Lisbon is betting that hosting the Web Summit,
Europe's largest tech event, will spur the growth of startups and draw foreign
investors, helping it compete with the continent's main innovation hubs.
While the crisis hammered the Portuguese economy, it
also drove change, pushing people to come up with new ideas for businesses—many
of them tech startups.
During the first half of the year the number of new
companies that were created was 3.3 times higher than the number of firms that
went under, according to government figures.
To
fuel the expansion of the startup sector the government lobbied hard to bring the
annual Web Summit to Lisbon. The tech expo has been held every year in Dublin since
its launch in 2010. Some 50,000 participants and 15,000 companies from around
the world are expected to attend the November 8-10 event, nearly double the
27,500 people who attended last year. Lisbon will host the annual event
until at least 2018.
Portugal's secretary of state for industry, João
Vasconcelos, said he hoped hosting the event will give rise to a new generation
of entrepreneurs.
"A Web Summit generation, with a global
mentality," he told AFP.
Web Summit chief executive Paddy Cosgrave said the
strong government support given startups in Portugal was one of the reasons why
he moved the event to Lisbon.
"They recognise the value of technology and want
to put Portugal on the map as a tech hub," he said.
The Portuguese capital is well placed to become a tech
hub because it has strong infrastructure, a "vibrant tech community",
cheap rents and an educated workforce that is fluent in English, Cosgrave said.
"These are all key factors for making a good
environment for startups," he added.
The city has already given rise to a number of
"brilliant" new firms with strong growth potential such as Codacy, which has developed a software
tool that automatically reviews computer code, said Cosgrave.
"The Web Summit will place Lisbon amid the
European startup capitals, alongside London and Berlin," said Codacy co-founder Jaime Jorge, who often
travels to Silicon Valley in California, the heart of the tech universe, to
drum up business.
Since 2010, 40 Portuguese startups have raised a combined total of more than
$166 million, according to a European Commission report on Portuguese startups
published last year.
While the figures trail those of Britain, Germany and
France, the report said "the data tells you how recent and strong is the
growth of the Portuguese startup ecosystem".
Cabral, Thomas (2016). Lisbon dreams of
Europe's Silicon Valley tag Available at: http://phys.org/news/2016-11-lisbon-europe-silicon-valley-tag.html [Accessed 22
Nov. 2016].
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