“Being a unicorn is not the end goal. We are here for everyone,” said António Dias Martins, executive director of Startup Portugal, in the Web Summit.
Portugal being known as a “unicorn country” is good from an image point of view. But for Startup Portugal, reaching the billion-dollar valuation is not the end goal.
“There are a number of non-unicorn companies that are super valuable. We want to support them. Being a unicorn is not the end goal. We are here for everyone,” said António Dias Martins, executive director of Startup Portugal, in the Web Summit.
“Portugal has just announced the 5th unicorn [Remote]. We have more than Spain, Greece and Italy combined. We are becoming known as a unicorn country, but that is a way of captivating attention,” he added.
“It’s great to have five unicorns, but it’s only a benchmark. We have to work with companies valued at $10 million, $50 million, $100 million. They are super valuable, create jobs and make the ecosystem work,” he also mentioned, when asked whether unicorns would be the way to ensure Europe’s positioning as a technology hub.
Europe hosts a tenth of the unicorns worldwide, with China and the United States in the lead. According to Dias Martins, Portuguese startups raised until September $1 billion in venture capital, double the amount of last year, and Remote was the most recent startup with Portuguese DNA to reach unicorn status, joining Farfetch, Outsystems, Feedzai and Talkdesk
Source: https://www.econews.pt/2021/11/04/portugal-has-as-many-unicorns-as-spain-greece-and-italy-combined/
