Meet our partner and member Gil Azevedo
Who are you, Gil Azevedo?
I am currently the Head of Unicorn Factory Lisboa, the city’s flagship initiative to position Lisbon as a leading innovation hub internationally.
I was born and raised in Lisbon, Portugal.
I have an engineering degree from Instituto Superior Técnico. Later on, I did an MBA at Columbia University in New York, USA.
For 10 years, I worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Co., a global strategic consulting firm.
In 2011, I decided to go to the Middle East, to work for Emirates NBD Group, a local Bank in UAE. It has been a fantastic experience in terms of development, growth and impact.
In my role, I was the go to person to turnaround business areas or create new products, or new units. My areas of focus started with Strategy and ended with digital, customer intelligence, customer experience, as well as marketing and communication.
Focusing on how to better serve the customers, we turned a local bank, in loss and behind competition, into one the most innovative, fast growing and largest retail banks in the region.
In 2022 I decided to come back to Portugal and leverage my experience to drive impact in my country . This is when I took the lead of Unicorn Factory Lisboa.
What has been driving you and drives you through your journey?
I'm a person that is very driven by impact. Impact in the sense of having a strong contribution to something relevant.
So my past career as a consultant for ten years was about helping companies, solving problems or taking advantage of opportunities.
My main topics were related to transformation, changing something that's not working well into something performing well, or creating something from zero and making it significant.
This is my passion. I am driven by creating value and impact.
Over the past 2.5 years, we significantly grew our activity. And still today, I wake up wondering how we can develop, with the Unicorn Factory Lisboa, one of the largest and fastest growing ecosystems internationally?
What is Unicorn Factory’s mission and what sort of impact does it have?
Unicorn Factory is a non profit organization with the mission to develop the local innovation ecosystem and help founders to start and scale their business ideas. It’s a partnership between the city and the private sector.
This project started in 2012 as a partnership between the city and the private sector to incubate early stage startups.
In 2022, the concept of Unicorn Factory Lisboa was born with the current Mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas. He impulsed a new ambition “to position Lisbon as one of the main cities for innovation in Europe”. I took the lead to launch and develop this initiative, inspired by this ambition, driving innovation as one of the main growth engines for the city and country..
Unicorn Factory Lisboa is designed as an ecosystem enabler.
The ambition is to create a space for every stage of entrepreneurship (from inspiring the youth to help early and growth stage startups) with all the ecosystems involved around, investors, experts, mentors and corporations.
We are driven by questions such as:
. How can we infuse the entrepreneurial mindset in the youth minds?
. How can we attract bigger investors?
. How can we attract foreign talent, more senior experts, and entrepreneurs that can make a difference?
We want to grow this ecosystem to a point that can really be as relevant as much larger cities in driving innovation, like London, Paris or Barcelona
Why does creating this enabling ecosystem matter to you?
Creativity and innovation are 2 strong drivers for me and are incredibly important for the societyAnd since I'm a strong believer in strategy linked with ambition, I believe that with the right plan magic can happen.
My previous experience has also played a very important role in the success of Unicorn Factory Lisboa. It gave me the mindset of creating something that can be relevant at scale with a lasting impact.
What would you like to have achieved 5 years from now?
To know where we want to go, I like to look at where we were 3 years ago.
Our organization supported 50 new startups until 2022. In 2024 alone, we supported over 250 new startups and scaleups. Not only have we increased exponentially the number of startups supported, but also the maturity. Also in 2024, we launched a network of 5 innovation hubs as well as 8 new youth entrepreneurship programs.
When we look at Lisbon’s innovation ecosystem, it was worth 20 billion USD in 2023, surpassing for example Milan for the 1st time.
Both the city and Unicorn Factory Lisboa’s growth shows the attractiveness of Lisbon and Portugal. It’s incredible to bring Portuguese and expats’ innovators and allow them to develop their projects.
So the ambition is to grow the ecosystem, to enable the local and attract international talent to have a positive impact on the Portugal ecosystem.
Is the ambition to export the influence of innovation, creativity, businesses beyond Portugal as well?
Indeed. Our ecosystem in order to become truly relevant at international scale has to connect with other geographies and join efforts with other ecosystem enablers. European markets are very fragmented when it comes to innovation. The creation of international bridges will benefit startups, having access to more markets, it will benefit companies having access to innovation across more markets, and it will benefit the investors having access to more opportunities.
With this approach, we aim to position Lisbon amongst the top 10 cities for a founder who wants to establish its growth and influence. That’s why we found it extremely relevant to create Bridges.
Is this what made you become a Redbridge partner? And what makes this community special to you?
Indeed, our visions are aligned.
We want to build and leverage bridges that offer our stakeholders (startups, companies, investors, talent) a fast track access to other international ecosystems.
If startups aim to grow to the US, to the UK, to France or Brazil, we want to be able to connect them to local contacts and resources. And equally, for startups from other ecosystems, we want them to see Lisbon as an attractive hub to expand their operations to the European market, to South America, or Africa.
It’s a two way bridge.
As such, Redbridge is a fantastic bridge to connect and to develop our ecosystem.
The Redbridge community is a very strong and diverse group of accomplished individuals that represent different countries, different cultures, different backgrounds.
And I've seen that our visions are very aligned in creating this international network of ecosystems.
What was your Redbridge moment?
In October 2023, with RedBridge, I went to San Francisco and promoted the Portuguese ecosystem. I met people with incredible backgrounds interested in being part of this bridge.
By coincidence, recently I met two Redbridge members to discuss creating a bridge to India, which is a market that is significantly bigger than the majority of the markets the Portuguese startups typically go to.
And likewise there's a very strong opportunity for us to help Indian startups that want to expand to Europe, South America or Africa, as I mentioned earlier.
So these are the types of connections that we truly believe that being part of the Redbridge community can help everyone.
Redbridge connects people and allows them to create something together.
Redbridge is an incredible partner to Unicorn Factory Lisboa because we can generate a lot of these connection opportunities and win-win situations.
Redbridge connects people, ideas and cultures between California and Portugal. What do you think Californians could find in Portugal specifically?
Portugal is a Welcoming Environment with a high Quality of Life:
In terms of location, in terms of culture, in terms of safety & well being, Portugal definitely stands out on these aspects compared to other countries. People say they feel good here on a day to day basis.
The basic needs are fulfilled, there is an opportunity to collaborate and create, and feel welcomed, which is a rarity these days.
- It has a rich cultural heritage, vibrant lifestyle, and fulfillment of basic needs.
- The Portuguese population speaks good English. It’s a land of migration hence it is adaptable to different cultures.
- Portugal remains secure and friendly amidst global conflicts.
Portugal is a reserve of talent with high level of Education:
One of the reasons why Portugal grew significantly was the availability of highly-educated talent and its attractivity.
Being a small country helps in that sense.
- Lisbon ranks 3rd in Europe for new engineering graduates.
- It’s easy to attract and integrate international talent, creating a robust talent pool.
- The country maintains affordability and authenticity, compared with other international Capitals, enhancing its appeal for living and working.
Portugal is an interesting and rich Business Ecosystem and Innovation:
- We have strong support infrastructures for businesses with investors, mentors, experts, and opportunities.
- Lisbon was awarded the European Capital of Innovation by the European Union in 2024 proving the impact of the Unicorn Factory Lisboa and the relevance of our ecosystem.
- The Redbridge community demonstrates this richness with its members’ quality (investors, experts, mentors, senior executives of large companies, international entrepreneurs…)
As such, we have everything in our favor to be a true international ecosystem.
What are the three key ideas that you want the Redbridge community to get out of this conversation?
First, Connect!
We are here to connect, to find joint opportunities that we can benefit from the background of each Redbridge member, but also we can give access to the ecosystem of this local innovative community.
Second, let’s brainstorm.
How can we work together in creating bridges? Redbridge members have a reach beyond California and the US. So, what initiatives can we work together in the areas of youth, of startups in their early stage scale ups in their expansion expertise, corporate connections, how can we do initiatives together?
So we are completely open to discuss and brainstorm how we could make a bridge that will be significant and relevant for the city with the Redbridge Members.
Third, get involved!
I think if you are a founder of a startup, get connected. We have a number of programs that can help you. If you are an investor, get involved, because now we have, we support over 250 startups per year. So there's a very strong, strong portfolio that can be of interest for investors. If you have a desire to be a mentor, connect with us, as you can make a difference too!
