When we talk about European startups and startups hubs we immediately connect to big and well-established centres like London, Berlin or Paris. Often overshadowed by the bigger countries, Portugal’s startup, and especially the tech ecosystem, has been growing significantly over the past decade. In fact, Lisbon is one of the booming startup hubs in Europe and everything seems in place for it to continue to grow to become the startup capital of southern Europe.
The COVID-19 pandemic reached and shook up Portugal, but not as much as its neighbour country Spain. Aside from the health and safety regulations, the Portuguese government announced new measures to help more than 2.500 startups fight the pandemic and stay afloat. This pack represents an investment of €25 million and is specially thought out to lend a hand to the startups based in the country and especially those tech and fairly new.
A tech career in Portugal
Many would say that Portugal, and Lisbon in particular, appeared on the tech-startups map when WebSummit relocated to the Portuguese capital in 2016 from Dublin. It might have shown a light on the country, but before that, it had silently been building new opportunities and embracing entrepreneurship since the economic crisis of 2008 burst. The country saw that they had to find methods to get the economy back on its feet and one of the ways to do so was to invest in smaller and younger, but equally ambitious projects.
With a population of almost 11 million, Portugal is not one of the strongest economies in European Union nor amongst the most technologically advanced, but that is all put aside when the year-round good weather, amazing gastronomy and culture come into play. The work-life balance is what attracts thousands of people to start a new life in Europe’s most western in-land country. Startups of all kinds populate Portugal, but especially the tech-centred ones, with names like the Porto-born and based Infraspeak, and Lisbon’s Unbabel and Talkdesk amidst the most recognised ones.
The European Silicon Valley: Lisbon
Often referred to as the European Silicon Valley, Lisbon is the capital of Portugal. The city has become quite popular in the last few years as an ex-pat destination as it offers what a lot of people search for: good weather, international atmosphere and, mostly, a good life-work balance.
The startup world is embryonic but it’s rapidly growing fuelled by talent, energy and attention. According to Startup Portugal, investment in the Lisbon startup scene has grown to 30% every year since 2016. Just last year, in 2019, more than €1.100 million were invested in startups, which translates to a significant contribution to the country’s economic performance. The global pandemic has slightly affected last years’ optimism, but part of the startup ecosystem remains strong and determined to make it out of this year strong.
Lisbon is one of the cheapest western European capitals, which translates to slightly lower salaries compared to the neighbour and nearby countries like Spain or France. This is actually one of the reasons why some startups and scale-ups decide to launch, have a home base or even relocate to Lisbon: world-class talent and lower costs.
The Portuguese city is known for creating amazing tech talent and being one of the growing European centres of tech startups. It should not surprise you to find Portuguese names among the most important global IT companies. In fact, according to Altar, 53% of the people between 20 and 30 years old in Lisbon are STEM graduates.
Lisbon is the hometown of some of the rising names of European tech startups like Unbabel, Virtuleap and HiJiffy. Aside from the local companies, big brands like Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Google have opened tech-focused hubs in the capital that create jobs every year and attract international talent.
With an overall fairly good response to the pandemic, Lisbon has managed to survive and actually continue to grow this year. With 2021 knocking on the door, one would say that Lisbon would make for a good home for the next year. If you’re looking for a job in tech, at Landing.Jobs we specialise in matching tech professionals with their ideal job. We invite you to check out the openings on our platform.
Quietly but strongly rising: Porto
The northern city is often overshadowed by the capital but that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be taken into account. In fact, the eCommerce luxury platform Farfetch has one of its biggest offices in the city, Revolut recently opened an office in the city and it is home to one of the most recognised and fast-growing tech startups, Infraspeak.
Slightly smaller than Lisbon, Porto is cloudier than the sunny capital which translates to better waves and a real winter season. Very welcoming and international, Porto follows the Lisbon work-life balance culture that seems to be a country-wide characteristic. Being the second-largest city in the country has its perks, but also downsides. The qualified, motivated and hungry-to-learn young talent often leave the nest to go study and work in the capital, because they feel they don’t have access to world-class companies or chances to actually start a business at home. This has gently begun to change in the last few years as Porto decided to invest in industrial and business hubs to attract its people and international talent.
The startup scene is just starting out, which means that it’s challenging, but also a good moment to be in Porto right now and the upcoming years. With everything being relatively nascent there is space to start, grow and succeed, which is what Porto and its first startups have been doing in the last few years.
For this reason, if you’re looking for a small city, with an international yet also local vibe that has everything in place to become one of the cities to watch in 2021, Porto is the place for you. If you’re looking to relocate to Porto in the near future, we invite you to check out the job openings on our platform.
Salaries rank among the lowest in Europe but living costs are slightly cheaper than the capital, a factor that attracts talent that looks to live in less vibrant cities or simply work remote and choose to live in cheaper cities to cut costs. Some of the most recognised startups in Porto are Infraspeak, the early-stage dash-dash, Tonic App and Switch.
Portugal has seen a big increase in startups in the last few years and has been put in the radar for many tech professionals looking for new opportunities.
With the worldwide pandemic, remote work has also become a work perk rather than a condition or a necessity. Most of the startups now offer, and some even encourage, their current and future employees to work remote. This new trend looks like it’s going to stick around even as stay-at-home restrictions start to ease in some European countries. With our personal and professional lives having changed so much in 2020, it’s important that companies catch on and offer flexibility to their employees. When browsing for a job on our platform you will be able to choose and filter between different characteristics, one of them being location type.
Happy searching and good luck! 2021 is gonna be great!
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