Osaka, Kansai, Japan, May 6, 2025 (Lusa) - The mayor of Lisbon is in Osaka, Japan, where he presented the Unicorn Factory, and says he wants to have at least one Japanese company involved in the project, pointing out that biotechnology is an area of interest to Japan.
Carlos Moedas was present on Monday at Portugal's National Day at Expo 2025 Osaka, which also marked World Portuguese Language Day, featuring concerts by Dino D'Santiago and a tribute to the late Fado diva, Amália Rodrigues (who was the guest artist 55 years ago at the world exhibition in the same city) by fado singers Ana Moura, Camané and Ricardo Ribeiro.
On the sidelines of the event, the mayor of Lisbon said that he had been in Tokyo where he presented ‘the Unicorn Factory project’ and "what is today one of the most important cities in Europe, which is Lisbon," he reported.
The Unicorn Factory supports founders to start, scale and become global. A flagship initiative by the Lisbon city council to position the city as a leading innovation center in Europe. The factory supports over 250 startups and scaleups per year.
Unicorn companies are those that reach a valuation of $1 billion without being listed on the stock market and are the dream of any tech startup.
The aim was to present Lisbon as the European capital of innovation and to bring "technology companies to our Unicorn Factory" in the Portuguese capital, the mayor explained.
On Monday, Carlos Moedas met with the mayor of Osaka, who also expressed great interest in bringing these companies to Lisbon.
"We are here on an economic mission, in a country with a world-class economy, in what is the third largest city [in the country], Osaka, with eight million inhabitants, to sell what is a Lisbon project, a project in the area of innovation, culture, technology, but also in caring for people and the social projects that Lisbon has today," he continued.
The latter ‘are of interest to a Japanese society that is very ageing and needs exactly this social aspect in its city projects,’ he pointed out.
Carlos Moedas stressed that he has invested "a lot over the years to have 14 unicorns in Lisbon," which come from all over the world.
"Unfortunately, we don't have any from Japan yet, I would like to see one of these big technology companies in our city of Lisbon. In fact, I invited the companies I met in Tokyo, but also the mayor of Osaka, to have at least one Japanese company in our Unicorn Factory programme, which is now recognised throughout Europe for its growth," he said.
Therefore, "I hope to at least bring one of these companies to Lisbon, that would already be a great victory," the mayor stressed.
"What I came here to do was also to attract some sectors. Today we have a very strong sector in our Unicorn Factory that has to do with biotechnology," an area in which the Japanese are also interested, he said.
Meanwhile, "we are going to bring Osaka to Lisbon with a Japanese film cycle at the São Jorge cinema, we are going to bring many of the activities we have visited here to Lisbon so that we have this Osaka-Lisbon, Tokyo-Lisbon connection, that is what we are doing," he concluded.
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