Although Lisbon may at first look seem less vibrant than other European start-up hotspots like London and Berlin, it has truly picked up speed in advancing towards an innovation-focussed tech centre. EIT Digital and it’s ARISE Europe partner Building Global Innovators (BGI) have seized such chance to invite the local start-up ecosystem to meet and discuss with about 60 guests (including investors, mentors and local stakeholders) the status of the Portuguese innovation landscape at a networking evening.
In his welcome address Fabio Pianesi, Research Director of EIT Digital, highlighted the importance of international collaboration between the start-up eco-systems all over Europe: “Local growth can only be attained by networking excellent innovation ecosystems and by providing them and their member companies easier access to the European level market and investors. This is the task EIT Digital has devoted its ARISE Europe program to, mobilizing its unique partnership and its Pan-European Accelerator”.
In his keynote, the event’s special guest, Mr Robert Sherman, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Portugal, shared US point of view about the needs for successful entrepreneurship and the chances of Portugal in an international innovation landscape. The event continued with a networking dinner, where start-ups, investors and local and international entrepreneurship experts used the opportunity to further the chances for start-ups and investors in Portugal, Europe, and beyond. For some of the participating start-ups, this was a great opportunity to gather last-mile valuable
input from guests with great mentorship expertise, the day before their
Demo Day (BGI´S 6th accelerator edition).
