Government to boost startup environment
StartUp Portugal is working with the government to launch a new law for startups.
StartUP Portugal – the National Strategy for Entrepreneurship was launched in 2016 by the Ministry of the Economy with the aim of boosting and expanding the Portuguese entrepreneurial startup ecosystem across the whole country and all sectors of economic activity.
An initiative from IAPMEI (Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation), entrepreneurs are concerned that Portugal has been falling in the rankings that measure conditions offered by the startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem, and StartUP Portugal wants to invert this trend and raise the numbers.
To this end, according to online news site ECO, the government through its agencies IAPMEI and StartUp Portugal are laying the groundwork for measures to be prepared from which fresh legislation will be drawn up by the end of this year.
StartUp Portugal currently offers various programmes and visas for overseas entrepreneurs such as Startup Visa and Tech Visa, as well as being a signatory to Startup Nations Standard – a number of best practices that are hallmarks of a growth-friendly environment identified by the European Commission together with Member States and stakeholders in an open and inclusive process. Portugal has been one of the signatory Member States which has committed to these standards.
StartUp Portugal has €125 million of Recovery & Resilience Programme funding earmarked for the startups and entrepreneurial ecosystem, and plans to open applications this year.
António Dias Martins, the Director of Startup Portugal told ECO: “We want to increase startup numbers in Portugal and create the right conditions so that entrepreneurs feel that Portugal is a good place with all the right conditions to start up a business”.