AGPC – The one-stop platform for business investment, relocation and setup

Text: Chris Grame; Photos: AGPC

There is something pioneering about AGPC Investments founders Filipa Pinto de Carvalho and Catarina Almeida Garrett. They are both strong and dynamic women who have very much, like the great 15th century Portuguese explorers, set off to discover and conquer new worlds, particularly the United States.

But in this case they are not settlers bringing knowledge and experience to uncharted territories overseas. They have gone full circle, helping to bring young pioneering American entrepreneurs to Portugal, helping them to navigate the unknown waters of the country’s business and investment ecosystem, creating a smooth passage in what could otherwise be a choppy voyage.

Filipa Pinto de Carvalho, the co-founder of RedBridge, a cross-boarder San Francisco-Lisbon community for entrepreneurs, is somewhat of a legal immigration expert having worked as a lawyer and legal expert in immigration, particularly with the new wave of overseas investors coming to Portugal, not only because of the Golden Visa, which was certainly one of the main drivers which started this trend, but because of the opportunities that Portugal offers in difficult and uncertain times

Legal beagle Catarina Almeida Garrett – actually a descendant of the famous 19th century Portuguese poet, playwright, thinker and writer João Baptista da Silva Leitão de Almeida Garrett, 1st Viscount of Almeida Garrett, considered the greatest figure of Portuguese Romanticism – had been working in São Paulo. She teamed up with Filipa because they both had a perspective of an overseas client who doesn’t know the market, doesn’t know who to trust to accomplish their goals, and who is looking for advice that is broader than just focusing strictly on the legal aspects of relocation or obtaining a visa.

An internationally focused client advisory

Filipa says that usually clients come to AGPC because there is a relationship of trust and the duo help them to set up, advising on questions such as opening bank accounts, finding an insurer and an estate agency.

“We both saw an opportunity to provide a tailor-made service completely focused on this type of international client relocating to Portugal. It was why we decided to create AGPC as an international client-focused advisory. By helping our clients to invest and set up businesses is a way that helps them to integrate into the Portuguese community and business ecosystem,” adds Catarina.

The company employs 8-10 specialists working from their central Lisbon office within Páteo Bagatela dealing with immigration, corporate tax and legal advisory as well as paralegal services meaning services to help clients in their actually relocation experience to Portugal.

AGPC also has a healthcare concierge service to help clients find a health insurer, private hospital and clinic and access the doctors they might need. “This is very appreciated by clients, especially families with young children, or those moving for retirement and want to live comfortably and have access to the healthcare that they need”, adds Caterina.

AGPC also help parents find international schools for their children’s education, the day-to-day needs they have when moving into a new apartment and Catarina helps a lot on the legal side of property transactions; the due diligence and promissory agreements and negotiations working with certified estate agent partners.

“Sometimes clients come via our property partners, other times we ask our partners what they have on the market for our house hunters. “It depends and knowing what they want we try and accommodate their needs”, she says.

“However, what we often find is that the client needs to set up utilities, a bank account, a social security, tax and national health number, or perhaps they need to find a builder or interior decorator for their new home, and it is here that we can step in and deal with all these aspects to take the headache away from the moving process,” explains Filipa.

Filipa is at pains to explain that AGPC does not act as estate agents, but have access to a number of trusted partners who deal with the ‘bricks and mortar’ aspects of finding and buying a property.

Building bridges between the US and Portuguese startup community ecosystems

Filipa Pinto de Carvalho is also a founding partner of RedBridge, a young and dynamic cross-border community linking the California (particularly San Francisco) and Lisbon entrepreneurial ecosystems, with a particular emphasis on startup and scale-up founders in the two countries who have been building bridges and travelling back and forth between the two countries.

Essential Business asked her if this association provided a fertile feeding ground for referrals for their one-stop relocation platform?

“It was actually the other way around. I started RedBridge with other founders because American entrepreneurs who we met as clients wanted to get more involved in the Portuguese business and startup ecosystem,” she recalls.

“Our focus as a small firm has always been to be mindful of the markets we are targetting. We saw this influx of overseas citizens coming to Portugal which is why we started back in 2016. When Americans started coming we wanted to be part of this growth in young US citizens moving to Portugal. RedBridge was a reflection of Portugal’s growing popularity among entrepreneurs and investors as a relocation destination in Europe,” Filipa explains.

Looking back, Filipa remembers that the steady trickle of US citizens began in the pre-Covid period. Then, during and after Covid and the elections in the United States, they noticed this trend kept growing. Eventually, by both luck and merit, Americans became AGPC’s main market to the point that today 80% of their clients originated from the US.

“Since many of the people that today are members of RedBridge were flying back and forth from California, some said they would love to live in Portugal, they loved the lifestyle, the people, the climate and the startup ecosystem.

“These are also people who had a lot of knowledge, who had built solid careers, and had the financial means to invest. So, previous AGPC clients told is that they would like to something else in the Portuguese community – connecting with the founders and professionals in the ecosystem locally and do something together,” Filipa recalls adding that there was “a clear opportunity to make this bridge and connection between these two worlds that were living geographically very close together, but at the same time but were living in two different countries.

Filipa and Catarina realised they had an opportunity to connect the Portuguese community and business founders ecosystem while at the same time making sure that the Americans who come here have good intentions and could find a place where they could make connections in the community and do some good.

“The community that sprung out of this was RedBridge and we at AGPC are proud founders of that organisation”, she said.

AGPC also established partnerships in other areas with professionals to create synergies such as investment funds, and in the case of the US it has good partnerships with wealth managers and law firms who have clients looking to explore an option of investing in or moving to Portugal, and those partners and clients also recommend clients to them.

Since starting in 2016, Catarina and Filipa estimate they have had nearly 300 accounts, meaning relocaters and their families. The fees vary depending on the complexity and choice of services and AGPC tries to provide a package with a fixed fee from the beginning so that clients understand exactly what they are paying for from the beginning.

Setting up a business – a full and integrated service

When it comes to business, AGPC provides a full and integrated offering from the setup strategy to the implementation and maintenance of the business or investment.

Their expertise covers areas from tax, immigration law, banking and finance, corporate law and commercial contracts, launching companies and startups, employment and labour, real estate, family law (wealth and succession), family relocation, healthcare and wellbeing, impact investing, relocation and ‘business in a box’ which means business support services.

“We really start with a zoom call or initial conversation to try and figure out what are the client’s goals and what is the best solution for their project. Do they want to invest and have a Plan B but are not looking to move immediately? Would they like to set up a business? (Which is great for the Portuguese economy)

“More and more founders of mature businesses in the US, Brazil and other places look at Portugal as a gateway to the European market and decide to open a subsidiary here. Sometimes they are focused on a particular solution and then we realise as we talk to them that they actually need a different approach, so we try and look at their goals. We set up the fees to be a transparent as possible, but always try to work within a package of all-inclusive services,” explains Filipa.

Today, Tomorrow, Together!

Filipa stressed that it’s often not a one-off service since most of the clients stay with them as their needs expand and goals change. “We are still working with clients who started off with us back in 2016 and we’re busy with new clients with fresh leads very week which is why our slogan is ‘Today, Tomorrow, Together’.”

“When entrepreneurs come here they find a collaborative environment in Portugal that they would have had in the US 30 years ago but can’t find it anymore, and this is something I’ve repeatedly heard over the years,” she remarks.

Navigating Portugal’s visa schemes

Because of changing policies and poor messaging on the Golden Visa programme on the part of the previous PS government in Portugal that terminated in early 2024, many overseas investors wrongly believed that the popular residency by investment programme had also been terminated.

Filipa says the Golden Visa is still very much alive, but missing the investment in property option. However, it is useful if you want to invest in funds that have an added value to the Portuguese economy, or if the client wants to set up a business or invest in a company that is already in operation. This option makes sense for those wanting to set up a new company or relocate an existing business to Portugal or create a subsidiary, or buy a share in an existing company locally.

Mostly, however, the accent is still on investment funds whereby the investor invests for a specific period and gets a return on their investment. These cover everything from farms and vineyards to sustainable energy, startups, companies and developments. They have an investment programme for an established time-line, receive an annual yield, and at the end they have an exit strategy which should bring a gain for all the investors.

“Since this is the most popular option for investment, it is bringing in people with real knowledge in venture capital and building and expanding a startup business. We’re seeing that happen and this cooperation with Portuguese founders can only be beneficial”, argues Filipa.

But for people who simply want to relocate to live, retire or create a start-up of their own there are other visa options. For an employee there’s the D1, for an entrepreneur there’s the D2, but if you have a R&D profile or work in universities it’s the D3. There is also the D7 for passive income and the D8 for active income.

“The D system is based on what you want to do and how you will be living in terms of own funds or work. However Filipa and Catarina say that the D7 and D8 are the most popular visa options – the D7 because they already have their own sources of income and the D8 because it’s a good option for those who are still working for an overseas company, but don’t need to work full time or be physically at that company,” conclude Catarina Almeida Garrett and Filipa Pinto.

Photos: Chris Graeme/Marie Bacelar: L-R: Catarina Almeida Garrett and Filipa Pinto de Carvalho, founders and partners AGPC Investments.