A rainy afternoon contrasted with the atmosphere inside Factory Lisboa, full of energy to celebrate Lisbon as the European Innovation Capital 🎉!
Gil Azevedo, Executive Director of StartUp Lisboa, started by presenting the Unicorn Factory Lisboa from idea to paper and their mission of “creating a world-class ecosystem in Lisbon, supporting founders to start, scale and become global”.
Then a roundtable led by Rita Vilas-Boas discussed why we brought home the prize. Carlos Moedas, Mayor of Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, Arun M., Chief Revenue Officer of Pleo, Katelijne Bekers, CEO & Co-Founder of MicroHarvest, and Artur Pereira, Country Manager Portugal & Brazil of the Web Summit were the guests. The establishment of Web Summit and our scientific and technological background, along with our sense of community and inviting weather conditions were some of the thoughts discussed for this distinguishment.
Carlos Moedas shared the vision for the 1M€ prize. It will promote the creation of at least 3 social innovation initiatives to answer upcoming challenges in healthcare access, education, and, immigration, among others.
In the end, there was time to party, with a DJ, live music, and lots of networking opportunities!
Congratulations Lisbon ✨! Let’s continue to thrive together and be a part of this bright ecosystem!
