall unit costs to you. You don't have to do any up-front investment in the energy infrastructure and CleanWatts has proven its concept in 180 energy communities, accounting for 390MWp in energy generation. This has removed more than 18,000 tons of Co2 from the atmosphere.
CleanWatts has seen great success in raising startup funding since being founded, with its most recent round taking place in July 2022. During this funding round, it managed to raise a total of 25 Million Euros in funding. This has allowed CleanWatts to grow into new markets and make improvements to its underlying software and energy infrastructure.
15. I-Charging
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Porto, Portugal
Size: 101-250
Founders: Alberto Barbosa, Pedro Silva
I-Charging is a Portuguese startup that was founded in 2019 and is currently based in Porto. It provides you with better EV charging infrastructure. You can get incredibly fast and powerful EV charging points for your site and integrate them with features such as card payment to ensure ease of use. Furthermore, you can access all of your usage information in a single, easy to use portal. This can benefit you whether you're charging a fleet of vehicles, or you're just doing the one.
Despite the size of I-Charging, it has not yet publicly sought any additional startup funding. In the event that it wishes to develop new charging products, or expand even further into new markets, then it may be possible that I-Charging will seek institutional investment to achieve these goals.
16. Albato
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Setubal, Portugal
Size: 51-100
Founders: Mike Fedorinin
Albato is a Portuguese startup that was founded in 2019 and is currently headquartered in Setubal, Portugal. If you want to find the best and easiest way to automate all of your workflows and integrate all of your apps in one place, Albato can help you with this. It is currently being used by more than 110,000 users worldwide and has the capability to connect with more than 600 third-party applications. Make your business more efficient and reduce waste in your business processes.
Despite the side of Albato, it has not yet sought any external startup funding. If it intends to facilitate international expansion or undergo a drastic increase in headcount, these are the situations where Albato may decide to pursue a round of startup funding.
17. Nortech AI
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Lisbon, Portugal
Size: 11-50
Founders: Francisco Roque
Nortech AI is a Portuguese startup that was founded in 2021 and is currently headquartered in Lisbon. Its IoT offering allows you to monitor and add sensing capability for your logistics, facilities and equipment, including shipping. The collected data allows you to make rapid decisions and changes based on key indicators of what is working well and what is working below standard.
Nortech AI has seen recent success in raising startup funding, with its most recent funding round taking place in October 2023. During this funding round, it managed to raise a total of 2.5 Million Euros in Seed Funding. This funding is intended to help Nortech AI to grow its headcount and facilitate growth into new markets.
18. Coverflex
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Braga, Portugal
Size: 51-100
Founders: Miguel Amaro, Nuno Pinto , Luis Rocha and Rui Carvalho
Coverflex is a Portuguese startup that was founded in 2019 and is currently based in Braga. It allows you to offer your employees a range of benefits, such as lunches, medical cover, insurance and more. You can manage everything including vouchers for food, childcare and more in one unified platform without needing to use multiple providers. It is currently being used by more than 6000 companies, managing the benefits of 125,000 staff members- highlighting its effectiveness.
Coverflex has seen massive success in Portugal for raising startup funding, with its most recent funding round taking place in February 2023. During this funding round, Coverflex managed to raise a total of 15 Million Euros during its Series A round. This funding has been used to pursue entry and growth in the Italian market, as well as improving upon its share in its existing market.
19. Relive
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Lisbon, Portugal
Size: 101-250
Founders: José Costa Rodrigues, Sergio Ferras
Relive is a Portuguese startup that was founded in 2021 and is currently headquartered in Lisbon. Its unified real estate platform allows you to handle most aspects of your portfolio all under one roof. All of the back office function is handled for you, meaning you get support with marketing new properties, help with valuing properties, a range of legal and tax related support and more. Ultimately, the platform helps to promote efficiency in your real estate business and allow you to win more deals.
Relive has seen some success with raising startup funding, with support received in the second year of trading. This funding came during a Seed Round in January 2022 and during this round it managed to raise 1 Million Euros. This funding has been used to rapidly increase headcount and facilitate the acquisition of new customers.
20. Mozilla.ai
Year Founded: 2023
HQ: Lisbon, Portugal
Size: 1-10
Founders: Moez Draief, Karim Lakhani, Navrina Singh
Mozilla.ai is a startup in Portugal that was founded in 2023 and is currently headquartered in Lisbon. It was delivered as a venture by the non-profit Mozilla and it aims to build an ecosystem of trustworthy people collaborating with AI technology, which means, if you're a developer, you will be able to join a community of AI experts and researchers building open-source and trustworthy AI applications.
Mozilla.ai has been adequately bankrolled since being founded, with the Mozilla Foundation personally floating it with $30 Million in initial funding. This initial investment has allowed the team to create initial products and hire an in-house expert team. Additionally it will be used to improve upon existing concepts and bring about new routes to market for its open-source, trust-driven AI.
21. MyCareforce
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Lisbon, Portugal
Size: 11-50
Founders: João Hugo Silva, Pedro Cruz Morais
MyCareforce is a Portuguese startup that was founded in 2021 and is currently headquartered in Lisbon. Whether you're a nurse, or a healthcare provider, it can help you. Its software platform helps to connect nurses that need work, with facilities and institutions that need workers. This is achieved through matching the skills of the workers with your needs in-platform. This means that all required shifts are filled quickly for you.
MyCareforce has had a good track record with raising startup funding, with its most recent funding round taking place in June 2023. During this funding round, it managed to raise a total of around $1.34 Million.
FAQs
Which Are The Strongest Startup Industries In Portugal?
The strongest startup industries in Portugal are FinTech, Clean Energy and AI.
How Much Funding Do Portuguese Startups Raise?
In 2023, Portuguese tech startups raised $110 Million, between 4000 startups this means on average a Portuguese startup raised $27,500 in funding across the year.
How Many Tech Startups Are There In Portugal?
It is estimated that there are more than 4,000 active tech startups in Portugal.
