Alternative financing sources in Portugal

One of the topics we get asked about most frequently is financing sources and which initiatives are available to pump some money-blood into your startup. This is one of the most important topics, mainly when it comes to scale up your company and fetch some proper smart money — which, many times, isn’t available or just takes too long.

That’s why we thought the ecosystem could need some pointers on the alternative financing methods available in Portugal that can help your company scale.

Living in a market economy context, we know money flows, and often in more than just one direction. Sometimes, capturing money for your business doesn’t always depend on you and your pitch, and finding alternatives can be of the utmost importance.

You can go for a Crowdfunding or push things further on and consider an Equity Crowdfunding solution, where you give up some equity in an online funding model while testing your market at the same time; you can also go to a Peer-to-Peer Lending solution, with people lending money to fuel your business; or, finally, you can follow the Mutual Guarantee way, where you can ask for more adequate credit to your companies cycle while being supported by from your colateral guarantee.

Well, all of these solutions are available in Portugal. Without further ado, here’s where you need to go:

Peer-to-Peer Lending

Raize’s Linha Start – details here

Equity Crowdfunding

Seedrs has an operation in Portugal – details here

Crowdfunding

PPL is a Portuguese crowdfunding platform – details here

Mutual Guarantee

SPGM’s ADN Start Up – details here

There’s also international solutions you might want to consider:

Bondora, P2P Lending;
Bancaclub, P2P Lending;
Prosper, P2P Lending;
Kiva, P2P Lending;
Crowdcube, Equity Crowdfunding;
FundedByMe, Equity Crowdfunding;
Invesdor, Equity Crowdfunding;
Funderbeam, Equity Crowdfunding;
MyMicroInvest, Equity Crowdfunding;
Kickstarter, Crowdfunding;
Indiegogo, Crowdfunding.

Safe ventures, everyone!