Global Startupcities Initiative

Our Mission "Global support to ANY entrepreneur & innovator ANYWHERE with the pioneer Global innovation Area". In 2022 during Unique Summit at StartupCity Braga, it was the official kick-off of the pioneer Global innovation Area which is divided into four continental bottom-up innovation Areas: America, Africa, Asia & Oceania, and Europe (our 1st pilot since 2020). Currently, the Global innovation Area has five Market iAreas (innovation Areas) as unique innovation spaces based on global startups calls, the local resources, and a pool of infrastructures between different StartupCities all over the world; StartupCity means new economic engine. The StartupCity concept is based on one ecosystem flagship per city and to interconnect their flagships in different strategic hubs. Background The Global StartupCities initiative was launched in 2018 with the aim of interconnecting innovation ecosystems outside the big hubs for accelerating new economic opportunities through the matchmaking between startups, investors, and corporates in Europe. The StartupCities are person-centred approach, based on entrepreneurs & innovators, as our key economic boosters. Since 2020, the initiative scaled-up for global level with the bottom-up European innovation Area as the umbrella and connector for boosting these new European business opportunities for any European entrepreneur in any continent. The Global StartupCities Summit is our annual main milestone, and it is known as Unique Summit, with the aim of being held annually in a different continent since 2024 (after global pandemic). After brought together in 2021, in Malaga, a total of 458 companies, investors and institutions from 20 European countries (a remarkable achievement in a pandemic context) to showcase their entrepreneurial ecosystems and to promote new business opportunities. In 2022, at Braga, above 800 people divided in more than: 40 ecosystems from all continents, 200 startups, 3 dozen investors, and 125 corporations.