TugaFreela — The freelance marketplace built in Portugal

The problem

Going freelance in Portugal is easy.
Being found is not.

1

Buyers have nowhere to look

A small company in Braga that needs a website, a video or a translation ends up asking around or posting in a Facebook group. There is no obvious place to search, and no way to tell who can be trusted.

2

Sellers have to sell in English

Portuguese freelancers who want clients go to international platforms: they compete with the whole world on price, write in English, get paid in dollars and hand over up to 20% in fees.

3

The money does not speak Portuguese

None of the big platforms accept MB WAY or Multibanco, none fit the Portuguese tax regime, and none know the difference between a sole trader and a company.

Why this is urgent

Three in four young Portuguese are thinking of leaving.

73%

of 18 to 24 year olds would consider emigrating (64% in 2024)

65k

Portuguese emigrated during 2024 alone

37%

name the lack of professional prospects as the main reason

½

of qualified leavers do not intend to come back

Starting out, with nowhere to start

A fresh design, coding or marketing graduate has the skills but no track record, no clients and nobody to make the introduction. Agencies ask for experience, and experience only comes from working. Here they publish a service, do the first job and earn the first review, without asking anyone's permission.

Keeping talent means giving it a market

Nobody stays for speeches. People stay when paid work is one click away, without changing country or language. That is the market we are building.

Sources: Portuguese Parliament, "Emigration of Qualified Young Portuguese" (2025) · Forbes Portugal · Pordata.

The solution

A marketplace where everything is already Portuguese,
starting with the money.

Services ready to buy. Freelancers publish what they do, with packages and prices. Clients buy the way they buy anything online.
Projects with bids. Those who prefer to describe the problem post a project and get proposals from people who can solve it.
The money is held until delivery. The client pays upfront, the freelancer is only paid once the work is accepted.
Payment the Portuguese way. Card, MB WAY and Multibanco, on our own checkout page.
Verified identity. Only people with a verified tax number can sell. Nobody gets paid without proving who they are.

10% + 10%

client fee and freelancer commission, with the final price in plain sight before hiring

European Portuguese

Not a translation. The language, the currency, the VAT regime and the payment methods of the people who actually live and work here.

How it works

From the first click to money in the bank.

Step 01

Find

The client browses by category or posts a project. Real profiles, with a photo, reviews and previous work.

Step 02

Hire and pay

Details and deadline agreed in chat. Payment by card, MB WAY or Multibanco. The money is held and the freelancer cannot touch it yet.

Step 03

Receive and approve

The work is delivered on the platform. The client approves and reviews, and only then does the money move.

Step 04

Withdraw

Freelancers withdraw to their bank account from €50. No platform fee on withdrawals.

For companies hiring

Hiring locally is not patriotism.
It is accounting.

An expense your accountant can use. The provider has a verified tax number and issues an invoice, so the cost is deductible like any other.
VAT in the right place. 23% in Portugal, reverse charge for VIES-registered EU companies, OSS for EU consumers.
No employment contract, no fixed cost. You hire for the work you actually need.
No currency conversion, no hidden fees. Euros from beginning to end.
The tax stays here. The money pays Portuguese VAT and income tax instead of leaving for a foreign platform.
Data in the European Union. EU servers and GDPR rules.

Our artificial intelligence colleague

Manuel never sleeps, reads everything that comes in and lets no deadline slip.

Our AI employee. And it is not a promise: he works every single day.

1

Reads everything

Every service is reviewed, text and images, against rules written in Portuguese. Nothing goes live without passing him.

2

Approves in minutes

What is fine goes live straight away, at any hour. Nobody waits days for a manual approval.

3

Holds back what is doubtful

Misleading services or improper images are held. A rejection is always a human decision: the AI raises its hand, it does not close doors.

4

Watches the deadlines

He warns the freelancer two days before, on the day, and if the deadline passes he warns the client too, reminding them the money is still held.

The product

Not an idea. It is live and working.

Everything below is built and running in production at tugafreela.pt.

Services and projects: two ways to hire, with packages, extras and custom offers
Real-time chat: with offers, acceptance and payment from balance
Our own checkout: card, MB WAY and Multibanco on our page, without leaving the site
Money held until approval: the client does not risk paying for nothing, and the freelancer knows the money is already there
Final price before hiring: amount, platform fee and VAT all in plain sight

Identity verification: verified tax number, and photo ID before the first withdrawal
Dispute resolution: disputes, reports and conversation blocking
Alerts by email, on site and on the phone plus an automatic guard that repairs faults on its own
Protected contacts: nobody is approached off-platform before there is a deal
Profiles with a face and reviews: photo required and previous work on show

The platform

This is not a mockup. It is the live site, today.

A service page: Premium badge, three packages, and the price broken down with the platform fee and VAT before the client commits.

Featured services on the home page, priced in euros, with the Premium badge on those who pay for it.

Market

Portugal first. The language takes us further with nothing to translate.

714,900

self-employed workers in Portugal (Pordata)

5.5 M

people in the active workforce we can reach

Portugal: 23% VAT, sole traders, MB WAY and Multibanco
European Union: reverse charge for VIES companies, OSS for consumers
Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and the rest of the Portuguese-speaking world: same language, same product

Where people come from today

Portugal	108
Brazil	12
Angola	3
Mozambique	2
France	2
Spain and United States	2

Registered accounts as of 8 September 2026.

Traction

The supply side is already here.

Real platform numbers, with internal and test accounts excluded.

113

people registered
100 with a complete profile

55

services published and visible to the public

€313

average package price
199 packages, from €30 to €2,700

€0

spent on advertising to date. All of it grew organically

New people per month

3

MAR

5

APR

6

MAY

1

JUN

11

JUL

34

AUG

7

SEP*

* September counts only the first 8 days. That is 41 sign-ups in the last 30 days: the community grew 57% in a month, without a single euro of advertising.

Revenue model

Four streams, all tied to the success of the people here.

%

Commission

10% from the client and 10% from the freelancer on every completed job. We only earn when both sides do.

★

Premium

€4.90 per service or €19.90 for all of them, per month, plus VAT. Instant approval, top placement and a badge.

↑

Featured slots

€20 for 30 days on the home page, for both services and projects.

+

Extra services

The first service is free. Each additional one costs €5 per month.

€65.40

is what the platform earns on an average job (€313), client fee and freelancer commission together

To get going, early freelancers get 90 days at 0% commission from their first sale, and every client gets €10 off their first hire. Our acquisition cost sits at the start of the relationship, not in advertising.

Why we win

What the giants will not do for a market this size.

	TugaFreela	Fiverr / Upwork	Agencies and word of mouth
Language	European Portuguese	English	Portuguese
Payment	Card, MB WAY, Multibanco	Card and PayPal	Bank transfer
Commission	10% from the client and 10% from the freelancer	Up to 20% from the freelancer, plus a client fee	Margins of 40% or more
Tax regime	Portuguese VAT, VIES and OSS	Outside the national framework	Case by case
Moderation	AI on every service, within minutes	Automated, no local context	None
Who is on the other side	Verified by tax number	The whole world	Whoever someone knows

The path

We have the people who do the work. Now we fill the platform with the people who need it.

That is the stage we are at, and it is where support makes the difference.

1

Demand

Direct outreach to small companies that already hire freelancers: email campaigns, organic search content and partnerships.

2

First jobs

Every completed job brings reviews, which bring trust, which bring more jobs.

3

Categories with demand

Programming, Design and Marketing already hold 30 of the 55 services.

4

Recurring revenue

With real demand, Premium and featured slots become the subscription for anyone who wants to be seen first.

Who is behind it

Who builds the product.

Weslley Harakawa

Founder & CEO · Lisbon

Entrepreneur and developer. Founder of W8 Atlantic, the company that builds and operates TugaFreela, and of Oryxa AI. He builds what he sells: the platform, the infrastructure and Manuel. Speaks Portuguese, English, Spanish and Japanese.

[email protected] +351 961 538 805 linkedin.com/in/weslleyharakawa

Portuguese freelance work
deserved a home of its own.

See the platform in action, or talk to us.

Go to tugafreela.pt Talk to us

The freelance marketplace built in Portugal.

Going freelance in Portugal is easy.Being found is not.