Unicorn factory in Lisbon kicks off. It wants to support over 20 scale-ups per year

Investing €8 million to support innovation and entrepreneurship, together with the private sector, support over 20 scale-ups per year and double the annual number of new projects in the set of startups and scale-ups in Lisbon are some of the goals of the Unicorn Factory Lisbon, presented this Thursday by Carlos Moedas, in the Beato Creative Hub. The first phase will start in early 2023, with implementing two new programs: The scaling Up Program and the Soft Landing Program, whose applications open already in this edition of the Web Summit.

“Lisbon needs more unicorns, large companies because these companies will create the jobs of the future, generate wealth, leverage the economy and renew the city,” says Carlos Moedas, Mayor of Lisbon, on why the Unicorn Factory is being launched, an electoral promise that has now been publicly presented.

The Unicorn Factory Lisboa has as its slogan “It’s only a myth until you make it true”, and is a platform of programs and hubs that aims to support startups and scale-ups to gain global scale and eventually reach the “unicorn” level, a $1 billion valuation.

With Unicorn Factory Lisboa, the municipality aims to increase its attractiveness for startups in the city, a project under the leadership of Startup Lisboa, an organisation that, since its startup ten years ago, has incubated over 400 startups, which have created 4,500 jobs and raised €340 million in investment.

“We are facilitators. We are committed daily to supporting and connecting founders with people and entities important to their business, empowering and facilitating access to investment, mentors, partners and potential customers. We did it for a decade at Startup Lisboa for early-stage projects, and today we materialise the biggest strategic evolution, reinforcing the role of AIEL and Startup Lisboa by empowering startups, supporting scale-ups to grow and internationalise, and attracting international scale-ups to the city, collaborating and developing the whole ecosystem,” says Gil Azevedo, executive director of Unicorn Factory Lisboa and Startup Lisboa, quoted in a press release.

The project’s first phase kicks off at the beginning of next year, with the launch of two new programmes.

• Scaling Up Program: the first program ever in Lisbon specialised in providing, per year, to over 20 high-potential scale-ups the support to “unlock and maximise their growth potential”. Lasting eight months, the programme has as strategic partners Google, Galp, Delta Cafés, Cuatrecasas, Fidelidade, BPI and PwC, joined by over 25 other partners.
• Soft Landing Program: designed to “provide the practical tools, information and resources” to simplify the “process of change, or expand operations to Lisbon, of international startups and scale-ups”. PwC, CCA Law and the Municipality of Lisbon’s Made of Lisbon structure are the programme’s partners.

Through the two new programmes, which open for applications during the Web Summit, Unicorn Factory Lisboa “promotes more than a thousand opportunities for partnerships and synergies”, giving access to more than 30 business partners and more than 20 investors.

The project also involves the development of a network of hubs and “programs in technological areas of high potential, in collaboration with other incubators, unicorns and companies with a strong innovation component, which includes the Beato Creative Hub”, to be built in the former Military Maintenance (manufacturing complex of the Portuguese Army), in Lisbon.