Startups represent 1.1% of Portuguese GDP

The Portuguese entrepreneurial ecosystem represented 1.1% of the Portuguese gross domestic product in the year of 2018. This conclusion was drawn by Startup Portugal, which is the public agency responsible for the implementation of the national strategy for the sector.

According to the agency’s report, both sales and services offered by startups and entrepreneurs reached 2.2Bn€ in 2018, which corresponds to 1% of the national GDP (201.6Bn€).

Exportations also increased since Startup Portugal was launched: in 2016, both services and goods exported by startups reached 673M€, while, two years passed, that number almost doubled to 1.121Bn€, corresponding to 1.9% of the country’s total exports.

The data revealed this Friday also shows multiplication in numbers composing the Portuguese entrepreneurial ecosystem. If in 2016 there were 121 incubators, the number in 2018 was 153. The number of incubated startups also increased from 2.193 in 2016 to 3.214 in 2018.

During the first year of incubation, the survival rate of startups was 80.43% in 2017 and 86,56% in 2018. However, the data regarding startups surviving after the 24 first months of incubation drops to 67.76% in 2018, which is still positive comparing 2016’s 63%.

The impact of entrepreneurship in employment was also notable. In 2016, the number of jobs created by startups was 15.534, then falling 30% in 2017 to accelerate again in 2018 by 24% to 25.084.