The first two articles in this series were about money: grants and investments. This article is about the legal and infrastructural tools that can make life easier for a company. They don't bring in direct funding, but they let you save it: lowering taxes for your team, gaining a working environment and connections below market rates, and spending less effort on bureaucracy when relocating and hiring foreigners. You can use them at various stages — from moving a project into the country to expanding the team. Here are the details.
Official startup status: who needs it and what it offers
In everyday speech, "startup" refers to any young company with an innovative component. In Portugal, though, it's also a distinct legal category.
Under Article 2 of Law No. 21/2023, startup status can be granted to a company less than 10 years old, with fewer than 250 employees and annual turnover no higher than €50 million. It must not have arisen from the transformation or spin-off of a large business, nor may a large company hold a controlling stake in it. There's also a requirement to be tied to the country: headquarters, a permanent establishment in Portugal, or at least 25 employees on Portuguese soil. The founders' citizenship doesn't matter.
The certificate recognizing a company as a startup is issued by Startup Portugal, the organization that develops the country's startup ecosystem (we've written about it before). The application is submitted through the government services portal, gov.pt. Beyond the formal parameters, you need to confirm the innovative nature or growth potential of the project. Startup Portugal accepts several types of proof. The first is a document from the National Innovation Agency (ANI): an ID Seal for research and development, or a certificate for a company in the technology sector. A venture round confirmed by documentation, or an investment from the state bank Banco Português de Fomento, will also work.
If none of these grounds exist, Startup Portugal can assess the project on an individual basis and issue a preliminary declaration, through which the startup certificate can then be obtained on gov.pt. The organization commits to reviewing a standard application within five business days, and a request for a preliminary declaration within up to 30 business days.
The practical value of the status includes, for example, tax breaks and access to Startup Portugal's programs.
The first break concerns stock options. A young company finds it hard to compete with corporations on salary levels, so instead of a high salary an employee is given a stock option — the right to buy the company's shares over time at a price fixed in advance. If the company grows, the shares rise in value, and the difference between the fixed price and the sale price becomes the employee's income. Under the general rules, tax would arise as early as the moment the shares are purchased: the discount to the market price is treated as employment income and falls under the progressive scale, even though the employee hasn't yet received any actual cash. For a startup, the tax is deferred until the shares are sold, and the income is taxed at an effective rate of 14%. The break comes with conditions: the option must be held for at least a year, and if the employee ceases to be a Portuguese tax resident, the tax is charged upon departure.
The second break helps bring people in from abroad. A member of a startup's management bodies, or an employee engaged in research or innovation, can register under the IFICI regime if they become a Portuguese tax resident and weren't one for the previous five years. Their employment income at a recognized startup is taxed at 20% for up to ten years.
Incubators: where to find an environment and connections for a project
Incubators in Portugal are united in a national network, RNi — Portugal Incubators, managed by the same Startup Portugal. In 2025, the network's registry included 146 accredited sites: 48 technology-focused and 98 local. The list specifies the cities, sector specialization, websites, and contacts of the organizations.
The sites are usually divided into two formats. An incubator proper gives a company a permanent environment for growth: premises or a virtual presence, mentors, partners, and access to infrastructure. An accelerator is a time-limited program built around a specific stage or growth objective. It's convenient to compare sites across several parameters:
the project's stage and requirements regarding an already registered company;
sector profile;
the presence of a lab, equipment, office, or virtual incubation;
ties to universities, corporate partners, and potential clients;
cost, duration, mandatory events, and the conditions for exiting the program;
the incubator's right to accept Startup Visa participants.
Just how different the models can be is clear from two examples.
UPTEC is linked to the University of Porto and accepts business ideas, young companies, and innovation divisions of existing businesses. Physical, coworking, and virtual incubation are available, and individual centers focus on science and technology, laboratory work, creative industries, and the marine economy.
Unicorn Factory Lisboa works with early-stage startups from pre-seed to Series A and offers scaling programs and industry accelerators. The organization specifically emphasizes that it doesn't invest in participants or take a stake, but connects them with investors and partners.
Startup Visa: how a founder can relocate with a project
For a foreign entrepreneur without permanent residency in the Schengen area who wants to develop a technology or innovation project in Portugal, there's the Startup Visa. A certified incubator is a mandatory link in this migration route. Another condition: you need to show that the project is capable of creating skilled jobs and, within five years, reaching an annual turnover or asset value above €325,000.
The program is overseen by IAPMEI — the state agency for competitiveness and innovation, which we wrote about in the article on grants.
The sequence of steps looks like this:
check that the project meets the program's conditions;
select organizations from the list of incubators certified specifically for the Startup Visa;
obtain a declaration of interest from one or more of them;
submit an application through the IAPMEI platform — a decision takes up to 30 business days;
after approval, sign an incubation agreement with the incubator, for which 40 business days are allowed;
receive a declaration of admission to the program and use it to apply for the visa or residence permit.
Participation in the program does not guarantee that you'll receive the visa and residence permit — the final decision rests with the consulate and the migration agency AIMA.
The Startup Visa is strictly tied to startups and incubators — for a business without an innovative component, there's a general residence permit for self-employment and entrepreneurs, covering a broader range of projects.
Tech Visa: how to hire specialists from outside the EU
When a company is already operating in Portugal and is bringing in not a founder but an employee, a different tool applies. The Tech Visa is designed for companies that operate on the global market, have their headquarters or a permanent establishment in Portugal, and want to hire highly qualified or specialized workers from countries outside the EU. The applicant is the employer: IAPMEI assesses and certifies the company, not the individual specialist.
A certified company gains the right to issue the specialists it hires termos de responsabilidade — employer responsibility documents, which are then used in the visa procedure. Certification is valid for five years and can be renewed for the same period. There's also a limit on scale: usually, through the Tech Visa, you can hire no more than 50% of your workforce at once, and for companies whose main activity is in the country's interior regions, the ceiling is raised to 80%.
For the employer, it all comes down to four actions: check your own eligibility, obtain IAPMEI certification, select an employee who fits the program's requirements, and issue them the responsibility document. The requirements for diplomas, salary thresholds, and the employee's personal documents change periodically, so they should be checked as of the hiring date against current IAPMEI and AIMA materials.
Where to start
A registered company should check the criteria for official status and decide whether it needs the tax breaks that come with it. For an environment, partners, and connections, go to incubators — no visa is needed for that. A relocating founder with an innovative project should pick a site from the certified list and prepare a Startup Visa application; an employer with an international team should assess Tech Visa certification. For those who find it hard to identify the right option, Startup Portugal offers a One Stop Shop consultation entry point — a convenient place to begin while the task is still not precisely defined.
