Investing in Our Talent

The news that this community has just made four more investments in Portuguese startups is, therefore, another piece of good news. Not only for the investments themselves, but for what they represent in a country that urgently needs to transform more knowledge, innovation and technological capacity into companies capable of growing and competing internationally.

Lampsy, Intuitive, Smashpro and UpSpeech are four very different companies, working in areas ranging from health to education and sports, but they have something important in common: they were born from concrete problems and seek to solve them through technology, with the ambition to grow beyond our borders. Lampsy has developed a solution based on artificial intelligence and computer vision to detect epileptic seizures at night. Intuitive technology is used to reduce the administrative burden on teachers. Smashpro has created a management platform for padel, tennis and pickleball clubs. UpSpeech is applying artificial intelligence to speech therapy. They are good examples of the diversity of talent that exists today in Portugal.

But perhaps the most interesting thing is the model behind these investments. In about a year and a half, a community of 436 investors analysed 124 startups, held 281 working meetings and selected 15 companies, corresponding to 75% of the initial goal of investing in 20 Portuguese technology-based startups. Each company receives an investment of 50 thousand euros but also receives something that can be equally important at this stage: monitoring, mentoring and access to the contacts and experience of community members.

It is precisely this type of initiative that I believe we should value and multiply in Portugal. We have excellent universities, engineers, researchers, managers and entrepreneurs. We also have Portuguese people around the world with enormous professional experience, knowledge of markets and financial capacity. The challenge is to create more bridges between all these people and those who are starting new companies. Not all projects will be successful, of course. It is part of the investment, and it is part of the innovation. The important thing is that there is an ecosystem where good ideas have the opportunity to be tested, financed and transformed into companies.

We often talk about the need to increase productivity, improve wages and make the Portuguese economy more competitive. All of this is true, but none of these transformations happens by decree. It happens when we manage to create companies that develop technology, intellectual property and products capable of reaching international markets. Therefore, when 436 investors decide to pool capital, knowledge and contacts to seek and support Portuguese talent, we must pay attention. Investing in these companies is also investing in the future of our economy.