The IC² Institute has spent thirty-five years creating and testing the infrastructure that supports a technology commercialization and wealth-creating culture. Professional and globally competitive infrastructure is critical to economic growth and sustainability over time. The Institute will focus on three primary organizations to build capacity in Portugal: an incubator, a technology commercialization center, and a business accelerator. The Institute’s goal is to achieve commercialization results, offer training and implementation programs for new entities if none exist and, more commonly, to strengthen or internationalize existing infrastructure.
This Portuguese-Global Innovation Hub for Technology Business Incubation and Acceleration in Austin – BIZ.pt – will be the first operation of its kind to focus on nurturing Portuguese early startups and mature technology companies to expand beyond the local market. This structure will foster cross-border Portugal-U.S. businesses and cover a broad range of technologies including health, ICT, energy, and nanotechnology. The outcomes of this initiative will be commercialization activities for Portugal as well as technology development, investment, and job creation. The IC² Institute will work closely with the Portugal Ventures initiative that merged three of the most representative Venture Capital and Private Equity state-backed firms. This will allow for the creation of “a new business landscape [in Portugal] with high export potential, globally competitive and well-positioned in the international value chains.” This will reinforce Portugal Ventures’ global strategic principle to invest in entrepreneurial projects with the potential do compete globally and to attract capital and international know-how.
BIZ.pt will bring these reinforcing elements to bear to create a robust program for moving Portuguese technologies into the U.S. and other global markets:
- Objective of BIZ.pt: nurturing Portuguese early startups and mature technology companies to expand beyond the local marketplace, with a special focus on the U.S. market, but also to the European, Asian, and South American markets. This hub will build on the existing networks where IC² Institute is involved through its international programs, e.g. South Korea, Chile, and others but tentatively also in strategic markets for Portugal such as in Europe, Brazil, and China.
- Outcomes: commercialization activities for Portugal as well as technology development, investment, and job creation.