Forbes: Lisbon can rival London at Fintech

In an article published this Wednesday at Forbes, Lisbon is elected one of three "emerging Fintech cities" that can face London in 2019. Outside the most consolidated references in the sector, such as Paris and Berlin, Lisbon affirms a competitor close to Tallin in Estonia and Sofia in Bulgaria.

In a time of divorce with the European Union, London foresees major challenges for Fintech's ecosystem. More than a hundred of these companies are considering relocating to Berlin, according to the German government itself, and Paris also plans to host thousands of professionals from this sector from London. The diminished diversity due to the greater difficulty of movement will also be detrimental to the English capital.

And it is in this scenario that other destinations, such as Lisbon, can become a threat. In 2017, the city of seven hills managed to integrate for the first time the Startup Genome Report, a project that addresses the most dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystems - which, for Forbes, supports the city's "fast growth" thesis. Just last year, the technology industry managed to raise $ 350 million in venture capital and private equity investments have more than tripled since 2015 to $ 7 billion.

The Portuguese capital also seems to gather many arguments with the female audience. Lisbon has the highest percentage of women to start-up in Europe. According to the Women In Tech Index, Portugal is the EU country with the lowest wage discrepancy between the two genders when looking at the fintech set. In the same study, Portugal places itself alongside the United States and Latvia as a country that offers more opportunities for women to progress in technology.

Finally, there are similarities with San Francisco. The article echoes statements by former Portuguese Economy Minister Caldeira Cabral: "I think California is sunny and has a bridge like us. The idea we want to promote is that we also have a knowledge-based economy and a community of entrepreneurs that are in We is attracting them (start-ups) for many reasons: because we have a financing system, a very competitive tax framework for startups, but also for the quality of life that entrepreneurs find here. "