Aceler@Tech allows startups to grow their business in Portugal
The registration period for Acelera@Tech – Tourism Acceleration Program will close on March 27th. The program is organized by “Acredita Portugal” in partnership with the Portuguese Tourism Board “Turismo de Portugal”, and aims to attract innovative startups to do business with key industry players, increasing competitiveness and innovation in the country and strengthening the growing cool startup ecosystem.
After the selection process in Phase 1, the 20 best startups will be selected to Phase 2, where the aim is to join the best travel tech startups in the world directly with potential clients, investors and mentors, experts in business development and from leading companies in the tourism industry, with whom they can come to do pilots, create synergies and make sales. In Phase 3, the 20 startups will travel to Portugal in order to close deals and pilots in person, and the selection of the 3 winners will take place in Gaia, Porto in June.
In last year’s edition, the program counted 320 applications of startups from all over the world, two of which moved their operations to Portugal, two others were considered in the Top 25 worldwide startups to watch in 2022 by TravelMassive & PhocusWire. This year, the pipeline of candidates counts with startups that raised from 300K EUR to 4M EUR in funding and some were supported by Techstars, Google Accelerator and Seedstars.
For Cátia Marques, the Program Manager, this is “a massive opportunity for the revamp of the Portuguese economy that highly relies on Tourism“, before the pandemic it counted for 19,1% of the GNP of the country. Not only that, itis “an effective way of entering the Portuguese markets for startups, due to the huge focus in networking, putting decision makers in both sides talking directly, allowing for a more solution-driven approach. Our experience proves this is the most effective way of growing a business in a new country”.
The startup ecosystem in Portugal already counts 7 unicorns (privately held startup companies with a value of over $1 billion), which is the same number of Spain, Italy and Greece number of unicorns combined. It hosts the biggest tech conference in the world WebSummit and is positioning itself as the Sillicon Valley of Europe, apart from the fact that it is one of the most varied countries in terms of touristic offering of Europe, attracting millions every year.
Applications are open in this link (https://info.aceleratechinportugal.com/1de2velbt/application-form) until March 27 and the program is equity-free and free of charge, as it is funded by a state held organism, Turismo de Portugal.
Media Contact
Company Name: Acredita Portugal
Contact Person: Cátia Marques
Email: Send Email
Country: Portugal
Website: https://www.aceleratechinportugal.com/
