Tech Odyssey Series: From Portugal to China, a New Conversation Begins

In the previous episode of Tech Odyssey, we visited Startup Braga to see how a former police building became a startup hub with global ambitions. For the season finale, we speak with AICEP, Portugal’s trade and investment agency and the series’ co-producer, about what might come next for technology cooperation between Portugal and China.

“Have you been to Portugal?”

A friend from Singapore put that question to Dr. Gang Lu, Founder and CEO of TechNode Group and Co-founder of BEYOND, during a chance encounter in Thailand, two weeks before the recording of the Tech Odyssey season finale.

He had watched the series. Now, he was seriously considering expanding his business into Portugal.

It was an unexpected connection: a programme exploring Portugal’s technology sector had reached someone elsewhere in Asia and prompted him to look at a market he might otherwise have overlooked.

That was part of what AICEP hoped to achieve through the series. For Luís Costa, director of AICEP Shanghai and Portugal’s Economic and Commercial Counsellor in China, the exchange also worked in the other direction. The Portuguese founders featured in the programme had an opportunity to learn more about China.

“We are bringing China to them,” Costa said, “and hopefully they’ll eventually consider China when they go overseas.”

Helping Companies Find Their Next Market

AICEP is Portugal’s public trade and investment agency, operating under the Ministry of Economy. Its work runs in two directions: helping Portuguese companies expand internationally and attracting foreign investment into Portugal.

For Costa’s team in China, that means supporting Portuguese businesses exploring the Chinese market while engaging with Chinese companies interested in investing or producing in Portugal.

There is also a broader task: building confidence.

Costa wants prospective investors and buyers to see Portugal as a reliable country to do business with. Making that case requires more than a national introduction. Companies need people who understand the market they are entering.

Francisco Catalão, a former member of AICEP’s board, described an overseas network spanning more than 50 markets, with teams of different sizes depending on local needs and existing business ties.

Those representatives serve as local points of contact for Portuguese companies. A business considering Shanghai, for example, can turn to Costa and his team for knowledge of the commercial environment and help making connections.

For Catalão, that local expertise is central to the network’s value. A company may have a product ready for export, but finding the right partners and understanding how a new market operates require a different kind of preparation.

A Broader Picture of Portugal

Portugal’s wine, food and traditional industries are familiar to international audiences. Its technology companies are often less visible.

Costa saw Tech Odyssey as an opportunity to broaden that picture: to show founders developing new products, universities supporting emerging businesses, and institutions helping ideas reach the market.

One characteristic stood out throughout the series: Portuguese startups tend to think internationally early in their development.

Costa described founders considering overseas customers, partners and sources of capital almost from the outset. International expansion becomes part of how they build the company, rather than a decision reserved for a later stage.

Catalão placed those businesses within a wider economy that combines established export industries with newer areas of research and development. Alongside agriculture, wine and food, he highlighted pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and the blue economy, including technologies linked to the ocean.

Across the season, that range became tangible through visits to companies working on spatial audio, smart urban infrastructure, rehabilitation equipment and environmental monitoring. Together, they offered a more detailed view of what Portuguese technology businesses are building—and where they hope to sell it.

Where Could Portugal and China Work Together?

Asked which sectors Chinese companies should look at more closely, Costa pointed first to medical and health technology.

In his view, the potential for partnerships and investment in those fields deserves greater attention. He highlighted Portugal’s engineers, university network and research capabilities, along with incentives available to companies willing to invest and produce in the country.

“Personally, I see health tech as a big opportunity” for Chinese companies, he said.

The conversation also turned to hardware. China’s capabilities in hardware development and manufacturing were familiar territory for Lu. What surprised him during the trip was the number of Portuguese businesses working on physical products and related technologies.

Costa agreed that there was scope to explore partnerships. The pace of business in Portugal may differ from that in cities such as Shenzhen, but companies can still find shared commercial interests.

That is where AICEP’s role becomes practical: helping businesses identify potential partners and develop those initial conversations.

Making the Case for Portugal

For a Chinese company considering production in Europe, the decision involves several questions at once: access to talent, location, logistics, energy, operating conditions and the economics of the investment.

Costa pointed to Portugal’s connections with other European markets and its Atlantic-facing position in relation to the Americas and Africa. He also highlighted the country’s high share of renewable electricity generation.

Portugal’s openness to foreign investment was another part of his pitch.

“We want more Chinese companies to continue investing in Portugal and making partnerships with Portuguese companies,” he said.

In discussions with Chinese investors, Costa finds that many of the factors AICEP presents match what businesses are looking for: a smooth process, ease of doing business and a workable balance of costs and returns.

Those considerations give companies reasons to investigate further. Whether a particular project makes sense will ultimately depend on its own requirements, partners and commercial case.

From One Article to a Full Season

The idea behind this season began on a much smaller scale.

Costa recalled a first meeting three years earlier, when the discussion centred on a single article introducing Portugal. AICEP would provide material, and TechNode would select the stories most relevant to its audience.

That proposal eventually became a web series built around four days of visits to Portuguese cities, universities, incubators, investors and technology companies.

For Costa, the resulting programmes have value beyond their initial release. Available on platforms including Bilibili, YouTube and LinkedIn, they create a record that future audiences can return to when looking for an introduction to Portugal’s innovation ecosystem.

The encounter in Thailand offered one small indication of how those stories might travel. A viewer in Singapore had watched the programme and begun considering Portugal as a place to expand his business.

Costa hopes Portuguese founders will make a similar discovery in the other direction—that seeing and hearing from China will encourage them to consider a market outside their existing plans.

The season ends with that possibility still open. The visits are over, but the companies, technologies and people encountered along the way give viewers somewhere concrete to begin their next conversation.