By FACE Entrepreneurship – January 26, 2016
Perhaps the Lisbon ecosystem still can’t be compared to other world innovation hubs like Berlin, Tel Aviv, London or Stockholm, but they’re working on it! And the fact that Lisbon was named the European Entrepreneurship Capital in 2015 confirms it.
Even though most of the big entrepreneurship events happen in Lisbon, the entrepreneurship ecosystem isn’t just tied to this one city. In fact, the scene is spread out across the country in Lisbon, Braga, Porto, Aveiro, Coimbra and Sintra where there are various players, organizations, institutions and companies. Some are more well-known than others, but they’re all equally important for the evolution of the startup ecosystem. Most major institutions which support entrepreneurship have ties with universities in small cities such as Braga, Porto, Aveiro and Coimbra. Examples of these include StartUp Braga, with connections to the University of Minho in Braga; the UPTEC incubator from the Science and Technology University of Porto and StartUp-UA, tied to the Technology Transfer Unit at the University of Aveiro. In the capital we can find incubators like Startup Lisbon, Beta-I and Lisbon Startup Pirates, all financed by the central government, which shows great interest on the part of the government to encourage the emergence of new startups and to foster a favourable climate of entrepreneurship for young founders with initiatives and good ideas.
These incubators and accelerators are responsible for the organization of large entrepreneurship events like the Lisbon Investment Summit, Explorers Festival, Silicon Valley Comes to Lisbon, Seedcamp in Lisbon, Startup Weekend and the first edition of TEDx in Portugal, all of which help to attract talent, investors, and good ideas which turn in to successful realities.
Since the beginning of time the entrepreneurial spirit has been very present among the Portuguese. Even if they are still suffering from the side effects of an economic and financial crisis, they can’t squash the entrepreneurial bug that’s inside of them and startups have continued to be launched throughout times when circumstances are far from being ideal. And that’s because in Portugal there is talent, a motivated youth and an entrepreneurial community that’s hungry to make things happen. Examples of this are a number of successful cases that have come out of Portugal and are operating around the world. Perhaps Unbabel, Zecatto, Uniplaces, Codacy and Talkdesk sound familiar?
Nothing would have come of them if it hadn’t been for huge investors, such as Caixa Capital, Faber Ventures and Portugal Ventures. Thanks to them, and others less well-known, a new generation of entrepreneurs are starting up in Portugal with a global mindset from the start that is spreading like a virus and putting Portugal on the European maps of startups.
We challenge you now to tell us what other enviable Portuguese success stories have you heard of and are known around the world? Come on, there are plenty!