Welcome to the Age of Deeptech. Is Portugal ready?
In a recent conversation, I was talking about the importance of partnering with one US organization to help develop the university biotech ecosystem in Portugal, and I was challenged: Why do we need to establish a university biotech ecosystem in Portugal? Why now?
Here’s my attempt at answering both questions:
In 2010, I was lucky to be in the right place at the right moment. I was lucky to be at the very start of the Portuguese Startup Ecosystem, where a group in Porto gathered around the idea of building startups from Portugal to the World.
We didn’t know much. The alternatives were not super appealing. We started to come together and develop the first meetups, hackathons, pre-accelerators, and accelerators with the hope that great startups would come out of it. Today’s Portuguese Startup Ecosystem results from those early attempts without much support or fanfare.
But an (eco)system evolves. What was true back then is no longer valid. What worked back then doesn’t work anymore.
A system is a set of things — people, cells, molecules, or whatever — interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time.”
― Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer
Back in 2011, even though the internet had been around for many years, businesses were finally coming online. Products and services were being digitalized. New platforms like AWS allowed businesses to be created without high setup costs. The App Store (iPhone and iPad) created a whole new market with specific needs. And Facebook and Google Ads allowed global and cheap distribution like never before.
In a nutshell, there were lots of low-hanging fruit for digitalization, setup costs were very low, and distribution was possible on a global scale. What we didn’t have in the Portuguese Startup Ecosystem was money (and know-how). Venture Capital didn’t exist, angel investors were a few. Imagine what we could have done with money.
Since those early days, the Portuguese Startup Ecosystem has been unrecognizable. It grew in size and value, created some fantastic successes, attracted money from around the world, and became a driver of the Portuguese economy.
But like I said before, ecosystems evolve, and we need to listen to what they say.
“We can’t impose our will on a system. We can listen to what the system tells us, and discover how its properties and our values can work together to bring forth something much better than could ever be produced by our will alone.”
― Donella H. Meadows, Thinking In Systems: A Primer
Over the past few years, I felt restless when thinking about the Portuguese Startup Ecosystem.
I see new startups being created, but not as many as once before.
I don’t see much of an ecosystem anymore. Founders are focusing on themselves (I don’t blame them), organizations promoting the ecosystem's growth are mainly state-owned, and we don’t have a grassroots movement propelling the ecosystem.
And we are using the “recipes” from 2012/2013 to promote the growth of the Portuguese Startup Scene, but the reality couldn’t be more different.
On top of that, the low-hanging fruit is gone. Building a startup in 2024 is HARD.
We are now entering the Age of Deeptech.
Deeptech encompasses a range of technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, blockchain, advanced material science, biotechnology, and quantum computing.
2023 was the year of AI Infrastructure. What we saw in 2023 was a focus on building the railroads of AI.
If we look at the Perez Technological Surge Cycle, which describes the typical progression of technological revolutions, I believe we are at a Late Frenzy Stage.
AI has already experienced a period of intense investment, innovation, and speculation, characteristic of the Frenzy phase. There’s been a rush to apply AI in various domains, from healthcare to finance, often with mixed results. This has led to both excitement about potential applications and concerns about issues like ethics, job displacement, and security.
Going back to my point. The future of startup ecosystems around the world will be deeptech. It will be building AI and Blockchain infrastructure and applications. It will be biotech and Techbio. It will be robotics and quantum computing.
To my knowledge, Portugal has no competitive advantage in AI, robotics, and quantum computing.
But I believe we have a fertile ground for biotech. We have the talent. We have good research happening in Universities and Polytechnic Institutes across the country, and we have some successful cases of translating research into businesses.
But once again, what we don’t have is money.
Researchers and Universities don’t have money to file patents in the markets that matter and pay the maintenance fees. Without patents, most research becomes worthless.
Researchers and Universities don’t have money for “validation in the relevant environment,” most research never goes beyond TRL4 if it ever gets there.
Without money, researchers, especially recent Ph.D. Graduates and Post-Docs don’t feel safe exploring entrepreneurship as a career path. A lot of times, they leave behind academia for a job in a completely different area, wasting all the investment made in their education.
I won’t dwell more on the problems of Scientific Research in Portugal. There are many, and they are well-known.
Going back to my initial questions: Why do we need to establish a university biotech ecosystem in Portugal? Why now?
I believe that the future of the Portuguese Startup Ecosystem lies in successfully building startups that result from the translation of research from academia to market.
If we are serious about building a strong portuguese startup ecosystem and increasing Portugal’s overall competitiveness, we need to be serious about the strategies we implement to support Biotech Ventures and Founders. They require significant capital and time to move from concept to market, and our strategy should be about attracting capital and the best people and funding them. Nothing more.
For my part, in 2024, I want to dedicate some of my time to supporting and advising grassroots movements interested in building the university biotech ecosystem. This is the first step to a larger Biotech Portuguese Startup Ecosystem.
I’ll also keep calling attention and advocating for more money to be directed to translational research. With elections coming up, it’s time for a serious discussion about the competitiveness of our economy. From my point of view, our options are limited, and biotech should be considered.
