Lisbon Foras Programme 2023

Foras is excited to announce the female-focused 2023 Lisbon Foras Programme, in partnership with The Scottish Government.

After the success of excursions to Silicon Valley, Helsinki and New York, Foras plans to take 20 founders and startup leaders, (15 female-led, 5 male-led), on a funded programme to Lisbon to coincide with the Web Summit conference, 11–18 November 2023.

This November, they are hosting a fully-funded journey to Web Summit, one of the biggest conferences in the world. Becoming a global business is no easy task on a tight budget, so they’re handling the bills so participants can focus on doing what they do best.

Foras excited to partner with The Scottish Government, Scottish Development International, Portuguese ecosystem builders and some excellent sponsors (TBA) to bring the participants this opportunity.

In line with the Pathways report, this programme will have a strong focus on addressing the barriers and challenges women face in entrepreneurship, including professional mentorship, peer connectivity, access points to relevant support organisations, fundraising best practices and investor-facing opportunities.

Foras will be partnering with a number of sponsors who support growing businesses and whose values align with the vision of the project. Contributions from these sponsors have enabled them to offer financial subsidies to support the cost of accommodation and flights for participants’ partners and children, based on learnings from past programmes and the Pathways report.

Through facilitated introductions, business visits, hands-on workshops and investor-facing opportunities, the participants will develop deeper connections that will foster inspiration, accelerate your business, and broaden your professional network both in Scotland and internationally.

Why Lisbon?

The Lisbon ecosystem is now worth £20bn, a 26x growth since 2016. Lisbon’s two unicorns Out Systems and Talk desk are two of the most valuable companies in Southern Europe. Lisbon boasts a rich abundance of investors, incubators and accelerators.

The trip will coincide with Web Summit, one of the biggest conferences in the world. 71,000+ founders, investors and ecosystem builders will gather for 3 days of networking, learning and sessions with world-leading experts from Y-Combinator, Microsoft and Google.

It is Foras’s aim to ensure that innovative Scotland-based startup businesses, and the wider entrepreneurial ecosystem, are well represented during the conference.

What can the participants expect from the programme?

The term ‘Foras’ means growth, abroad, “for us”. They can see this as going forth, to look outwards, together, to meet and create a forum for discussion. Those values and intentions are at the root of the design of this programme.

This programme will build on recent successful cohort visits from the Foras team to Silicon Valley in April 2022, the Slush conference in Helsinki in Nov 2022 and NYC in April 2023.

This opportunity will be useful for Scotland-based businesses considering international market entry, raising capital from international investors, and establishing international partnership opportunities in Europe. In addition, this programme will foster peer relationships, founder education and break down barriers for some of Scotland’s most promising startup businesses who want to crack the next stage of their growth.

Expect to experience the vibrant culture of Lisbon, have quality time with established global startup success stories and Scottish diaspora businesses, visit world-class accelerators and be part of unique networking opportunities with entrepreneurial representatives and investors from around the world at Web Summit. The week will come to a close with a unique opportunity to pitch businesses at an exclusive investor and ecosystem mixer event.