The reinforcement of CriteriaCaixa's commitment to venture capital, with 300 million euros earmarked for biotechnology, DeepTech and other advanced technologies companies in the Iberian Peninsula, should be read precisely like this — especially because Portugal is directly included in this strategy. The investment will focus on areas such as health, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, software, data infrastructures and science-based technologies, with special attention to early-stage companies, where many good Portuguese ideas find it more difficult to grow.

Portugal has already demonstrated that it can train engineers, researchers and entrepreneurs capable of developing competitive technology on an international scale. It has good universities, recognised research centres and an ecosystem of startups that, despite the size of the country, has already produced technological companies with global projection. The problem often arises later: creating a company is only the first step; Transforming it into an organisation with an international presence, intellectual property, skilled employment, and the ability to compete globally requires patient, specialised, and scalable capital.

This need is even more evident in the DeepTech universe. While a software company may start with relatively small resources, areas such as biotechnology, robotics, new materials, semiconductors, photonics or certain artificial intelligence solutions require years of research, equipment, laboratories, certifications and successive rounds of funding before they reach the market. Therefore, it is particularly positive to see Iberian institutional investors starting to look seriously at these areas: it is not just about financing startups, but about building an economic chain where universities, research, entrepreneurs, capital and industry work together.

Portugal is in an interesting position today. The traditional arguments of talent and quality of life are joined by new infrastructures, such as data centres, submarine cables, renewable capacity, investment in artificial intelligence and growing interest from large international technology companies. But we must be self-critical: it is not enough to celebrate every Portuguese startup that attracts international investment. It is necessary to ask how many can continue to grow from Portugal and keep research, qualified employment and decision-making capacity here. If we fund research, train talent and create technology, but then growth happens almost entirely outside the country, we lose an important part of the economic value that we helped to generate.

The real success will not only be to have more startups, but more Portuguese companies capable of reaching hundreds of millions or billions of euros in value while maintaining a solid base in Portugal. The 300 million now announced are, therefore, another sign of a greater change: the Iberian Peninsula is beginning to be seen not only as a destination for tourism, real estate or competitive services, but also as a territory where high-value-added technology can be born. Portugal has already proven that it can create good ideas; The next challenge is to ensure that it can also create the conditions for these ideas to become large companies.