ScaleUp Porto — Porto City Council's startup acceleration programme

ScaleUp Porto is an initiative of Porto City Council, developed with Porto Business School, launched in 2015 to accelerate startups and scaleups in the Porto Metropolitan Area.

What it does: The programme supports founders at all stages — mentorship, business coaching, funding, networking, talent acquisition and connections to international investors. Key activities include the annual PortoTech festival (30+ events, 6,000+ attendees in 2024), the SIM Conference (Startups & Investment Matching), which in May 2025 connected 3,500 entrepreneurs, 400 startups and 230+ investors, and a bi-annual ScaleUp Porto Startup Investment Toolkit.

Results: Since 2015, ScaleUp Porto has directly supported 200+ startups. The Porto region now counts 706 startups and scaleups with a combined enterprise value of €5.1 billion and 17,500 jobs, with 28% employment CAGR 2019–2024 (ScaleUp Porto 2025 Ecosystem Report). Startup Genome (2025) calculates Porto's ecosystem value at $8.4 billion — a 693% increase from 2021, well above the global average of 149%. Porto counts two active unicorns and achieved $1.8B in VC funding 2021–2025. In 2025, Porto was named best European city for attracting investment (Iberian Property Awards). InvestPorto, the parallel investment promotion agency, credits €2B investment and 28,000 local jobs to the broader Porto economic development strategy.

Why it is a good practice: Porto combined a City Council mandate with a business-school partnership to build a continuous improvement ecosystem without relying on any single large employer or sector. Read more: https://scaleupporto.pt

Read the full analysis: https://scaleupporto.pt