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Medidas De Apoio A Startups

Support Measures for Startups

The last few months have been of great difficulty and adaptation, since the regular activities of companies have been interrupted and many had to modify their business model.

Treasury liquidity has been a major concern for companies, which have seen their sales drop sharply under new circumstances. Thus, many companies of different sizes, from startups, micro, small and medium companies to large companies and multinationals, and from various sectors of activity, from the primary to the tertiary sector, seek financial support to survive this period of crisis and the consequences that will follow.

By Cíntia Costa

 

LISPOLIS decided to list the support available, so that companies can understand what type of support will be most suitable for their business.

In this article we will focus on the measures available to startups, which by definition have different characteristics from other companies, namely with regard to highly qualified resources and the scalability of the product or service.

For these reasons, they received special attention by the Government, which created a set of special measures:

  • Startup RH Covid-19
  • Vale Incubação Covid-19
  • Startup Voucher Extension
  • “Mezzanine” Funding for Startups / Call INNOV-ID
  • Portugal Ventures’ covid-19 Instrument / Follow Ons Operation
  • 200M Fund
  • Co-investment for Social Innovation Fund

 

 

Startup RH Covid-19

The objective of Startup RH Covid-19 is to support startups in the early stage with liquidity that allows immediate survival and maintenance of jobs. The amount in question is 1 minimum wage per employee up to 10 employees, which is a cumulative measure with Vale Incubação. In total, this measure will provide € 8M, considering 2,500 startups with an average of 5 employees.

Innovative companies, registered in the Online Startup Hub Map, incubated in an incubator belonging to the National Incubator Network (RNI), are eligible or have been invested by Business Angels (BA) or Venture Capital (VC) accredited with IAPMEI or IFD, recognized by the National Innovation Agency (ANI), with less than 5 years of activity and without debts to social security – this set of criteria will be repeated in other measures.

Conditions:

  • Do not fire workers in 2020 (incentive reimbursement)
  • VAT registration and personnel map in the Startup Hub
  • Not cumulative with layoff

Applications: No opening date disclosed

 

 

Vale Incubação Covid-19

Vale Incubação is a measure of the Startup Portugal Strategy and is intended for startups with less than 1 year of activity. The objective is to support the contracting of incubation services in the form of a 100% non-refundable incentive from an incubator, in order to allow startups to continue to enjoy essential support and for the National Incubator Network to continue to operate with success.

In this specific case of the Vale Incubação Covid-19, applications are open to startups that have already benefited from this valley in the past. In total, this measure contemplates 4M €, assuming 2,500 startups.

Eligible startups will be given a simplified immediate payment voucher, which totals an incentive of € 1,500 in incubation services.

Conditions:

  • Do not fire workers in 2020 (incentive reimbursement)
  • VAT registration and personnel map in the Startup Hub

Applications: No opening date disclosed

 

Startup Voucher Extension

The Startup Voucher is a measure of the Startup Portugal Strategy that aims to support young entrepreneurs, between 18 and 35 years old, in transforming an idea into a company through the allocation of a monthly scholarship. This specific extension measure applies to startups with this voucher already assigned, and consists of extending the scholarship payment for another three months (plus € 2,075 per entrepreneur) and postponing the deadlines for the mid-term evaluation and completion awards. incorporation of the company, whose deadline is December 31, 2020.

This measure has a max of € 300k, assuming 75 Startup Vouchers assigned.

More information:  https://bit.ly/2LkTT7A

 

 

“Mezzanine” Funding for Startups / Call INNOV-ID

The “Mezzanine” Funding for Startups measure is now Call INNOV-ID, a Portugal Ventures initiative that aims to promote access to venture capital financing for scientific and technological projects, in the Pre-Seed, Seed or Early-Stage phases, which have developed technology, but are still in the prototype phase, proof of concept or product-market-fit validation.

This support consists of a debt instrument convertible into social capital (supplies) after a period of 12 months and with the application of a discount rate that allows to avoid the dilution of the promoters, through average tickets between 50,000 and 100,000 and investment. The total amount available for this measure is 10M €.

Conditions:

  • Do not fire workers in 2020 (incentive reimbursement)
  • VAT registration and personnel map in the Startup Hub
  • Presentation of a statement detailing COVID negative impacts – 19
  • Involvement in technology transfer processes
  • Preference for businesses that involve circular economy or energy efficiency measures
  • Allocation of 1 mentor and operationalization through Portugal Ventures

Eligibility:

  • Startup Hub registration
  • Contribution, directly or indirectly, to the objectives of the Smart
  • Specialization Strategy 2014-2020 in terms of decarbonisation of the economy, sustainability of processes, products and materials, greater efficiency and energy sustainability or greater circularity of the economy
  • Have not been invested by other venture capital operators
  • With headquarters and most of its operation in Portugal, without debts to the
  • Tax Authority and Social Security at the date of application
  • Public limited companies or quotas (excluding sole proprietorships)
  • Societies without subordinate domain or control relationships, direct or indirect, by large companies

Applications: until June 5 through an Ignition Partner Network (IPN) Partner

More information: https://bit.ly/3bqzqZD

 

 

Portugal Ventures’ covid-19 Instrument / Follow Ons Operation 

Portugal Ventures’ COVID 19 Instrument was renamed Follow Ons Operation. It is considered a bridge financing, that is, a financing between rounds, applied for example to a startup that obtained a seed investment but is not yet prepared for a series A. This measure has a total available of 3M € for the areas of Digital, Engineering & Manufacturing and Life Sciences and € 4.4M in the Tourism sector.

The main impacts of this measure are the reinforcement of startups liquidity (bridge finacing) in syndication with existing shareholders (at least 30%) and the complementarity with 54 Business Angels, 15 Venture Capital funds and 200M Fund.

Conditions:

  • Financing line rules for IFD Venture Capital Funds
  • Co-investments with the 200M Fund are limited to the component financed by existing private shareholders or private investors

Applications: This measure is not open to the entrepreneur community, and the process of these investment reinforcement operations involves articulation with the Portugal Ventures Capital Partners Network.

 

 

200M Fund

The 200M Fund aims to promote co-investment in innovative high-potential startups in Portugal, through partnerships with national and international private investors. The objective is to provide startups and scale-ups with greater investment capacity in the late seed, Series A and B phases, allowing matching / co-investment with qualified private investors allowing rounds of € 10M, or more, between private and the 200M Fund.

This support is intended for technological companies based in Portugal and looking for significant investments to continue their growth process – the minimum investment will always be 1M €, 500k € public and 500k € private, and this value from the private sector cannot be leveraged in other public programs. Startups from the Digital, Life Sciences and Biotech areas are eligible, with great growth potential and with qualified and experienced private investors.

More information: https://bit.ly/2zqZFC2

 

 

Co-investment for Social Innovation Fund

The Coinvestment Fund for Social Innovation is similar to the 200M, smaller in size and which always implies the participation of FIS – Social Innovation Fund and the validation of companies by EMPIS – Portugal Social Innovation. Its objective is to provide startups with a social impact with investment capacity in the Seed to Series A phases, through matching between private operators and FIS. This co-investment has a public minimum of 50k € and a maximum of 2.5M €, and the measure has a total of 42M € available.

This measure is aimed at companies validated by EMPIS with impact projects based in Portugal and that have qualified private investors with experience wanting to invest in their capital at least € 50K.

Eligibility:

  • SMEs and Social Economy Entities promoting IIES that have been recognized by the Portugal Social Innovation Mission Structure
  • Institutional entities of venture capital and social entrepreneurship and entities or natural persons that may participate in the capital of companies

More information: https://bit.ly/2YWkZKe

 

 

LISPOLIS Support

LISPOLIS can support the application processes for several programs, namely the Call INNOV-ID of Portugal Ventures for being an Ignition Partner. In addition, we support projects and startups through:

  • Clarification of doubts about calls
  • Go / No Go validation and presentation of alternative paths
  • Support in the review and submission of applications
  • Support in preparing the PITCH
  • Follow-up in meetings with Portugal Ventures

Any question, we are available through the usual channels:

  • 217 101 700
  • geral@lispolis.pt

View or review the LISPOLIS session on Support Measures for Startups:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9F-lMyC1NU

 

Cíntia Costa

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