Launch in Lisbon: how to launch foreign businesses in Portugal’s capital city

The Launch in Lisbon programme, an initiative from Startup Lisboa, will gather applications until October 25 to help foreigners — entrepreneurs, investors or companies — to prepare the launch of their business in Portugal’s capital city. The first edition of the programme will occur between the second and fourth of November.

Launch in Lisbon emerged from the need to prepare potential foreign investors to launch their businesses in Lisbon, namely concerning issues such as bureaucracy, corporate and negotiations’ culture and life style. The main goal is clear: to make it easier for foreign capitals to be placed in the city.

To ECO, the CEO of Startup Lisboa, Miguel Fontes, stated the programme intends to “soften” the arrival of the business in the city by preparing investors for the ecosystem they will become a part of.

For that purpose, Startup Lisboa made partnerships with Home Lovers (real estate), PLMJ (lawyers) and Moss&Cooper (consultant). “Launch in Lisbon will give access to very relevant information to whoever wants to have their business in a different city. This means information will be provided both in how to build a company, the taxation and labor laws framework, but also on the real estate market“, discloses Miguel Fontes, assuring the programme will be very useful to help those who don’t want to come to a new city feeling “clueless”. In addition, he adds that with this programme, “people will be able to meet other people and relevant entities in the local ecosystem”.

The programme bears no application cost, but investors who are accepted will need to pay 395€ to participate. There is no maximum number of sign ups nor specific criteria for accepting the applications — they are chronologically approved. However, the initiative will only move forward if there is a minimum of 10 participants. So far, there are four new editions of the Launch in Lisbon programme predicted for the next four years.