About João Mendes Borga
João graduated from FCT NOVA and holds an MBA from Manchester University, where he had the opportunity to work in the technology transfer office, helping to launch several spin-offs to the market.
He decided to come back to Portugal during the crisis period, motivated by the civic duty of public service, joining the Startup Lisboa team before launching the Centro de Empresas Inovadoras in Castelo Branco, which he managed for 3 years, supporting more than 50 startups.
Since 2016 he is responsible for Rede Nacional de Incubadoras, a national initiative that coordinates the efforts of 135 incubators, supporting altogether around 3000 startups. He is also a Founding member of Startup Portugal, where he worked as Director, running several initiatives to support new entrepreneurship projects all over the country. He’s currently Administrator at the Portuguese Agency for Innovation (ANI).
Passionate about innovation, technology and to help entrepreneurs and the startup community to grow and succeed, João truly believes that Portugal is living a moment where a young generation of highly qualified talents have the necessary competences to change the world by launching new and innovative products, a step at a time.
Why I mentor
Giving back and supporting the development of new ventures, and the launch of new science and tech based products to the market.