We are specialists in finding funding solutions for our clients, whether through public funding or through private funding. With more than 25 years of experience in this area, STEAM has submitted more than 2000 applications to EU funds, achieving an approval rate of over 90%.
Our success is based on our own methodology developed over the years and deep knowledge of the business of our clients and the sectors of activity where they operate.
If you are looking for advice on a business idea or project and you need funding contact us.

Services & Solutions

Portugal 2020, Horizon 2020 and other specific programs:

  • Identification of opportunities
  • Project Planning and business plan
  • Preparation, submission and follow-up of applications


Credit Instruments and Mutual Guarantee:

  • Lines of credit in the scope of the Capitalize Program, Lines of support to companies in the tourism sector, Lines for revitalization, among others
  • Preparation of the funding request, including execution of the business plan
  • Negotiation support and follow-up

Contact Point

Bruno Tavares
Managing Partner

Consultant with extensive experience in managing companies and on searching and implementation of financing solutions through capital risk, EU funds and banks. He has a past linked to the private and voluntary sector, as well as experience in education and training.

His mission is to support company managers to find solutions for their growth.

He is passionate about optimization, to analyze something and try to improve it's functionality.

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Latest Articles

Case Studies

PACSIS

TRANSCAMPO

BESTTABLES

OCEAN REVIVAL

PACSIS - Internationalization

  • Promotor: PACSIS
  • Sector: Coupons / New Technologies

 

Context

PacSis was born in 1992 and it is a national company, leader in its sector and a specialist in Discount Coupons Management, which is one of the main services provided, by managing several million of vouchers annually for major brands in the market.

The vision of the company is to be the communication, promotional and digital marketing partner for companies operating in the B2C market.

Recently, the entrance on the market of discount vouchers market made by major retail brands and a bigger dynamic of the digital sector, led the challenge to change the company's business model.

Portuguese company in the sector of discount vouchers develops internationalization project with the support of STEAM consultants.

 

Challenge

How to migrate the company's business model to the digital area, simultaneously taking the company to international markets.

 

Solution

Given the need for investment identified by the company, to support the migration processes to digital and internationalization, it was defined as a priority the submission of applications to European incentive programs.

 

Intervention

STEAM analyzed the company and its strategy and together with the company´s management team it defined the necessary investments to support the company's strategy, in order to maximize the project's potential for success.

Following this analysis STEAM submitted applications to the Incentive Scheme for the Qualification and Internationalisation of SMEs under the QREN, and also to the Incentive Scheme for the Internationalisation of SMEs, under Portugal 2020.

 

Result

The applications submitted were approved, having the company received essential support to finance the investments defined as necessary for its strategy.

Currently the company can offer its customers solutions of digital discount vouchers, and is present in new markets such as Spain, Brazil and the Middle East.

TRANSCAMPO - Capacity incresase

  • Promotor: TRANSCAMPO
  • Sector: Tourism - Campsites

 

Context

Created to manage the Caliço Park, located in Vila Nova de Cacela, TRANSCAMPO invested in a niche market, associated with mobile homes, which allow for residential tourism less subject to traditional market seasonality.

For this, the company has set its mission as:

To provide its users high quality campsites, in order to provide them a relaxed experience, comfortable and practical at an affordable price (no hidden costs) to make your holidays become unforgettable experiences and converted into a permanent residence.

With this mission the company managed to find a balance between traditional camping (very vulnerable to seasonal factor) and residential tourism, that fixes tourists in the park in the winter months, which allowed this company to get positive results, with an exponential growth potential if the capacity of the park increases.

At the same time the company gwas given, by the city of Sines, through public auction, the exploitation of Sines Camping Park. However, once the equipment was subject to abandon, there is a need for its recovery.

 

Challenge

How to finance the opportunity to expand the business?

 

Solution

Being limited the ability to finance expansion only with equity and the operating results obtained in Caliço Park, it to research for incentives related to the tourism sector that could support, in part, the investments to be made.

 

Intervention

The work done by STEAM was on the individual analysis of each of the campsites managed by Transcampo in order to build specific business plans for each project and also on the identification of synergies that could be obtained by the simultaneous management of the two parks.

After this work, a research was made on the various types of incentives under which the projects could be financed and two opportunities were identified:

  • JESSICA initiative;
  • Portugal 2020.

Under the opportunity through the JESSICA initiative, STEAM carried out a follow-up work on the relationship between Transcampo and the financial institution responsible for the fund, with a presentation of the detailed business plan of the Sines Camping Park.

With regard to the opportunity through Portugal 2020, the various investments identified in the Caliço Park business plan were divided into two distinct applications (Productive Innovation and Internationalisation).

In both cases STEAM supported the company in providing all the information to the competent authorities responsible for the approval of the applications submitted.

 

Result

As a result of the work carried out by STEAM, the financing projects were approved and the company managed to get, through these instruments, the external capital to support its expansion strategy.

As a result of the overall success and the demonstrated experience in the tourism sector by STEAM, it was agreed that the STEAM will continue to support the company's management team, contributing daily to optimize its strategy and decision making process.

BESTTABLES - New reservation concept

  • Promotor: BESTTABLES
  • Sector: Tourism - Restaurant

 

Context

In 2010, with the national tourism boom and the creation of a market associated with the food industry, Ricardo Sécio had an idea related to an innovative business model, associated to the provision of services through an online restaurant reservation system and marketing services for the promotion of restaurants and a tool for communication and digital advertising.

 

Challenge

Given the scarcity of resources by the promoter, which way to go to operationalize the business?

 

Solution

It was decided that the best way was to support permanently the promoter on the development of his idea, which translated on the entrance by the STEAM in the company's capital and on the strategic and decision-making process, namely on the start-up stage.

 

Intervention

The support of the STEAM to the BestTables project began with the transformation of the promoter idea into a business plan and subsequent analysis of the economic and financial viability.

Then a go decision was made, and STEAM supported the promoter in identifying and attracting institutional investors and business angels which allowed the financing for the start of the project, thus making it a reality.

With the start of operations STEAM was responsible to monitor the evolution of project and make the monitoring and piloting activity, constructing a information and management control system that proved essential to support the rapid growth of the business.

As originally planned, the success of the project in Portugal led to the decision to internationalize the business for the Brazilian market, specifically to São Paulo.

To complement the financing needs of this new venture of BestTables, STEAM made an application to QREN, which was approved.

 

Result

Following the several works performed by STEAM, BestTables business model registered a high success with restaurants, raising, in a short time, more than 1,200 restaurants associated with the platform, distributed between Portugal and Brazil.

As a result of its success, the company was acquired during the year 2015 by TripAdvisor, being integrated in the Fork brand.

OCEAN REVIVAL - Creation of Underwater Park

  • Promotor: OCEAN REVIVAL
  • Sector: Tourism

 

Context

The creation of the park was made through the deliberate immersion of four slaughtered ships proviede by the Portuguese Navy, putting Portugal on the route of the best places in the world for diving. This project presented an innovation in Portugal and Europe.

This initiative had its genesis in the development of the foundations for the creation in the Algarve region of a new factor for tourists attraction, having as features:

  • The practice of physical activity;
  • Specific natural conditions, as well as the use of own equipment and techniques;
  • Extremely high potential for mass consumption.


The purpose was to also transform the Algarve into a worldwide diving destination, attracting underwater tourists from all backgrounds, nationally and internationally.

 

Challenge

Being a completely innovative project, it was necessary to define the path to follow in order to allow the implementation of the underwater park in Portimão.


A major difficulty was how to articulate the various public bodies involved in the project, namely, the city of Portimão, the Secretary of State and the Sea, the Portuguese Navy, the National tourism body, the Algarve Tourism, the CCDR - Algarve, the ICNB (Institute for Nature Conservation and Biodiversity), the IP and the ISQ: Environmental body.


Moreover, being this a project of public interest, it would be necessary to define a financing model which allowed to support the investments to be made in order to make it viable.

 

Solution

In order to make the project a reality a global design of the project was needed, namely on the definition of the various aspects to consider, on the schedulling of the various stages of the project, on the coordination of the parties involved and on the measurement of the potential economic impact of the project.

At the same time it was necessary to gather information that would support the raising of financing from private investors or by public incentives.

 

Intervention

The intervention of STEAM on this project was made on two distinct areas:

  • Market research and economic impact study;
  • Conception and Design of the project.

Regarding the conducted market reserach it was defined and characterized the target market of the project, the profile of the underwater tourist as well as assessed the economic impact on the various areas and sectors that could be affected by the project, in order to relate the necessary investment with its potential benefits.


Concerning the conception and design of the project, a permanent support was performed to identify the legal, institutional and operational requirements to be met as well as the investments to be made. It was also developed actions aimed at identifying financing solutions for the creation of the Underwater Park, which resulted in the submission, in 2012, of an application to the QREN - National Strategic Reference Programme, under the Regional Operational Programme of the Algarve - Regulation for Actions aimed at Valuating the Coastline.

 

Result

As a result of STEAM work, the project Ocean Revival is nowadays a reality and it is situated along the town of Portimao on the southern Portugal coast.

It is also important to mention that to achieve the approval of the project it was necessary to obtain favorable opinions from fourteen distinct public entities.

As part of the dive site, formed by four ships, there is also a set of infrastructure and services, which were implemented to support the site, namely:

  • An exhibition center on land where the history of the sunken fleet is documented with equipment, drawings, photos and films of the ships, the chronology of their career and documents on their historical context;
  • The installation of a hyperbaric chamber, located in Portimão, at the service of the local community and available for possible and unlikely situations of emergency derived from the activity of diving.

Partners

HotelShop

Company:

HotelShop

Business area:

Shopping

Microsoft

Company:

Microsoft

Business area:

Information Systems

Priceless

Company:

Priceless

Business area:

Cost Reduction

Systemic Sphere

Company:

Systemic Sphere

Business area:

Research and Consultancy

The Brand Shakers

Company:

The Brand Shakers

Business area:

Marketing Consultant

The Edge Group

Company:

The Edge Group

Business area:

Investment and Venture Capital

E4PI

Company:

E4PI

Business area:

Management Consulting

References

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Training Incentives - Autonomous and Joint Projects

Applications for autonomous and joint projects - training of competitiveness clusters. Non-refundable financial support for training actions for workers in Portuguese companies. with the project completion deadline until 07-31-2023.


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Rua de Pedrouços, 37 – Armazém 5
1400-285 Lisboa
38.696566, -9.220794

+351 21 361 61 20
info@steam.pt

Edifício Clube Náutico, Senhora Santana
7580-309 Alcácer do Sal
38.369226, -8.511614

+351 265 098 350
info@steam.pt

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