Portugal-relevant startup grants, vouchers, prizes, accelerators, and founder funding opportunities in one place.
9 current opportunities
Funding guide
Use this page when you are building from Portugal, expanding through the Portuguese ecosystem, or looking for programmes where a Portugal link improves your fit. Each opportunity includes practical notes on eligibility, benefits, and founder stage.
Current opportunities
9 opportunities shown.
Portugal-based academic founders turning research, theses, R&D projects, or proofs of concept into a startup, especially students, researchers, or faculty connected to a national higher-education institution.
€30,000 non-repayable voucher per project, paid 100% in advance after approval, to fund early business creation and validation steps such as incubation, acceleration, company setup, events, marketing, pitch materials, proof of concept, pilots, IP protection, and regulatory or certification mapping.
For micro, small, and medium-sized companies, including startups. The company must be majority-owned by an individual who is currently, or was in the previous two calendar years, enrolled in a degree programme at a Portuguese higher-education institution or working as a researcher or teacher at one. Applications are submitted through Startup Portugal's official funding platform; ANI and Startup Portugal support the technical review, and FITEC decides within 30 working days after the notice closes.
Technical founders and early-career engineers with up to three years of experience in full-stack, backend, AI, or data engineering who can attend in Lisbon and want to demonstrate their skills through a live build rather than a CV.
RecT gives 40 selected participants a two-day team hackathon at IDEA Spaces Saldanha, a 2,000 cash prize for the winning team, fast-track interviews with RecT partners, and a verified profile shared with RecT's network of tech founders and CTOs.
Applications are open, with no closing date stated on the event page. Applicants must have up to three years of experience in full-stack, backend, AI, or data engineering and be available in Lisbon on 10-11 Oct 2026. Teams of four are formed at the event, and all projects must start from scratch during the weekend.
AI builders, technical founders, operator-founders, and automation-heavy startup teams in Lisbon who want to ship a working AI prototype against a real business brief in one intense day.
Swans gives 80 selected builders a real operational problem from a U.S. personal injury law firm, 12 hours to build with any AI, automation, no-code, agent, or custom-code stack, live judging by Swans engineers and actual buyers, a $2,000 prize pool, and finalist fast-track interviews with Swans.
Applications close 17 Jul 2026. Applicants should be ready to attend in Lisbon on Friday 24 Jul 2026, build from 09:00-21:00, and show what they have built. The event is selective, with 80 places for Lisbon builders and finalists expected to present the prototype clearly to Swans engineering leadership and buyer-side judges.
Early-stage startups and SMEs with health-focused digital solutions that want healthcare stakeholder exposure, pilot or validation opportunities, clinical feedback, and visibility in Portugal's health innovation ecosystem.
Selected teams showcase at the IHT Conference HealthTech Showroom, join guided tours with expert groups, connect with clinicians, healthcare decision-makers and potential partners, get direct feedback, unlock pilot, validation and funding conversations, and receive two free full-access conference tickets.
Applications close 7 Sep 2026. Applicants should be SMEs with health-focused digital solutions and meet the startup criteria stated in the guidelines: established less than five years ago and annual revenue below €1M. Selected teams are expected to confirm participation between 14-21 Sep 2026 and attend the showroom at IHT Conference on 27-28 Oct 2026.
Early-stage startups with outstanding potential that want Web Summit visibility in Lisbon, investor and media exposure, startup activations, and a structured event preparation path with the startup success team.
Selected ALPHA startups receive three Web Summit tickets, a startup profile visible to attendees, investors, media, and partners, a one-day exhibition booth, a printed exhibition board, access to the Web Summit app, Startup Lounge, startup activations, and support from a dedicated startup success manager. Accepted startups can also apply for activations such as PITCH, Startup Showcase, 40 Words, Mentor Hours, masterclasses, roundtables, and investor-to-startup meetings.
Apply through Web Summit's 2026 startup programme page with a business email address. Web Summit assesses applicants for high potential and programme fit. PITCH is open to ALPHA and BETA startups exhibiting at Web Summit that have received less than €5M in funding to date and have not had a discernible change in business model in the last three years.
Aspiring and early-stage founders in Portugal who want a lightweight in-person entry point into the local startup ecosystem, founder lessons, mentor discovery, and networking with founders, mentors, investors, and ecosystem builders.
Founder Institute Portugal’s in-person event combines founder insights from Joana Pinto and Nuno Fernandes, Founder Institute Portugal 2026 Demo Day pitches, and a networking session. The page highlights practical resources for launching and growing a startup, including local support organisations, mentor access, industry resources, and early-stage funding sources.
Register through the Founder Institute event page. The event is scheduled for 16 Jul 2026, 10:30-11:30 Europe/Lisbon, at Sítio Fintech House, Av. Duque de Loulé 12, Lisbon. The page describes an in-person networking event and includes a registration form.
Portuguese founders, startups, companies, research centres, universities, associations, cooperatives, NGOs, public bodies, and other teams with innovative products, services, organisational methods, or marketing approaches for agriculture, agri-food, forestry, rural development, local value chains, or climate adaptation.
The 13th edition awards €35,000 in total prizes: €10,000 for each of the three main categories, plus promotional video support for winning projects, and a €5,000 Prémio Revelação for an early-stage project with high development and scalability potential.
Applications are open until 9 Aug 2026 through the official form. Each promoter may submit one original project in one category: Investigação e Inovação, Desenvolvimento Local, or Impacto Climático e Adaptação. Projects must be directly or indirectly related to the agricultural, agri-food, or forestry sectors. An optional 1-2 minute Portuguese video pitch and supporting files can strengthen the application.
Startups with an MVP, prototype, product, or validated solution for hospitality, accommodation, tourism operations, guest experience, revenue/data, sustainability, resource efficiency, or smarter hotel operations.
Direct access to hospitality companies in Portugal, matchmaking around real sector challenges, bootcamps and mentoring from Fábrica de Startups, client feedback, pilot-development support, and a route to future contracts, partnerships, licensing, investment, or commercial collaboration.
Applications run from 3 Jun to 23 Aug 2026. Open to Portuguese and international startups, but selected teams should be available for programme activities with hospitality companies operating in Portugal. Selection considers solution quality, team, market fit, implementation potential, relevance to the programme challenges, and technical and business viability. Payment / Cost: no participation cost for selected startups.
Portuguese startups, SMEs, and eligible national entities needing advanced compute resources.; best for AI, simulation, scientific-computing, and compute-heavy startups.
CPU / GPU hours and storage on advanced computing infrastructure.
Eligible Portuguese entities with pre-commercial innovation projects.
Founder guidance
We include grants, vouchers, prizes, accelerators, investor-access programmes, and public/private calls where Portugal-based founders or Portugal-linked startups are a clear fit.
It depends on the programme. Some calls require a Portuguese legal entity, while others accept international teams if the project is implemented in Portugal or has a relevant Portuguese partner.
The full Founder Opportunities page shows everything we are tracking. This guide highlights the Portugal-relevant funding options so you can decide faster.
