Unicorn Factory Lisboa
Portugal
Unicorn Factory Lisboa is a platform of programs and hubs, inspired by international best practices, which supports startups and scaleups …
Good practice
Imported
★ 86
★ 95
★ 86
★ 95
ScaleUp Porto — Porto City Council's startup acceleration programme
Portugal · Porto · See the Portugal profile · See the Porto profile
Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 10% 86/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice
City-council programme (since 2015) pairing Porto City Council with Porto Business School to support 200+ startups through mentorship, coaching and international connections. Porto's ecosystem now holds $8.4B in value, 17,500 jobs and 28% employment CAGR 2019–2024.
200+ startups
Startups directly supported since 2015 (2015-2025)
706 companies
Startups and scaleups in Porto region (2025)
5.1 EUR billion
Combined enterprise value of Porto region startups/scaleups (2025)
17,500 jobs
Jobs in Porto startup/scaleup ecosystem (2025)
28 %
Employment CAGR (2019-2024)
8.4 US$ billion
Porto ecosystem value (2025)
693 %
Increase in ecosystem value since 2021 (2021-2025)
1.8 US$ billion
VC funding raised (2021-2025)
Details
- Maturity
- Scaling
- Promoter
- Porto City Council / Porto Business School
- Period
- 2015–present
- Region (NUTS)
PT11- Keywords
- Startups & scaleups, tech
Context
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.
Objectives
Support founders at all stages through mentorship, business coaching, funding, networking, talent acquisition and connections to international investors, building a sustainable regional entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Activities
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. Since 2015, ScaleUp Porto has directly supported 200+ startups.
Results
The Porto region now counts 706 startups and scaleups with a combined enterprise value of EUR 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 (versus a global average of 149%). Porto counts two active unicorns and achieved $1.8 billion in VC funding 2021-2025. In 2025, Porto was named best European city for attracting investment (Iberian Property Awards).
Conclusions
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; InvestPorto, the parallel investment promotion agency, credits EUR 2 billion investment and 28,000 local jobs to the broader Porto economic development strategy.
Implementation
- Indicative cost
- Medium (€50k–€500k) — City-council-funded mentorship, events and coaching programme; no specific total budget figure found in source.
- Time to results
- Medium (1–3 years) — Launched 2015; 10 years of continuous operation and ecosystem growth to 2025.
- Staffing & skills
- Porto City Council, Porto Business School, InvestPorto (parallel investment promotion agency)
Conditions for success
- City Council mandate combined with a business-school delivery partner
- Regular flagship events to connect founders, investors and talent (PortoTech, SIM Conference)
- Complementary investment-promotion agency (InvestPorto)
Common failure modes
- Scale-up conversion remains limited relative to overall startup count, indicating a capital-access ceiling without later-stage investment vehicles
Where it fits
- Governance type
- city council programme delivered with a university/business-school partner
- Scale
- metropolitan region (Porto)
- Income level
- high-income country (Portugal)
Commonly funded by
National / regional programmes
Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.
Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.
Data sources
Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.
- C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-06-21
- Porto City Council / Porto Business School — accessed 2026-06-21
- ScaleUp Porto official site — accessed 2026-06-21
- Startup Genome Porto report — accessed 2026-06-21
- InvestPorto – entrepreneurial hub — accessed 2026-06-21
Attachments
Similar practices you may find useful
Copenhagen Business Hub (Erhvervshus Hovedstaden)
Denmark
Erhvervshus Hovedstaden is one of six regional business houses in Denmark. At Erhvervshus Hovedstaden, they help more than 5,000 companies …
CcHub (Co-Creation Hub) — Africa's Pioneering Tech Innovation Hub
Nigeria
Africa's first open innovation hub, founded in Lagos in 2010; by 2025 it had deployed $17.1 M cumulatively to 3,312 …
Smart Open Lisboa
Portugal
Smart Open Lisboa (SOL) is a startup program focused on the validation and integration of innovative solutions meant to upgrade …