A new Porto Business School report identifies six areas where Portugal can achieve global scale and five decisions needed to turn science and innovation into global companies that retain their headquarters, intellectual property and decision-making capabilities in the country. The next 12 to 24 months will be critical.
Read the full Deep Tech Portugal Outlook 2026 here.
Portugal already has the science, companies, talent and infrastructure needed to support a competitive deep tech ecosystem. The next challenge is turning that potential into globally scalable companies while ensuring that the value they create remains in the country.
This is one of the main conclusions of the Deep Tech Portugal Outlook 2026, developed by Porto Business School. The report examines the state of deep tech in Portugal, identifies the structural barriers to growth and highlights the areas where the country is best positioned to compete internationally.
According to the report, if key structural decisions are implemented over the next few years, Portugal could create two or three global deep tech champions by 2030, with their headquarters, intellectual property and decision-making capabilities remaining in the country.
Deep tech in Portugal: from scientific capability to global scale
Portugal has strengthened its position within Europe’s technology ecosystem. In 2025, deep tech-related funding in the country reached approximately €400 million, around three times its 2018 level.
However, Portugal still accounts for only around 2% of the capital invested in Europe. During the same year, the European deep tech market attracted $20.3 billion, compared with $144 billion in the United States.
Portugal’s opportunity is not to replicate the scale of the world’s largest markets. Instead, the country needs to concentrate resources in the areas where scientific expertise, industrial capabilities, geography and European demand intersect.
Companies such as TEKEVER, Sword Health, Feedzai, Critical Manufacturing and Neuraspace demonstrate Portugal’s ability to build technology businesses with international reach.
The biggest challenge tends to emerge after Series A, when domestic growth capital becomes scarce and the risk of an early sale or the relocation of headquarters, intellectual property and strategic decision-making increases.
“Portugal does not need to compete on every front. It needs to choose the areas where it has real assets and concentrate capital, talent and demand there. The goal is not simply to create technology; it is to keep companies, intellectual property and decision-making capabilities in the country.”
José Esteves, Dean of Porto Business School
Four structural barriers to growth
The Deep Tech Portugal Outlook 2026 identifies four structural barriers limiting Portugal’s ability to turn scientific knowledge into global businesses:
- A shortage of growth capital after Series A, limiting companies’ ability to scale from Portugal.
- Slow technology transfer, making it harder to move research from laboratories into the market.
- A shortage of STEM talent, at a time when countries are competing globally for highly skilled professionals.
- Limited use of public procurement as a first market, reducing opportunities to test, validate and scale Portuguese technology.
Without a coordinated response, Portugal risks continuing to create knowledge and companies that ultimately scale with their headquarters, intellectual property or strategic decision-making located elsewhere.
Six areas where Portugal can build global scale
Rather than spreading resources across a large number of sectors, the report calls for greater specialization and identifies six deep tech areas where Portugal has the potential to build competitive advantage:
- Space and the Atlantic
- Defense and dual-use technologies
- Artificial intelligence and language technologies
- Semiconductors, photonics and nanotechnology
- Health, biotechnology and medtech
- Blue economy, energy and green technologies
The six areas were selected using five criteria: existing scientific capabilities, European demand, Portugal-specific advantages, relevance to European sovereignty and the potential to reach meaningful scale within a ten-year horizon.
Talent: recognized quality, insufficient scale
Talent is both one of Portugal’s strongest competitive advantages and one of the greatest risks to the development of its deep tech ecosystem.
Portuguese engineering talent is internationally recognized, but the number of available professionals is no longer keeping pace with demand.
Around 84% of employers report difficulties finding talent, the third-highest figure worldwide. At the same time, PhDs in information and communication technologies represent only 2.2% of all doctorates, less than half the European target.
“More knowledge increases our potential to translate impact into competitiveness. Portugal’s challenge is to turn its scientific assets into a lasting economic advantage by building the capacity to convert innovation into more global companies through a set of essential foundations: talent, engineering, intellectual property and capital.”
Diogo Almeida Alves, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, Growth & Competitiveness at Porto Business School
Five decisions for the next 12 to 24 months
The Deep Tech Portugal Outlook 2026 goes beyond diagnosis by proposing an execution agenda for the next 12 to 24 months, supported by clear responsibilities, milestones and public indicators.
The report identifies six priorities:
- Launch a national scale-up financing vehicle, bringing together Banco Português de Fomento and institutional investors.
- Make the State a “Customer Zero” for Portuguese technology, starting with sectors such as defense, healthcare and state-owned companies.
- Standardize intellectual property and spin-out models across universities and research centers.
- Increase Portugal’s capacity to secure European funding.
- Publish an annual deep tech dashboard measuring what Portugal creates, retains and transfers in terms of headquarters, intellectual property, highly skilled employment and capital.
“This Outlook is a decision agenda with a clock attached. Europe’s window of opportunity, driven by rearmament, digital sovereignty and the AI race, is open now and it will not wait for Portugal. We either enter as owners or remain suppliers.”
Diogo Vieira da Silva, Head of Innovation X Hub at Porto Business School
Building global champions from Portugal
If these priorities move forward, the Deep Tech Portugal Outlook 2026 estimates that Portugal could create two or three global deep tech champions by 2030.
The ambition is not simply to increase the number of startups or the volume of investment. It is to build companies that can compete internationally while keeping the assets that determine long-term value creation in Portugal: headquarters, intellectual property, talent and strategic decision-making.
Developing deep tech in Portugal can therefore translate into more highly skilled jobs, greater reinvestment capacity, stronger value chains and increased competitiveness for the Portuguese economy.
The Deep Tech Portugal Outlook 2026 was developed by José Esteves, Dean of Porto Business School, Diogo Almeida Alves, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, Growth & Competitiveness, and Diogo Vieira da Silva, Head of Innovation X Hub.
Methodology
The analysis combines data from the European Deep Tech Report 2026, Startup Portugal × Dealroom, the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking 2026 and publicly available information from companies and institutions.
The national estimate is based on the triangulation of public data. The central scenario is €360 million, within an estimated range of €350 million to €450 million. Grants and debt are excluded from the scope of the analysis.