For founders moving to Portugal

Starting a business in Portugal as a foreigner: where the money comes from

Opening a company in Portugal is quick and open to foreign shareholders. Funding it is where people lose time and money. Public support exists and is substantial, but it does not pay for an idea, for a property or for anything you have already bought. It pays part of the investment and the hiring of a company that already exists, and it pays after you have spent the money.

The useful question is what your first two years look like: which costs a programme could share, and what has to be in place before you order anything.

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Figures checked against the official sources on 18 September 2026. We never promise approvals.

The honest picture

  • As a rule, there is no grant just for starting a business. Support is tied to what the company does: investing in equipment or premises, hiring, doing research, exporting, farming, running a tourism business.
  • Grants are competitive. A call opens with a budget and a deadline, applications are scored, and the best ones are funded until the money runs out. A good project in the wrong call gets nothing.
  • You finance first. A grant refunds a share of eligible costs after you pay them. You need the full amount available, from your own funds or a bank, to get to the refund.
  • Tax credits and hiring incentives are more predictable. Nobody scores them against other applications. A company that meets the conditions claims the tax credit on its return. Hiring incentives have a window and a budget, so apply before the budget runs out.

Your first 24 months, in funding terms

  1. Set the company up with funding in mind. Two early choices are hard to undo. Who holds the shares decides whether the company counts as an SME, because the size of the group behind it is added in. And the activity codes (CAE) you register decide which calls the company can enter. Hire a certified accountant from day one: organised accounts and a clean record with the Tax Authority and Social Security are conditions of every programme.
  2. Before you order anything, check for a call. Most programmes only fund costs that start after the application is filed. Quotes, plans and licences are fine. A signed order or a deposit is not.
  3. Make your first hires with the hiring incentives in view. IEFP pays a cash incentive for each permanent, full-time hire of a person registered with the public employment service. The job offer has to be registered before the contract is signed. See hiring incentives.
  4. Apply for an investment grant when a call fits. Portugal 2030 funds equipment, fit-out and new capacity through calls managed nationally and by each region. Smaller investments by micro and small companies usually go to the regional calls. Larger, innovative projects go to the productive innovation calls. See Portugal 2030.
  5. At year end, use the tax side. A small company pays 15% corporate tax on its first EUR 50,000 of profit, or 12.5% in the interior. If the investment qualifies for RFAI, 30% of it comes off the tax bill in most regions, and a new company can use that credit against 100% of its tax in its first three tax periods.
  6. If you are building technology, document it. Development work that is new and technically uncertain can earn the SIFIDE II credit, which carries forward for 12 years, long enough to be useful once the company turns a profit.

What has to be in place before any application

  • A company registered in Portugal, with the right activity codes for the project.
  • A certified accountant and organised accounts.
  • No debts to the Tax Authority or Social Security, with the certificates to prove it.
  • The SME certificate from IAPMEI, issued online, which states the size category of the company.
  • The licences the activity needs, in hand or under way: tourism, food, industry and farming each have their own.
  • Supplier quotes for the investment, and nothing ordered yet.
  • A business plan with financial projections that shows the project pays its way and how the company's own share will be financed.

The last point is where many applications fail. Evaluators score the soundness of the business, not the need for money. A plan written for the call, with numbers that hold together, is worth more than any other document in the file.

What public funding will not pay for

  • Buying a house, land, a building or an existing business.
  • Your living costs while the business gets going.
  • Stock, rent and other running costs.
  • Anything ordered, signed for or paid before the application.
  • VAT that the company can recover.

Where foreign founders invest, and what applies

Farms and rural land. Agriculture has its own programme, PEPAC, with its own calendar of calls for young farmers, farm investment and processing. What it funds is the farming business, not the purchase of the land. See buying a farm in Portugal.

Guesthouses, rural tourism and restaurants. National tourism funding is mostly loans, some with a part that does not have to be repaid. Grants come through Portugal 2030 when the project is innovative, and accommodation and restaurants are on the list of sectors that can use the RFAI tax credit. See tourism funding.

Workshops, factories and food production. This is where Portugal 2030 is strongest: productive investment in goods that can be sold outside the local market, with reserved budgets in the interior, often combined with RFAI. See setting up production.

Software and technology. Less equipment, more people: the hiring incentives, SIFIDE II and the R&D calls of Portugal 2030 matter more than investment grants. See startup funding.

Frequently asked questions

Is it easy to start a business in Portugal as a foreigner?

Setting up the company is the easy part: a limited company can be created quickly, online or at a one-stop desk, and the nationality of the shareholders is not what decides funding. A lawyer or a solicitor handles the incorporation itself. The harder parts are the ones that decide funding: choosing the ownership structure and the activity codes, getting the licences the activity needs, and keeping the accounts and taxes in order from the first month.

Can I get a grant before I have a company?

No. The applicant is always a company or sole trader established in Portugal. What you can and should do before incorporating is check how the ownership structure will affect SME status, and avoid signing or paying for the investment you hope to have funded.

How much of the investment must be my own money?

Plan to finance all of it up front. A grant covers a share of the eligible costs, and the share depends on the call, the region and the size of the company. It arrives as a refund after you pay the suppliers. Calls also ask the company to show that its own share is financed, from capital or from a bank.

Are there grants to buy property in Portugal?

No. Buying a home, land or a building is not what these programmes fund. What they can fund is the business investment that follows: equipment, works tied to production or tourism, new capacity.

Does it cost money to apply for a grant?

The official portals charge nothing, and you are free to apply on your own. The calls, forms and regulations are in Portuguese, and the applications are scored against published criteria. What a consultant adds is knowing which call fits and what the evaluators look for. See how we work.

Official sources

The official texts are in Portuguese. The figures on this page were checked against them.

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Tell us what you plan to invest in, where and when. We tell you whether a programme could share the cost, before you commit.

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