An Initiative of the City of Porto 5 a Word from the Mayor
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An initiative of the City of Porto 5 a word from the Mayor Rui Moreira Mayor of Porto With our Porto Start & Scale Guide we technologies, culture, fashion and design, intend to show how our entrepreneurs’ presenting its business sector strongly innovation mindset is the perfect catalyst connected with the industry ecosystem. for transforming the city, by contributing The startup scene in Porto is vibrant, to increase the quality of life and boost with a number of startups located in economy. This is the story of how several incubators and in numerous innovation drives the future of our cities, co-working spaces across the city. how innovation is shaping our present But there is a long way ahead. We and will continue to shape our future. need strategy, competitiveness and Porto has nowadays’ unique indicators continuous policies. This is where the for quality of life, resulting from its City Council plays an important role. uncommon safety levels, its human We seek to get even more involved and and welcoming characteristic and work in partnership with Universities its multicultural and entrepreneurial and companies, following an ambitious character. In fact, Porto and the North plan for innovation. of Portugal embrace its role as an Cities working as living labs are a unique important motor of the portuguese showcase platform to support the link economy, as the major contributor between companies and the city but to exports and as a place where new also companies and the world. The city innovative businesses are being created of Porto is engaged in the development every day, responding to the demands of of a strategy to foster the local a constantly changing global economy. entrepreneurship ecosystem focusing Entrepreneurship, arts and education on the scaleup phase but aiming higher. are, indeed, some areas where the city ScaleUp Porto and Desafios Porto have of Porto has been investing. The results been the pillars of the entrepreneurship are clear. Today Porto is at the forefront strategy in the city of Porto. Through of innovation, housing important these two initiatives, we are positioning companies. The University of Porto and Porto as a ScaleUp Hub, capable of the Politécnico of Porto are amongst the providing the right infrastructure, best and biggest institutions of Higher access to talent and funding to high Education in the country and reference growth companies. institutions in Europe, attracting more In the next years, we will keep on than 5000 Erasmus students every year. investing time, energy and resources to Moreover, in the last few years Porto has attract the best talent to Porto, in order been recognized multiple times as a to make sure startups and scaleups from touristic destination of excellence. all over the world find in Porto what they Nowadays, Porto displays strong need to succeed. dynamics in areas such as health Welcome to Porto. industry, energy, mobility, information Miguel Nogueira / CM Porto Nogueira Miguel 7 Rui Moreira THE PORTO ENTREPRENEURSHIP Porto´s city is a one of a kind! STRATEGY With a strong personality, 01 8 15 warm people, divine food and wine and charismatic places, Porto reveals unforgettable A MESSAGE FROM vistas inspiring all its visitors THE ECOSYSTEM with its creative approach. 16 23 02 Porto has also a long history of entrepreneurial PORTO TODAY endeavours, housing some of 03 24 25 the most important industrial companies and entrepreneurs in the country. In the next STARTUPS pages you will discover a & INNOVATION ICONS new wave of entrepreneurial 26 65 04 ventures, inspired by Porto with worldwide ambition. EVENTS Beyond our strong support 05 68 69 to startups, we share our innovative approach to create, Filipe Araújo ANCHOR INITIATIVES city councillor step by step, a sustainable and for innovation & SPACES and environment vibrant scaleup ecosystem. 70 77 06 01 STRATEGY / CM Porto Nogueira Miguel 580 caracteres SCALEUP 13 strategy ScaleUp Porto program is an important ScaleUp Porto is an initiative of the PORTO commitment to consolidate the city’s Municipality of Porto in partnership innovation ecosystem that can be with UPTEC and with the support of reflected all across Europe. the Agência Nacional de Inovação, Cities can have a unique role facilitating Porto Business School and Instituto program is companies’ growth and the creation Politécnico do Porto. ScaleUp Porto is of a thriving innovation ecosystem, also a contribution of the Municipality impacting economic development to the ScaleUp For Europe movement, and job creation. Therefore, aiming at enhancing the importance cities can an important creating a sustainable entrepreneurial have in the ecosystem growth. ecosystem where cities can work as true scale-up catalysts, the ScaleUp Porto Manifesto (launched in 2015) commitment to comes together to: > Foster local development by focusing on cities’ role as aggregators in a complex consolidate the and heterogeneous European network; > Support companies ready to scale to achieve sustainable city’s innovation development and growth in a global economy; > Involve citizens and empower them to take advantage of the growing innovation environment ecosystem that that provides new highly qualified job opportunities. In a functioning, dynamic and can be reflected sustainable scale-up environment, successful entrepreneurs do not just develop their businesses. They also share their success as inspiring role all across Europe. models, their knowledge as mentors, experts or teachers, and their financial gain as investors in the next generation of entrepreneurs. This consolidates a virtuous cycle that improves the ecosystem itself. scaleupporto.pt SCALEUP 15 strategy FOR EUROPE In the last decade Europe has provide a unique platform to help been witnessing a significant companies build reputation, credibility overall change in the paradigm of and increase sales opportunities. entrepreneurship and innovation, Be part of this movement and help reflected in the intensive proliferation European entrepreneurs paving the way In an European of startup programmes and other to a solid and sustainable growth. supporting frameworks. These programmes and projects related to the startup phase have been developed very successfully so far, but single market fledgling firms could not truly enter the “warp-zone” of growth based only on the help of early stage accelerators or incubators. After successfully far from being achieving a problem/solution fit, validating a business model and entering the loop of funding rounds, startups aiming at moving towards a a reality, cities path of sustainable growth will need a completely new supporting platform. With this new scenario in place, and with hundreds of startup companies ready to grow all over Europe, the working in challenges are now related to scaling these companies in a sustainable way. In an European single market far from being a reality, cities working in networks networks will work as unique growth catalyst. The ScaleUp For Europe initiative follows the ScaleUp Porto Manifesto commitment to promote will work as the creation and development of a national and international network of support for the scaleup companies of the city ecosystem. ScaleUp For Europe aims at providing unique growth entrepreneurs with information about cities’ context and business environment and to promote their internationalization effort. Working catalyst. in a network, European Cities can scaleupforeurope.com 17 strategy DESAFIOS Omniflow Omniflow’s objective is to light public spaces Desafios Porto is a competition in an intelligent and created by the Municipality of Porto in PORTO sustainable way. partnership with NOS, EDP, CEIIA e EY, aiming at identifying the biggest challenges faced by the city of Porto and at finding the tech solutions that give the € 250,000 most innovative and scalable answers. Desafios Porto positions the city of Porto as a Smart City and turns to fund the Porto into a Living Lab, a place where solutions for real problems in the public creation of sector can be tested working as a stepping-stone to scale to other cities. innovative Desafios Porto is the successful result of a partnership between the public and private sector leading to solutions that the implementation of key solutions to problems faced daily by the improve the people living in or visiting Porto. It is Positive Blue a multidisciplinary initiative with a Using gamification strong component for dissemination quality of life on top of a smart-grid and population’s awareness with platform to increase repercussions in several areas, boosting of the citizens energy efficiency in the use of new technologies and the city. promoting entrepreneurship. of Porto. In the first edition, the initiative got the submission of more than 300 challenges siosLIFE focused in four different areas: Health & siosLIFE works to Wellbeing, Energy, Digital City, Mobility integrate the senior & Environment, which resulted in several population in the possible solutions presented by different evolution of new startups and entrepreneurs. technologies. isolation. HealthyRoad EYEParking aims to help control the illegal desafiosporto.pt parking. A MESSAGE 19 message FROM THE ECOSYSTEM 1 2 Some of the ANTÓNIO CARLOS most successful MURTA MOREIRA entrepreneurs and Partner at Pathena DA SILVA Entrepreneurship, although for CEO S21Sec many is seen as a temporary thing, investors that are is an underlying trend in developed markets. In fact the high obsolescence The city of Porto has unique conditions, of knowledge dictates the need of such as access to qualified talent that building Porto’s constant renewal of business models give the higher education institutions in and consequently entrepreneurship. the region an important recognition. The The city of Porto is the incubator of high quality of life that the city provides this spirit, no longer from a Portuguese is also a key factor to hold and attract Ecosystem share regional perspective but also in the talent. Furthermore, the possibility of World. I watch daily in the region the using the city of Porto as a Living Lab emergence of start-ups - some of translates in a fundamental contribution their experiences.