At the opening of Web Summit 2021, Carlos Moedas, the newly elected mayor of Lisbon, said that wanted to go beyond Web Summit and create a unicorn factorypromotion of the city as a technological center and ensuring that entrepreneurs come to Lisbon but stay and set up their companies here.
Today the promise is fulfilled, but with Unicorn Factory Lisbon announcementdays before the start of another web summit, which Paddy Cosgrave promises to be the busiest.
“Mission Unicorn Factory Lisbon andexpand support for the entrepreneurial ecosystem to promote accelerated and sustainable growth of technology companies from Lisbonworking as an engine of innovation and economic growth of the city and the country,” the organization explains.
the factory is actually a platform that brings together programs and centers to support start-ups and scale while creating products and business models or developing effective processes.. As they grow, they can become unicorns, a term for companies valued in the billions of dollars.
“Lisbon needs more unicorns, big companies, because these companies will create jobs in the future, create wealth, power the economy and renew the city,” defends Carlos Moedas.
At the Unicorn factory in Lisbon Startup Lisboa and Hub Criativo do Beato will be integratedand there are four pillars of action, from supporting the start-up phase of startups to supporting growth at scale, as well as investing in attracting scale and international unicorns through the Soft Landing program and in developing a network of hubs and programs through hubs focused on
innovation in areas of strong growth.
Starting in 2023, two new programs will be promoted, the applications of which will be opened during the web summit. These programs are the Scaling Up Program, which is the first program in Lisbon to work on more than 20 large scale high potential operations per year, and the Soft Landing Program with tools to address growth and change or expand operations in Lisbon.
“With two new programs that open apps during the web summit, Unicorn Factory Lisbon is promoting over a thousand opportunities for partnerships and synergies.and provides access to more than 30 business partners, including the largest Portuguese companies, unicorns and global technology groups, as well as more than 20 investors.
