Government to launch €90M package to support 3,000 startups
Portugal is to launch a €90-million package to support 3,000 startups over the next four years.
Portugal’s government is to launch a €90-million package to support 3,000 startups over the next four years, its minister for the economy, António Costa Silva, has announced, at the opening ceremony of Web Summit 2022, which started on Tuesday and ends on Friday.
The package, which is to be formally launched during Web Summit, is to use funds from the European Union for Recovery and Resilience Plan for the period to 2026to support startups that develop “environmentally friendly” digital business models, he said.
According to the minister, who represented the Portuguese government at the opening ceremony, which began on Tuesday evening after a long delay, the support is to be given in the form of “digital and green” vouchers.
Costa Silva, who spoke in English, said that a new package would be launched in parallel to support the “operating costs” of business incubators. He did not specify the amount of funding for this package.
Addressing the audience, which included many foreign investors and businesses, he urged entrepreneurs to invest in Portugal, and highlighted the “climate threat” to the world and that “technology and technical solutions have solved the most difficult problems.”
Also speaking in English, the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, said that the capital that he dreamed of was one where “the impossible meets the possible” – evoking as an example the recently announced Unicorn Factory, which aims to attract highly valued startups.
The founder and CEO of Web Summit, Paddy Cosgrave, after mentioning the election on Sunday of Lula da Silva as president of Brazil, defended, highlighted the philosophy of the event: that “establishing connections” in person, can “transform careers, companies and even countries.”
This seventh Web Summit has more than 70,000 participants, 2,630 startups and companies, 1,120 investors and 1,040 speakers.
The annual tech event, which started in 2010 in Ireland, was first staged at Lisbon’s Park of Nations – the former Expo98 site – in 2016, and is to remain in the Portuguese capital until 2028.
