3,000 Irish at Lisbon’s €200m Web Summit
Yesterday saw the real beginning of Web Summit, the massive tech conference which stretches out over 21 separate stages and themes, drawing more than 50,000 people to the Portuguese capital of Lisbon for discussions, pitches and, hopefully, investment.
The value to the local economy of the event is estimated at €200m, a figure echoed in one of the announcements made in the conference’s early stages.
Portugal’s prime minister, Antonio Costa, was one of the keynote speakers at the opening ceremony and attendees have made much of his announcement of a €200m fund for innovative technology companies, with some of the reputed 3,000-plus Irish visitors drawing harsh comparisons with their own government’s failure to hold on to the conference.
With so many visitors, so many start-ups and so many stages featuring speakers it can be hard to pin down central themes, but yesterday it emerged that start-up companies specialising in financial technology are among the most sought after by investors looking for promising companies.
In that environment, it’s hardly surprising, then, that European Commissioner Carlos Moedas, who has responsibility for Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, and launched the call for applications for his Pan-European VC Fund-of-Funds at the Summit.
Moedas said: “There’s far less venture capital in Europe than in the US, and funds don’t have the scale or geographic scope to grow companies from early stage to mid-cap and from mid-cap to global players. The Pan-European VC Fund-of-Funds initiative tackles this problem head-on. It will lead to higher levels of investment in new generations of highly innovative European firms.”
The EU will provide cornerstone investments of up to €300m in one or more independently managed venture capital Fund-of-Funds; the objectives of the initiative are to increase the size of venture capital funds in Europe: to increase private investment in venture capital; and to overcome fragmentation, as most venture capital funds now only operate in one member state.
Irish tech firms are well represented at the Summit, with Stripe, Intercom and VoxPro in attendance as well as Bizimply and Cork-based Teamwork.
Away from the world of official announcements, the temperate Lisbon setting drew favourable comments from those more familiar with Ballsbridge in November, where the conference was held up to last year.
General impressions of the technology conference have been positive overall, particularly compared to the traffic jams and hysterical hotel prices of the last couple of years in Dublin.
The picturesque stroll along the Lisbon waterfront to the setting had to be a selling point to veterans of those wintry Irish mornings.
The roomy barns of the Royal Dublin Society have been replaced by the spacious surroundings of the Feira Internacional de Lisboa and Meo Arena, which has enabled a far better flow of people in and out of the venues. The sense of humour is a little lighter, too: the media centre is located next to a building whose name, roughly translated, is House of Beer.
There are other selling points, such as the narrow streets and inviting hostelries of the Barrio Alto (one of the latter had ‘Tech Nerds Welcome’ at the door last evening) where the crowds have gone to unwind after a busy day.
All told a fair change from Dublin, and in honesty a fair improvement as well.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
