ANNOUNCEMENT

GKN AUTOMOTIVE opens a Global Business Centre in Porto

January 2021

GKN Automotive Group announced the opening of a Global Business Service (GBS) centre based in Porto, Portugal. The GBS will focus on delivering efficient and enhanced, digitally enabled processes.

The GBS team is working closely with other GKN Automotive sites, providing Finance, Procurement, HR and Sales Order Management services, enabled by new technologies.

The GKN Automotive is further strengthening its presence in Portugal by establishing an IT centre of competence in Porto, benefiting from synergies with its GBS operation.

iMovo Limited establishes a presence in Portugal

December 2020

iMovo Limited, Malta-based company, a digitalisation and customer experience solutions provider, announced that it is establishing a presence in Lisbon, Portugal. This investment will allow the company to further develop and strengthen its international business segment. Prior to this new venture, approximately a third of iMovo’s revenue was derived from its customer base in markets such as the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and the Middle East.

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EXPANSION

ALTRAN: 5G Lab-as-a-Service sets up in Portugal

December 2020

French engineering consultancy firm Altran has launched a 5G Lab and a 5G Lab-as-a-Service (LaaS) to serve telecom companies, enterprises, equipment makers and startups. It is also planning a 5G industrial lab. Its lab in Fundão, Portugal, will help developers validate different solutions coming from the telecom ecosystem and different network hardware and software platforms.

The Altran 5G lab will provide a prototyping, design, development, testing and validation environment for new network virtualization and 5G deployments. The lab also offers demonstration platform capabilities that simulate scenarios and showcase solutions for proofs of concepts and pilots, along with a 5G Industry Applications Incubator.

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Webhelp opens two new offices in Portugal

December 2020

The Webhelp Group has just announced the opening of two new offices in Portugal, namely in the cities of Lisbon and Braga, which will result in the creation of 500 new jobs, about 300 in its new space in Braga and the remaining 200 in Lisbon. The French multinational has already invested more than 8 million euros since it launched in Portugal in 2015, where it currently employs 2,000 people. In 2021, the company will have four offices in the country.

According to Carlos Moreira, CEO of Webhelp Portugal, the opening of these two new offices shows the Group’s confidence in the country: "Portugal is one of the best destinations worldwide to implement multilingual hubs. The quality of our human resources and work processes, combined with an excellent technological infrastructure, allows us to attract more and more customers," explains the CEO of the company in Portugal.

For Vincent Bernard, Group Managing Director Operations, CEO Southern Europe & Middle East Africa: "The opening of these new sites in Lisbon and Braga shows the strong and sustainable growth of Webhelp in Portugal. We owe it to an excellent recruitment capacity, with talented people with solid training and professional experience. The development of these multilingual hubs allows our group to increase its production capacity in Portugal to meet the needs of our international clients. This is a great symbol of the success of our choice of location in Portugal and the perfect operational translation of the support we have always received from the different Portuguese authorities and institutions for our development.”

INNOVATION

Champalimaud Foundation has declared war against pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is not only one of the most fulminating and deadliest types of cancer; recently, the prevalence of this disease has significantly increased. Experts around the world recognize the urgency for researchers and doctors to come together to develop new treatments and early diagnostic methods for this disease. The Botton-Champalimaud Pancreatic Cancer Centre, in Lisbon, will soon join this global effort. It will be “the first in the world simultaneously dedicated to research and treatment of this disease”, says the Champalimaud Foundation.

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Amyris and a Portuguese University use sugarcane ashes to make Beauty a sustainable sector

A partnership between Amyris and Universidade Católica Portuguesa resulted in an important milestone: the first plant-derived silica extracted from sugarcane with application in the cosmetic industry. Besides being welcomed in the market, this pioneering ingredient meets the principals of sustainable development and circular economy.

Sustainable biosilica is obtained from sugarcane ash from the burning of by-products of the sugar-based energy generation industry. It proved to be a sustainable and better performing alternative to traditional silica, which is extracted from sand, a resource that undergoes intense exploitation.

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DID YOU KNOW?

Portugal: 3rd Best Expat Destination Worldwide

According to the Expat Insider 2019 survey, Portugal offers excellent quality of life (1st worldwide) and a "relaxed lifestyle".

More than 70% of respondents considered they feel "at home" in Portugal and that the local attitude towards foreign residents is very good. Survey respondents considered “very likely” that they would recommend expat life in Portugal to a friend or colleague.

Moreover, for the third year in a row (4th in 2019), Portugal ranks among the top 5 expat destinations where it is easy to settle in.

Expat Insider is one of the world's largest and most comprehensive surveys on life abroad. More than 20,000 survey respondents shared their insights into expat life in 2019 in 64 destinations around the world.

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WHAT COMPANIES SAY

“We are very proud of the recent opening of our 4th innovation center in Portugal, this time in the city of Portalegre.

Softinsa was one of the first global companies that started the concept of IT nearshoring in Portugal, with the creation of our first center in 2013 in Tomar. Our current Innovation Centers in Tomar and Viseu and the latest specialized Laboratories of Fundão and Portalegre contribute to the development of the inner regions where they are located, especially through projects related to Cloud, Smarter Cities and Urban Mobility, enabling us to build strong partnerships with polytechnic institutes and universities in these locations. This synergy has been ensuring adequate training of specialized resources, attracting and retaining the best talents into these regions.

We currently have a team of more than 1.000 professionals, specialized in different skills and technologies, which ensure coverage of national and international clients’ technology needs. This rapid growth has only been possible thanks to the countless technology implementation projects that we have been delivering worldwide from these centers.”

- Sérgio Pereira, General Manager, Softinsa, IBM subsidiary, at the opening of the 4th Innovation Centre in Portugal

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