The startup scene in Portugal is quickly emerging as a hotbed of innovation.
With new companies sprouting enterprise and consumer verticals, Portugal’s ever-growing list of startups are making a splash – at home and internationally. Scooping an estimated €285M of investment in 2019, Portuguese startups sit in a prime position to capitalize on mounting interest and reach a global audience.
To help you keep up with the constantly developing Portuguese startup ecosystem, we’ve highlighted the startups we’re most excited about.
How we compiled our list**
There’s a host of exciting startups in Portugal so making this list was no easy task. But we whittled down the list by selecting entrants based on their innovation and funding valuation.
Here’s the result. A mix of newly emerging firms and companies that are a little further along in their startup journey. Let’s dive right in.
Portuguese Startups to look out for**
Stratio Automotive
Launching in 2019 with one of the biggest seed rounds in Portugal, Stratio is an automotive fleet management platform that uses artificial intelligence to detect vehicle anomalies and faults. To date, it has raised €3M in seed investment.
Founders: Ricardo Margalho and Rui Sales
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
LOQR
Founded in 2015, the fintech company LOQR enables banks and other highly regulated companies in the financial sector to offer secure digital services The company recently made headlines for raising €8M of Series A investment in June 2021 and works with five of the six top banks in Portugal.
Founders: Ricardo Costa, Jorge Silva and Pedro Borges
Location: Braga, Portugal
Codavel
Since 2018, Codavel has promised a smooth app experience, making mobile apps fast and simple to access even under challenging network conditions. The startup has raised a total of €2M, including €1.3M in February 2020.
Founders: Rui Costa, Diogo Ferreira and Paulo Oliveira.
Location: Oporto, Portugal
Kencko
Kencko develops plant-based products that make it quick and easy for people to get more organic fruit and vegetables into their diets. Available worldwide, the company raised a $3.4 million seed round in 2019 and continues to grow from its offices in Lisbon and Brooklyn, New York.
Founder: Tomás Froes
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Replai
Replai was born with the goal of powering gaming developers to obtain valuable insights on their creatives through performance data. Through AI tagging, Raplai brings creativity and data together to reveal what’s behind the best-performing UA creatives. They raised a €1.2 million seed round in June 2020.
Founders: João Costa and Francisco Pacheco
Location: Porto, Portugal
Barkyn
Barkyn is a food and health subscription platform for pets. Serving the countries of Portugal, Spain and Italy, the startup first launched in 2017 and has ambitions to become the top pet wellness brand in Southern Europe.
Founder: Andre Jordao and Ricardo Macedo
Location: Porto, Lisboa, Portugal
Virtuleap
Founded in 2018, Virtuleap blends virtual reality and neuroscience through immersive games and technology that treats cognitive disorders and illnesses. To date, it has raised $1.1M in pre-seed and seed funding to grow the company.
Founders: Amir Bozorgzadeh and Hossein Jalali
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Landing.jobs
Created for tech professionals, Landing.jobs is a careers marketplace that matches talent to exciting opportunities in the technology industry. Since 2013, the company has led professionals to new positions with recruiters based in Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. In total, it has raised €4.8M, including €2M Series A investment in March 2020.
Founders: José Paiva and Pedro Carmo Oliveira
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
MyLADS
Augmented reality startup MyLADS unifies sports fans by giving them physical collectibles that they can enter into virtual contests. The company launched in 2020 and has quickly caught the attention of investors, raising €7.6M in seed funding in July 2021.
Founders: Dulce Guarda, Hugo Matinho and Ivan da Silva Braz
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
PlatformE
PlatformE is accelerating the Fashion Industry towards On-Demand Manufacturing and Mass Customisation, with the mission to drastically reduce overproduction and waste. PlatformE streamlines 3D digital fashion from idea to retail all the way to the level of production and distribution. The company powers MTO and on-demand manufacturing for some of the biggest marketplaces and fashion houses such as LVMH, Kering, as well as independent groups - including Gucci, Dior, Fendi, Emilio Pucci, and Nicholas Kirkwood.
Founders: Ben Demiri, Gonçalo Cruz, José Neves and João Magalhães
Location: Porto, Portugal; London, England
Kitch
Food delivery startup Kitch launched in 2019 to give restaurants more flexibility over their online ordering process. It has raised a total of €4.3M, including €3M in seed funding in May 2021.
Founders: Nuno Rodrigues and Rui Bento
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Forall Phones
Forall Phones is an ecommerce company with physical stores that sells refurbished and used devices like iPhones, iPads and MacBooks to promote a circular economy. The startup was founded in 2015 by 19-year-old entrepreneur José Costa Rodrigues, who raised €2M of Series A financing in October 2019 for the company
Founder: José Costa Rodrigues
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Sensei
Sensei is delivering a check-out and cash-free store experience for the shopping experience of the future. Through its AI algorithm and integrated camera system, Sensei aims to offer seamless retailing, and since its 2017 launch, it has raised €6.1M, including a €5.4M seed round of investment.
Founders: Joana Rafael, Nuno Moutinho, Paulo Carreira and Vasco Portugal
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Infraspeak
Infraspeak is an innovative Intelligent Maintenance Management Platform (IMMP). It connects your assets, teams, other software and IoT devices and combines the data it generates into real actions that can have an immediate impact on your operation. Infraspeak offers a comprehensive set of native apps that can be enabled or disabled as required, so you can build a solution that fits your operation perfectly and adapts as your business grows.
Founders: Felipe Ávila da Costa and Luís Martins
Location: Porto, Lisboa, Portugal
Biometrid
Biometrid develops biometric identification technology for government institutions, financial services, call centres and sharing economy companies. The company launched in 2015 and has a presence in Portugal and Mozambique. In June 2020, Biometrid announced a $2.2M funding round from Alpac Capital.
CEO: Fernando Moreira
Location: Porto, Lisbon, Portugal
Advertio
Performance advertising startup Advertio launched in 2017 to simplify how companies discover quality leads and counts Instagram, Facebook and Bing as customers. It has raised $1.9M in seed funding to date.
Founder: João de Sousa Aroso
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Glartek
Glartek provides augmented & connected worker tools, and visual remote assistance, to improve efficiency and safety within facilities. The company launched in 2017 and received a seed investment of €1.5M in March 2019.
Founder: Luís Murcho, Gonçalo Santos, João Pereira.
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
PICadvanced
Founded in 2014, PICadvanced develops innovations in optical chip design and electronics for the telecommunications industry. In August 2020, the startup raised €4M in Series A investment from Verizon Ventures, rounding off the communication giant’s investments for that year.
Founder: Ana Tavares, Antonio Teixeira
Location: Ílhavo, Portugal
Musiversal
Remote musical production is made possible with Musiversal, which enables creatives to produce music on-demand through a monthly subscription service. The music production startup launched in 2018 and has raised $1.3M in seed funding.
Founder: André Miranda, Martin Quach
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Shimejito
The agritech company Shimejito aims to resolve malnutrition by combining the IoT with the collaborative economy to help people produce fresh and sustainable food in their own homes. In December 2020, the company raised $10.5M in seed funding.
Founder: Adriel Rodrigues Oliviera
Location: Fundão, Castelo Branco, Portugal
Codevision
Edtech startup Codevision has developed software to help manage private schools with a footprint across Brazil, Mozambique, Angola and Guinea. In Jan 2019, the startup raised $2.2M Series A financing from Portuguese equity investor Alpac Capital.
Founders: Eurico Lages and Marco Coelho
Location: Braga, Portugal
Shiptimize
Logistics tech platform Shipmitize automates the delivery process for ecommerce businesses. The startup, which launched in 2017, has raised at total of $1.1M in seed funding, with its last round in January 2020.
Founders: Jorn Spiertz and Mark Bastiaanssen
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Automaise
Founded in 2017, Automaise is an automated low-code AI platform that provides companies with virtual employees within the customer service space. In January 2021 it raised a seed round of €1M and aims to target the travel, baking, retail and telco sectors.
Founder: Ernesto Pedrosa
Location: Braga, Portugal
Utrust
Cryptocurrency payment company Utrust allows merchants to easily accept cryptocurrency payments on their platforms, enabling them to maintain an increased profit margin. Since it was founded in 2017, the crypto startup has raised $21M.
Founders: Artur Goulão, Filipe Castro, Nuno Correia, Roberto Machado
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
WeChangers
WeChangers is an online and messaging platform for social impact organizations. Since its launch in 2019, the communications startup has raised €1M from the Portuguese Social Innovation Fund.
Founders: Maria Ferreira da Silva and Bernardo Janson
Location: Porto, Portugal
Remote
True to its name, Remote helps companies manage a remote and international workforce by providing compliance and payroll services. The HR startup launched in 2019 and raised Series B funding of $150M in June 2021.
CEO: Job van der Voort
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Nutrium
Founded in 2015, Healthtech startup Nutrium links dieticians to patients through its platform which provides patients with integrated nutrition counselling. In October 2020, the company raised €4.25 m in seed funding.
Founders: André Santos, Diogo Alves, Pedro Carneiro and Pedro Maia
Location: Braga, Portugal
Prodsmart
Innovating the production line, Prodsmart aims to transform factory processes through automation digitally. The B2B startup first launched in 2012 and has raised $4.5M in investment to date.
Founders: Gonçalo Fortes, Marya Dzmitruk and Samuel Martins
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
BladeInsight
Clean energy startup BladeInsight creates customised solutions for inspecting wind turbine blades with autonomous drones. Since its inception in 2015, the company has secured $2.1M of investment, most recently including a strategic investment from Swire Energy Service.
Founder: André Moura
Location: Porto Salvo, Portugal
CellmAbs
Biotech firm CellmAbs discovers and develops oncology products to create effective and therapeutic treatments for cancer patients. Founded in 2019, the biotech startup has raised $3.2M in seed funding.
Founders: Nuno Prego Ramos and Paula Videira
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
HiJiffy
HiJiffy provides guest communication technology for hotels by automating and measuring hotel customer service through a virtual assistant. The company raised €1M in seed funding in November 2020 to create an integrated marketing platform for hotels.
Founders: José Mendonça, Pedro Gonçalves and Tiago Araújo
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Probely
Cybersecurity firm Probely helps online companies scan for vulnerabilities that would stop their businesses from operating in the digital space. The startup first launched in 2016 and has raised $2M to grow its operations.
Founders: Nuno Loureiro, Tiago Mendo, Hugo Castilho, João Poupino, Bruno Barão and Cláudio Gamboa.
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
proGrow
Enterprise platform startup proGrow helps companies reach operational excellence through its modular SaaS offering which tracks business intelligence and key performance indicators. In January 2020, the company raised €2M in seed funding.
Founder: Marco Tschan Carvalho
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Doppio Games
Doppio is a conversational game studio that uses voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant to play voice and narrative-driven games. The startup was founded in 2018 and its investors include Amazon Alexa Fund and Google Assistant Investments.
Founders: Christopher Barnes and Jeferson Valadares
Location: Porto, Portugal
Portugal’s Startup Scene is Just Getting Started**
Portugal’s startup ecosystem is clearly thriving.
We can’t wait to see how the companies on this list disrupt their industries and grow over the next few years. Do you think we missed anyone from the list? Drop us a line on hello(@)cledara.com.
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