About Us
Our purpose
Unicorn Factory Lisboa is a City Hall flagship initiative aiming to position Lisbon as a leading European innovation centre.
It empowers entrepreneurs by providing essential resources and support to bring their groundbreaking ideas to life and scale their businesses.
By fostering entrepreneurship skills from a young age, it ensures a continuous pipeline of innovative talent, sustaining Lisbon's vibrant startup ecosystem.
Why Lisbon?
THRIVING ECONOMY
Portugal is the 2nd best country in Europe for business innovation (European Central Bank 2022)
Portugal is the 1st country in the world in ease of doing business across borders (Doing Business Report 2020)
Portugal is in the TOP 10 of the best European countries to invest in (EY)
TALENT
Portugal is the 3rd european country with the highest rate of Engineering graduates (Eurostat)
Portugal is 7th highest English Proficiency in the world (English Proficiency Index 2021)<
55,4% of tech talent is located in Lisbon metropolitan area (Global Tech Talent Trends 2022)
QUALITY OF LIFE
Portugal is the 4th best expat destination in terms of quality of life (Expat Insider 2022)
Portugal is the 6th most peaceful country in the world (Global Peace Index 2022)
Lisbon is the 4th most trusted among 63 European Start up hubs (Start up Heatmap Trust Score Europe 2022)
DIGITAL & GREEN TRANSITION
7th most digitalised country in Europe (Digitalisation in Europe 2020-21)
59% of energy production originated from renewable sources (REN)
Our history
01
AIEL
2011
AIEL - Associação para a Inovação e Empreendedorismo de Lisboa was founded in 2011 by the Municipality of Lisbon, bank Montepio and IAPMEI (Portuguese Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation), and is a result of the will of the citizens, having been one of the most voted ideas in the 2009/2010 Participatory Budget of the City Council.
02
Startup Lisboa
2012
We are a private non-profit association and until now have been working as a business incubator, supporting the creation of companies and entrepreneurs in their first years of activity, under the brand of Startup Lisboa.
03
Unicorn Factory Lisboa
2022
Launched in 2022, Unicorn Factory Lisboa is a flagship initiative to position Lisbon as a leading European innovation centre. It is dedicated to empowering entrepreneurs by providing essential resources, including comprehensive incubation programs and one of Europe's few specialised scale-up programs.
Awards
European Enterprise Promotion Award 2013 by European Commission People's Choice Award for Best Accelerator or Incubators by London Web Summit Partner of the year 2013 by Portugal Ventures
Founding Associates
Associates
The board
Administration Board
- Carlos Moedas President
- Gil Azevedo Executive Director
- Rui Miguel Nabeiro Board Member
- Margarida Figueiredo Board Member
- José Vale Board Member
- Pedro Galhardas Board Member
- João Cotter Salvado Board Member
Board of the General Assembly
- Luís Guerreiro President
- Lourenço Jardim de Oliveira Secretary
- Isabel Cidrais Guimarães Secretary
Audit Committee
- João Carvalho das Neves President
- Miguel Nunes Member
- Paulo Figueira Member