Portugal’s economy is projected to grow by 3.7% in 2021 and 4.9% in 2022. Strong activity in the manufacturing sector and the absorption of European Union funds will support investments and exports. Besides the availability of capital and investment for startups in various stages, Portugal also has a wide network of specialized organizations and research communities which continuously promote technological development. The country values technological development and innovation. Portugal’s startup scene is diverse and growing day by day. There are quite a lot of opportunities for all kinds of companies, and especially tech ones.
There are many reasons why startups are flocking to Portugal in particular. One of the main reasons is costs, Which are lower than many other European countries. It is also easier to attract talent to a country with low living costs and high quality of life. There have also been active steps by the Portuguese government to encourage the country’s tech startup ecosystem. Over the last decade, The governments in power have been keen on getting the country on a higher growth path and changing the country’s external perception. They have prioritized technology innovation and have been very friendly to startups attempting to promote the local ecosystem. We have also compiled a list of active angel investors who are spreading Portugal’s tech renaissance.
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List of Top 25 Startups to Watch in Portugal
1. Stratio
Stratio is a fleet management and SaaS startup that was launched in 2017 and is currently operating from Lisbon, Portugal. It delivers the industry’s most powerful and integrated predictive maintenance solution, data-driven operations control, and the only intelligent eco-driving system available for multi-brand fleets.
Industry: Artificial Intelligence, Big Data.
Founders: Ricardo Margalho, Rui Sales.
Total Funding: $3.5M
Founded Date: 2017
2. Casafari
Casafari is Europe’s first independent cross-border real estate network that connects more than 15000 real estate professionals through MLS functions and a clean and complete real estate database covering all asset classes in Spain, Italy, France, and Portugal. It brings transparency to chaotic property markets by building a clean and complete real estate database.
Industry: Real Estate.
Founders: Dmitry Moskalchuk, Mila Suharev, Nils Henning.
Total Funding: $140.7M
Founded Date: 2017
3. GoParity
GoParity is an impact investment platform that connects companies and organizations promoting sustainable projects with citizens who want to invest in these projects and get a positive return. Investments start with as little as 5€. Citizens and companies invest their funds in projects they believe in to generate economic, social and environmental impact.
Industry: Fin-Tech
Founders: Nuno Brito Jorge
Total Funding: $1.6M
Founded Date: 2017
4. Infraspeak
Infraspeak is an Intelligent Maintenance Management Platform that brings your entire operation together. The company has developed a platform to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of facilities management for businesses. This is achieved through the rapid sharing of information achieved by the platform, as well as making the process much simpler to carry out.
Industry: Information Technology.
Founders: Felipe Avila da Costa, Luis Martins.
Total Funding: $5.4M
Founded Date: 2015
5. Tonic App
Tonic App is a B2C2B digital health company building a professional ecosystem for medical doctors. It increases the efficiency of clinical work: allows fast and safe discussion of patient cases, team collaboration and aggregates content for day-to-day professional use, such as drug conversion tables or clinical calculators.
Industry: Healthcare.
Founders: Andrew Barnes, David Borsos, Daniela Seixas.
Total Funding: $3.9M
Founded Date: 2016
6. Automaise
Automaise was founded in 2017 by Ernesto Pedrosa. It provides artificially intelligent virtual employees for customer service. Automaise offers a growing portfolio of virtual employees ready to be hired for various business verticals and tasks/processes. This startup is a low code AI platform to help companies win and cater to the customer of future.
Industry: Artificial Intelligence.
Founders: Ernesto Pedrosa.
Total Funding: $1.2M
Founded Date: 2017
7. Kitch
Kitch is a technology company that builds the platform for restaurants to reconnect with their customers in the online space, support and enhance their presence across multiple channels, and bring simplicity and efficiency to their digital operations. Its mission is to empower restaurants to own digital ordering.
Industry: Food Delivery.
Founders: Nuno Rodrigues, Rui Bento.
Total Funding: $5.8M
Founded Date: 2019
8. Virtuleap
Virtuleap combines neuroscience and virtual reality to help increase attention levels, and address cognitive illnesses, disorders, and learning challenges. They have created a library of VR games designed by neuroscientists in order to test and train a range of cognitive abilities and make that data accessible through our enterprise platform.
Industry: Big Data, Healthcare.
Founders: Amir Bozorgzadeh, Hossein Jalali, Roland Dubois.
Total Funding: $1.1M
Founded Date: 2018
9. Replai
Replai empowers the world’s leading gaming developers to glean valuable insights on their creatives, linking it directly to performance data. By leveraging AI, they allow its customers to automatically tag elements and characteristics at scale – doubling down where they are strong, discovering effective design and no longer wasting funds on poorly performing tests of creative concepts.
Industry: Artificial Intelligence.
Founders: Francisco Pacheco, Joao Vieira da Costa.
Total Funding: $1.3M
Founded Date: 2019
10. Advertio
Advertio aims to set a new standard in digital advertising solving the actual complexity of the process. It offers a free to use platform for small business owners to advertise in multiple ad networks. Simply because businesses need to enter the URL for their website, Advertio scans the web for businesses online presence and creates a campaign fit for its needs which will be continuously improving to achieve better ROI.
Industry: Advertising
Founders: Joao de Souza Aroso.
Total Funding: $1.9M
Founded Date: 2017
11. Barkyn
Barkyn is a subscription for pets, changing the pet market and reshaping the way the ecommerce experience should feel – human, seamless & beautiful. Barkyn was one of the 8 startups selected by Google’s to its Growth Program and has been highlighted by large media like Monocle. The company is operating in several European markets, becoming a loved brand online.
Industry: E-Commerce, Internet.
Founders: Andre Jordao, Ricardo Macedo.
Total Funding: $12.4M
Founded Date: 2017
12. Sensei
Sensei is the leading European provider of autonomous stores, offering a secure and reliable AI-powered solution for retailers to build efficient operations and deliver a frictionless shopping experience. It combines AI, computer vision, and machine learning to build a full-service system that is scalable across multiple formats.
Industry: Artificial Intelligence.
Founders: Joana Rafael, Nuno Moutinho, Paulo Carreira, Vasco Portugal.
Total Funding: $7.2M
Founded Date: 2017
13. Utrust
Utrust helps merchants easily accept digital currencies for goods, services and helps buyers pay with them. For merchants, reaching a growing base of customers using digital currencies is easy: online or off. Crypto cuts out the middleman, and lets merchants keep more of their profit margin.
Industry: E-Commerce, Fin-Tech.
Founders: Artur Goulaou, Filipe Castro, Nuno Correia.
Total Funding: $21M
Founded Date: 2017
14. Musiversal
Musiversal is a monthly subscription service allowing users to book remote recording sessions with professional session musicians, producers and audio engineers. Its vision is to create stable jobs and income for musicians while contributing to build a music industry that works for everyone.
Industry: Marketplace, Music.
Founders: Andre Miranda.
Total Funding: $2.9M
Founded Date: 2018
15. HUUB
HUUB is a logistics and tech platform for Fashion brands. It supports all sales channels: ECommerce, wholesale, own and franchising stores and marketplaces. Combines tracking, returns and customer support services to deliver a distinctive customer experience.
Industry: Artificial Intelligence, E-Commerce.
Founders: Luis Roque, Pedro Santos, Tiago Craveiro, Tiago Paiva.
Total Funding: $6.9M
Founded Date: 2015
16. EatTasty
EatTasty was founded in 2015 by Orlando Lopes and Rui Rocha Costa. It produces every-day tasty food through a decentralized model, aiming to deliver the best food through the biggest community of producers. EatTasty offers chef-guided home cooks prepared food on its platform and delivers to the organizations nearby.
Industry: Food Delivery.
Founders: Orlando Lopes, Rui Rocha Costa.
Total Funding: $2.4M
Founded Date: 2015
17. MUB cargo
MUB cargo is an online platform that connects people and companies that need to transport cargo with a network of transporters willing to pick up and deliver those items. For transporters, MUB cargo gives access to an online platform with several cargo requests in order to maximize their capacity in use, taking advantage of the average 30% wasted capacity on every trip that is made.
Industry: Logistics
Founders: Carlos Palhares, Mariana Gomes, Pedro Vilas Boas.
Total Funding: $590K
Founded Date: 2016
18. FuelSave
FuelSave.io is the mobile App for real-time training in Eco-driving for a more sustainable future. FuelSave technology allows road freight companies save up to 20% in fuel and gas emissions, only by retraining drivers for better performance.
Industry: Fuel, Software.
Founders: Antonio Reis.
Total Funding: $1.6M
Founded Date: 2018
19. LOQR
LOQR was founded in 2015 by Jorge Silva, Joao Cerdeira, Pedro Borges and Ricardo Costa. It is a leading digital onboarding platform for financial institutions and provides a fully compliant end-to-end platform that allows banks and other highly regulated verticals to take the next step to a digital business.
Industry: Enterprise Software.
Founders: Jorge Silva, Joao Cerdeira, Pedro Borges, Ricardo Costa.
Total Funding: $12.2M
Founded Date: 2015
20. Coverflex
Coverflex aims to improve the way companies compensate their people, making it more transparent, flexible and easier for everyone to make the most of what they get. Coverflex provides an online insurance benefits administration platform for employers and employees.
Industry: FinTech.
Founders: Luis Rocha, Miguel Santo Amaro, Nuno Pinto.
Total Funding: $6M
Founded Date: 2019
21. SMARKIO
SMARKIO operates a digital marketing platform that helps marketers to generate leads and increase the performance of campaigns. Its services include copywriting, marketing, business intelligence, quality assurance, and deliverability. SMARKIO began operation in 2015.
Industry: Information Technology.
Founders: Rui Campos, Fernando Wolff.
Total Funding: $1.76M
Founded Date: 2015
22. Doppio Games
Doppio was founded in 2018 by Christopher Barnes and Jefferson Valadares. It is a conversational game company that focuses on the power of voice as an interface. It builds cross-platform games, currently targeting the Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant platforms.
Industry: Gaming.
Founders: Christopher Barnes, Jafferson Valadares.
Total Funding: $1.17M
Founded Date: 2018
23. TAIKAI
TAIKAI’s goal is to create a talent marketplace to connect creators and companies, by crowdsourcing solutions for their challenges, using hackathons as a tool to find, test, validate new ideas, products and talent globally.
Industry: Blockchain, Innovation Management.
Founders: Helder Vasconcelos, Mario Riberio Alves.
Total Funding: $2.8M
Founded Date: 2018
24. Codavel
Codavel helps mobile apps ensure they deliver a fast experience to every user, no matter what the user network, device or location. With Codavel, mobile apps can end the loading time instability in WiFi, 3G and 4G, and get back in control. As a result, every user gets a 5-star experience, whether they’re connected through a fast WiFi network or a sluggish 3G connection.
Industry: Application Performance Management.
Founders: Diogo Ferreira, Jon Castor, Paulo Oliveira, Rui Costa.
Total Funding: $3.4M
Founded Date: 2018
25. MyLADS
MyLADS is a startup that loves fan engagement and sports! To accomplish this goal MyLADS created an engagement tool, where football fans, through an app, get to be part of their favorite football team family. MyLADS stands out because it offers exclusive and unique experiences to the fans, bringing them closer to their club and players, narrowing down the existing gap.
Industry: Augmented Reality, Sports.
Founders: Dulce Guarda, Hugo Matinho, Ivan da Silva Braz.
Total Funding: $8.9M
Founded Date: 2020