ABIMOTA: Driving entrepreneurship in Portugal’s bicycle sector

ABIMOTA is Portugal’s leading national association for the bicycle and related sectors, closely tied to the country’s business and industrial ecosystem.

As promoter of the BIKE UP project, ABIMOTA focused on strengthening skilled, creative entrepreneurship in the bicycle sector. The initiative aimed to support new ideas and companies while driving innovative responses to societal challenges – contributing to competitiveness, digital transformation, sustainable mobility, and adaptation to evolving market demands.

The main challenge was energizing the bicycle ecosystem by creating initiatives that would spark innovation, entrepreneurship, and connections between different players in the sector. It was equally important to bring companies, entrepreneurs, education institutions and ecosystem organizations closer together, opening up new development opportunities.

Gestluz Consultores, now Civitta, supported the delivery of several project activities, including the “Bike Map” study on sector trends and challenges; workshops; sessions in schools and universities; visits to companies and entrepreneurial-ecosystem organizations; mentoring; and an idea competition with pitching.

The project ran more than 50 activities across 30 locations, involving 1,300 people – a result that shows BIKE UP’s ability to mobilize the ecosystem and drive entrepreneurship in the bicycle sector.

Qualitatively, the project helped strengthen cooperation between sector players, promote knowledge-sharing, and build a culture of innovation geared toward sustainable mobility.

This case shows how a sector association can play a decisive role in driving entrepreneurship and innovation. It also shows that well-structured, concrete actions, workshops, mentoring, idea competitions, can generate real engagement and new solutions for a sector.