Lisbon, the European Technological Hub
Lisbon has been awarded the prestigious title of Capital of Innovation in Europe by the European Commission. This award recognizes cities that promote innovation and development in their local communities. The prize comes with a monetary award of 1 million euros and the official name of the prize is iCapital.
Lisbon emerged victorious over two other finalist cities, Varsovia in Poland and Lviv in Ukraine. The award ceremony took place on the 27th of November 2023 in Marseille, France, where the current mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, received the prize. In his acceptance speech, Mayor Moedas expressed his willingness to use the monetary award to fund social innovation projects and reduce social exclusion in the city.
The Unicorn Factory Lisboa, a platform that supports startups and scaleups in creating sound products and business models, will invest the prize money.
Until now, attracted 54 new technological hubs from 23 different countries and launched 13 programmes of incubation and acceleration. Create 10.000 job posts, triplicate the number of startups in the city and diversify the same in different businesses such as digital health, web 3 technologies and artificial intelligence. All of this in only 2 years. The Town Hall has released this information.
This project was the foundation of Lisbon's candidacy for the iCapital award. With this victory, Lisbon has received European validation for its efforts to become an innovative city that is home to those who want to thrive. We hope that Lisbon continues its efforts and becomes a technological hub that the world needs.
