INFO & STATS

Our history

Startup Lisboa is a business incubator that began its activity in February 2012, with the opening of its first building on Rua da Prata 80, in Lisbon's historic downtown.

Founded in 2011 by the Municipality of Lisbon, bank Montepio and IAPMEI (Portuguese Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation), was born of the will of the citizens, having been one of the most voted ideas in 2009/2010 Participatory Budget of the City Council. 

It is a private non-profit association whose mission is to support the creation of companies and entrepreneurs in their first years of activity, promote job creation, and aid the urban, social, and economic vitality of Lisbon.

Unicorn Factory Lisboa is the umbrella brand launched in 2022 that aggregates and expands our operations along the entire value chain to have a strong economic impact, namely with the Scaling Up Program, the Soft Landing Program and through innovation-focused hubs

How we help startups

We are facilitators.

We are daily committed to connecting the founders with people and entities that matter to their business, facilitating access to investment, mentors, strategic partners and potential customers.

There are two models of incubation: physical and virtual; In both models, our support structure includes mentoring, linking to strategic partnerships, access to investment/funding, and a valuable and extensive list of perks and benefits - including learning activities and office hours with domain experts -, and a community based on knowledge and sharing. Our community is our greatest asset.

We encourage the founders to look for what is best around the world to boost their growth. Some members have teams abroad developing new markets, and some participated in recognized accelerators like 500 Startups, TechStars and YCombinator, and we're proud of it.

How we help the ecosystem

Startup Lisboa is also managing the Hub Criativo do Beato, the new innovation hub for creative and technological companies and the organizer of Launch in Lisbon, an exploration programme to help foreign entrepreneurs and investors to set up their businesses in Lisbon.

While Startup Lisboa focuses on early-stage startups, Unicorn Factory Lisboa expands the operations along the value chain namely with the Scaling Up Program, an acceleration program designed for the “growth stage”, giving scaleups the skills, mentoring, and connections to unlock their growth potential and, more recently, with the Innovation Summer School for young high-school entrepreneurs.

For founders and entrepreneurs arriving in Lisbon, we offer the possibility of staying at CASA Startup Lisboa, our residence for short-term accomodation.

Startup Lisboa is also running various acceleration programmes: From Start-To-Table, a program supported by Turismo de Portugal, to reshape the ecosystem of food & beverages; Clean Future, supporting startups developing technological solutions to promote sustainability in construction, mobility and retail and Net Zero Health Systems focused on the decarbonisation of the health sector.

Founding Associates

Associates

Gil Azevedo

Executive Director

Rui Miguel Nabeiro

Board Member

Luís Guerreiro

President

João Carvalho das Neves

President

Miguel Nunes

Member

Paulo Figueira

Member