Since its inception in 2018, TecPark, the technology-focused arm of the Set.Up Guimarães super-incubator, has been a key player in supporting innovative companies and projects. Based at Avepark, the platform has assisted around 30 initiatives and currently hosts 14 startups and tech companies.
TecPark was designed to provide “favorable conditions for the development of innovative businesses,” explains Marta Mota-Prego, Head of the Economic Development Division at the Municipality of Guimarães, in an interview with the newspaper Reflexo. The platform not only fosters connections between startups, mentors, investors, research and development centers, and industry but also acts as a strategic link in creating synergies across different sectors. This approach aims to strengthen innovation and economic growth in the region.
In an interview with Reflexo, Marta Mota-Prego also highlighted the crucial role of Avepark, a science and technology park inaugurated in 2008, which currently accommodates approximately 1,100 daily users. These include 500 students, professors, and professionals from the Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave (IPCA), 150 researchers from the 3Bs research group – Biomaterials, Biodegradables, and Biomimetics, associated with the University of Minho (UMinho), 300 employees from the international company Farfetch, and over 100 workers from other companies based in the park.
Regarding the insolvency of SpinPark, Avepark’s former business incubator, declared bankrupt in 2020, Marta Mota-Prego assured that this “did not negatively impact the way companies establish themselves in the park.” She further emphasized that bringing its management under the Municipality of Guimarães has “boosted the park’s development.” The official believes Avepark has the potential to become a “national reference hub in digital and medical technology fields” in the coming years. This vision is reinforced by the recent Collaboration Protocol for the Development of Health and Health Technologies, approved by the Municipal Executive on January 13.
“In the medium and long term, the strategy is to integrate Avepark into international networks of entrepreneurship, science, and innovation, strengthening the global connections of the companies and R&D centers based there,” Marta Mota-Prego added to Reflexo.
TecPark is part of the Set.Up Guimarães super-incubator ecosystem, which has already supported more than 120 projects or startups and 200 entrepreneurs. In addition to providing workspace, it actively promotes capacity-building initiatives, mentoring, and networking, fostering collaboration between startups, academia, industry, and investors. Another branch of the super-incubator, Set.Up IN(dustry), has supported 54 projects, conducted more than 120 hours of boot camps, and provided 300 hours of mentoring, further solidifying the Municipality’s commitment to developing the region’s business and technological landscape.
