SPEED UP (Supporting Practices for Entrepreneurship Ecosystems in the Development of Urban Policies)

SPEED UP was an Interreg Europe project (2014-2020) supporting the creation, development and growth of SMEs through business incubators, aiming to improve regional policy instruments for entrepreneurship support under EU Structural Funds. In Lisbon, the project piloted the Lisbon Entrepreneurial Ecosystem (LEME) monitoring system and created the Start Up Pass, an international pass giving entrepreneurs access to free office space, gathering data intended to inform municipal entrepreneurship policy.

The project had a budget of €1.7 million from the ERDF and involved 9 partners from 8 European regions. According to the LEME survey of Lisbon startups, accelerator-programme startups had a valuation 2.5x higher than non-accelerated ones, and a typical Lisbon-incubated startup raised more than half a million euros within 2 years while already reporting over half a million euros in sales. Investment was 77% dilutive capital, mostly from venture capital, and of all startups surveyed, 80% had applied for EU community funds but only 8% obtained non-dilutive financing. About 26% of startup employees were female, and 21.6% of surveyed startups had female founders or leaders.