Digital sector

Today, Portugal attracts the gaze of foreign investors and presents a huge opportunity for innovative and highly specialized businesses in the Digital sector¹ . Such potential has been recognized by the 120 companies that established operations in Portugal in the last 10 years, exporting mainly services to other markets. Since 2016, Portugal started hosting the Web Summit, an event that positions the country on the investor’s map, gathering +70.000 people and companies each year.

Several factors contribute to such dynamism: high-quality talent in engineering fields, from Portuguese universities with an increasingly international profile, a very high level of proficiency in the English language, technology readiness and digital transformation.

By the end of 2023, over 2.617 startups were registered in the country, and, of those, 6 are unicorns. Simultaneously, Portugal has over 160 certified incubators and accelerators ensuring that entrepreneurs receive the support and resources they need to thrive. Between 2017-21, the Venture Capital ecosystem rose 15x, with a record investment of €1,5B in startups in 2021.

¹ Sector composed of services, not including manufacturing subsectors.

Did you know?

… Between 2020-22, Portugal was the 4th European country to attract more FDI projects in Software & IT Services, according to the EY European Investment Monitor?

Software development

Portugal presents an attractive profile for software development companies, supported by an international educational system and reliable telecom infrastructures.

In recent years, Portugal has emerged as an increasingly attractive destination for software & IT companies, with its competitiveness in software development relying on a combination of several factors.

The country offers a highly qualified labor force, having the 3rd (19,1%) highest rate of engineering students in total graduates in the EU in 2020, an internationally recognized education system, upskilling programs and an efficient fiber optic infrastructure (telecom).

Foreign companies like Bosch, Cloudflare, Siemens, Claranet and BMW, are amongst the 120 that have established innovation hubs in Portugal, recognizing the country’s competitive advantages and attractiveness for software development companies.

Did you know?

… Outsystems, the Portuguese Unicorn that helps enterprises to build their own apps more easily, is the world’s first market-leading low-code software developer and that it’s worth around €8,9B (2022)?

Data Centers

Portugal provides Data Centers’ investors with qualified workforce, efficient infrastructures and easy access to renewable energies.

Through the 3 major submarine cables installed¹, Portugal has connectivity with Europe, South America and Asia, granting an effective infrastructure network. The country has favorable characteristics to produce multiple forms of renewable energy, which, in 2022, represented 61% of the electricity production mix. Finally, the country’s geographical position provides access to affordable cooling sources and water facilities.

Based on these key resources, Portugal attracted an investment of over €3,5B, named Sines 4.0, which will be the biggest renewable energy powered data center in Europe.

According to the EY European Investment Monitor, between 2020-22, Portugal was the 4th European country to attract more FDI projects in Data Centers.

¹ Portugal intersects the following major submarine cables: EllaLink, Equiano and Medusa.

Gaming

Nowadays, the Gaming industry in Portugal is mainly composed by promising Portuguese startups and multinational playersPortugal presents an attractive profile for software development companies, supported by an international educational system and reliable telecom infrastructures.

The Portuguese gaming ecosystem, nowadays, is made of promising startups that feature in renown rankings in the sector and foreign players that have established development and innovation hubs in the country.

The sector has been registering high growth, sustained by 32 high education courses in videogames development and multimedia with approximately 7.000 students in 2022¹, across multiple universities, while attracting international events, such as Game Dev Camp, Comic Con, Oeiras Gaming, Óbidos Vila Gaming and Lisboa Games Week.

¹ General Directorate of Education and Science Statistics (DGEEC).

Did you know?

… RealFevr, the Portuguese Web3 startup that revolutionized the fantasy football app’s market with more than 2,5m downloads and 1,2m users, was ranked in the Top-100 Gaming Startups to Watch by Dealroom?

… Companies like Sony and Amazon are already using Didimo, from the Portuguese startup founded in 2016, which consists of a realistic 3D model of humans, using facial inputs of a person to create a real-time avatar that will look, act and speak like a living person?