“How do you keep innovation at the top? Invest in social welfare” – Carlos Moedas, Mayor of the City of Lisbon

Carlos Moedas, the Mayor of the City of Lisbon, has said that investing in social welfare is a key aspect to fostering innovation. 

Speaking at the opening night of Web Summit, Moedas said: “You cannot have a city that does not invest in social welfare and is good at innovation, because if you have social friction, then you destroy innovation.”

Moedas’s comments come after Lisbon’s successful transformation into a hub for tech startups and innovation. Lisbon is now home to 14 unicorn companies, with a total of 14,000 jobs created in the past three years across the capital.

The Mayor’s comments were made as part of the welcome speech at Web Summit in Lisbon, where more than 70,000 people have gathered to discuss the most pressing questions around technology.

Speaking on Web Summit’s Centre Stage MEO Arena, Moedas said about innovation:

“How do you keep innovation at the top? I think there’s just one solution to be at the top: that you invest in social welfare. You cannot have a city that does not invest in social welfare and is good at innovation, because if you have social friction, then you destroy innovation. And so that’s why we focus on that, because innovation has to be sustainable.”

“That’s why today, 12% of [Lisbon’s] population lives in municipal housing at affordable prices, and we are investing more [than] €560 million for more units and more housing for people. That’s why the elderly people in Lisbon have a pension health plan that gives them access to doctors 24 hours a day. And that’s the real secret sauce of innovation, my friends: that if you keep the balance in between people like you, and protecting people that are vulnerable every day, then you have innovation that is sustainable. That’s the story of Lisbon.”

Mr Moedas also talked about the beginning of his work to help make Lisbon a global tech capital. “At the time, [Portugal] started at around seven unicorn companies, and we wanted to dream bigger, and we were not afraid of dreaming bigger. We said to ourselves, ‘we can have more unicorns. We can have unicorns from all over the world. I don’t care if they’re Portuguese or not.’..and that’s what we did, with that audacity of not being afraid.”

“And so three years later, we have 14 unicorn companies that are based in offices in our city. They started… some with 10 people: now, they have 300 people! We have more than 70 companies that joined those companies and announced more than 14,000 jobs in Lisbon. That’s what happened in three years: [and] not just small or scale-ups… We had McKinsey and Co opening a center of talent with 700 people. We have Deloitte building a Tech campus with another 2500 people. We have that in Lisbon because we believed in tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m opening, I’m opening the unicorn factory for AI of Microsoft in Lisbon. Do you believe that? Yes, we are doing it, and we’re very happy – and it’s thanks to you!”

The discussion was one of hundreds at this year’s sold-out Web Summit. As well as 70,000 attendees, Web Summit 2024 is welcoming an unprecedented 3,000 startups – the largest startup turnout in Web Summit’s history. Among these startups, over 1,000 are founded by women. These startups will join more than 70,000 attendees, 1,000 investors and 2,000 media.

For any questions about this or any other Web Summit Lisbon content, please contact Sebastian Hamilton, Head of Public Affairs, on summaries@websummit.com

About Web Summit: 

• Web Summit is where the future goes to be born. In just over a decade, Web Summit has grown into the world’s premier technology events business, with gatherings in Doha, Rio de Janeiro and Vancouver as well as Lisbon. These gatherings of entrepreneurs connect the next generation of innovators with world-changing ideas.

• Top speakers at Web Summit 2024 include Microsoft President Brad Smith, Signal President Meredith Whittaker, Qualcomm CEO and President Cristiano Amon, President of Alibaba.com Kuo Zhang, and many more. Hundreds of partners from across the globe will exhibit on the now sold out event show floor including global tech companies such as IBM, Adobe, Meta, Huawei, SAP, DELL, Qualcomm and Boehringer Ingelheim, and financial giants such as Visa and American Express. Other notable partners include Niantic, Pitchbook, EDP, and KPMG. Impact partners include UN Global Compact, Earthed, Re:Wild and Beam.

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