There are sectors that receive media attention every day and others that evolve almost silently. The sea often belongs to this second category. Perhaps because we are so used to looking at the ocean as part of our landscape that we forget its economic potential. For this reason, the news of the Hub Azul Acceleration program deserves to be highlighted. Not only for the 18 international startups selected, but for what this project reveals about the positioning that Portugal can assume in the next decade.
Over the past few years I have written frequently about the transformation of the Portuguese economy through energy, data centres, artificial intelligence and technological innovation. However, there is one area where Portugal has a natural competitive advantage that remains, in many ways, underutilized: the blue economy.
With one of the largest exclusive economic zones in Europe, a privileged Atlantic location and a long maritime tradition, Portugal has all the conditions to be a world reference in innovation linked to the ocean. What was missing was to transform this geographical advantage into a technological and business advantage. That is precisely what is beginning to happen.
Hub Azul Acceleration brought 18 startups from various countries to Portugal, from the United States to Japan, from Finland to France and the United Kingdom. They did not just come to participate in an acceleration program. They came to develop projects, test technology, create business pilots and, above all, grow from Portugal.
This detail is perhaps the most important of all.
For many years we have become accustomed to exporting talent. Today we begin to see something different. We are importing innovation, knowledge and companies that choose Portugal as a development platform. It is a paradigm shift that deserves to be valued.
The examples are particularly interesting. We have companies developing fish through cell culture without the need for traditional fishing. Others use artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles to monitor marine biodiversity. Some work in the recycling of fishing equipment, transforming waste into new industrial materials. Others are dedicated to the early detection of diseases in aquaculture or the creation of autonomous navigation systems for vessels.
What unites all these initiatives is a common vision: to use technology to make the economy of the sea more efficient, more sustainable and more competitive.
And this is precisely the direction in which the world is heading.
At a time when food security, environmental sustainability and the management of natural resources are gaining strategic importance, the ocean is no longer just a physical space but a platform for global innovation. Whoever manages to develop solutions in this area will have access to huge international markets.
Portugal can play a very important role here.
Not just as a user of these technologies, but as a place where they are created, tested, and scaled. The work developed by Fórum Oceano and the Hub Azul Network shows that there is a strategy to connect universities, research centres, companies, investors and international startups around concrete challenges.
It is exactly this type of ecosystem that allows us to create lasting economic value.
We often talk about the need to diversify the Portuguese economy. We talk about the importance of increasing productivity, attracting investment and creating qualified jobs. All of this is present in this project. Each startup that chooses Portugal to develop its technology brings knowledge, international networks, investment capacity and opportunities to Portuguese researchers, engineers and companies.
But there is also a symbolic dimension that I consider important.
For decades, the sea was often associated with Portugal´s past. To our history, to the Discoveries and to national identity. Today a new narrative begins to emerge. The sea can once again be one of the great levers of the Portuguese future, not through the caravels, but through science, technology and innovation.
When we see startups valued at hundreds of millions of euros choosing Portugal as a starting point for their projects, we realize that something is changing. And when we observe investors, public institutions and companies working together to accelerate this transformation, we realize that this change does not happen by chance.
The challenge now is to ensure continuity. Because building a strong blue economy requires long-term vision, consistent investment and the ability to transform pilot projects into companies on an international scale.
If we manage to do so, Portugal will be able to assert itself not only as a country facing the sea, but as one of the most relevant European centres of ocean innovation.
And perhaps this is one of the most promising and least discussed economic opportunities of the coming years.

NEWS, Economy, Technology