Ecosystem Design Sprint: Mapping Porto's Scale-up Future
Porto’s startup ecosystem has reached a new level of maturity — and a clear inflection point.
According to Scaleup Porto’s Ecosystem Report, the region is now home to 706 startups & scaleups, generating $7.5B in ecosystem value, €5B+ in enterprise value, and supporting 17.5K jobs growing at 28% per year. Eight unicorns operate from the region.
And yet, only ~8% of companies are at scale-up stage today. This gap between strong fundamentals and limited scale-up conversion is the challenge Porto must solve next.
The Challenge:
How do we strategically amplify the scale-up ecosystem and place Porto firmly on the global map?
The Solution:
On 14 January 2026, Founders Founders and Scaleup Porto are bringing the ecosystem’s decision-makers into one room to collaboratively tackle this question.
This is an invite-only Ecosystem Design Sprint: a focused, action-oriented working session where data becomes decisions, and insights turn into a concrete blueprint for Porto’s next scale-up chapter.
The core input for this session will be Scaleup Porto's Ecosystem Report, and we will be using Design Thinking methodologies to move immediately from data and challenge to prototype and action plan.
Who Should Be There:
This sprint is designed for key stakeholders who can implement change. Your input is critical to this blueprint:
Public Sector: City Hall, Porto Innovation Hub, and municipal or regional delegates shaping policy, incentives and infrastructure.
Funding & Investment: Portugal Ventures, local and international VC funds, angels, and capital managers influencing where the next €500M flows.
The Builders: F2 Club founders, resident founders, and experienced operators building companies and teams from Porto.
The Agenda: Strategy & Action
14:00: Arrival & Coffee
14:15: Key insights from new Ecosystem Report
14:30: Design Sprint Roundtables (mixed groups of founders x investors x public sector) working on concrete challenges
17:00: Synthesis & Next Steps
17:15: Strategic Networking Hour
18:00: Close (with space to stay, continue discussions and build network).
Help us design the future of Porto's scale-up ecosystem.
👉 Request your invite to join the sprint.