For this year’s edition, Startup Portugal is “looking for startups with a strategy and capacity for international expansion”. There is no closed number of openings at this stage.
Startup Portugal is looking for startups with plans to expand to Brazil, Spain, France and Canada, and has reopened applications for the first half of the Business Abroad program, which supports the presence of national startups at major technology events. Web Summit in Rio de Janeiro, South Summit in Madrid, VivaTechnology in Paris and Collision in Canada are the events and markets planned for this phase. There is no set number of slots.
“This year we have some flexibility in opening some of these missions, so we will close numbers after we know how many startups we have interested in each market. Once we know how many we have for each destination, we will announce the numbers,” António Dias Martins, executive director of Startup Portugal, tells ECO.
Goal of the program
“Expanding into international markets is an imperative for startups born in our country, and accompanying their internationalization process is one of Startup Portugal’s main missions. With the growing interest we have registered in the Brazilian market in the technology and innovation sectors, we have high expectations for the potential of the Brazilian economy for our startups. In addition, Brazil is an unavoidable source of talent and funding that can be fundamental for startups and scale ups established in Portugal,” explains António Dias Martins, quoted in a statement.
For this year’s edition, Startup Portugal is “looking for startups with a strategy and capacity for international expansion”.
The first edition of Web Summit in Rio de Janeiro (May 1 to 4) is the first mission, with applications still open for South Summit (June 7 to 9), VivaTechnology (June 14 to 17) and Collision (June 26 to 29).
In each destination, in addition to attending the conferences, participants will have access to the conference exhibition area, “parallel networking events with investors and relevant players in the local ecosystems, mentoring by AICEP teams in the destination countries, pitch sessions, among others,” according to Startup Portugal.
Since its inception, the program has helped more than 200 startups attend international technology events.
