Hello everyone, and welcome back,
The new 2025 Entrepreneurial Universities Ranking is a milestone in how we measure higher education’s impact in Portugal. How a nation’s universities are valued has long been determined by their research output, academic standing or global rankings. Today, the model is moving: how many startups come out of their halls, how much investment those companies attract and what enterprise value they provide to our economy.
Topping this year’s ranking is Universidade de Lisboa (ULisboa) with an impressive 1.292 alumni-founded startups, of which 326 have raised investment and a total combined enterprise value of 30B. Both of these are not just statistical wins; it signals the scale at which Portugal’s largest university is shaping entrepreneurial talent. Close behind, Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP) and Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA) demonstrate that entrepreneurial excellence is not confined to size. UCP’s 807 startups and NOVA’s 760 highlight how diverse academic environments are contributing to Portugal’s innovation narrative.
Honestly, this isn’t news to us. We’ve seen this firsthand, founders telling us their classrooms were the real launchpads and we've been talking about it for a while. Earlier this year, we brought in Luis Lamy, a student who made the leap from the classroom to the startup world to tell his story. He made it clear: “entrepreneurial university” isn’t just a buzzword. It’s real. Classrooms can become launchpads. Students turn into founders. And when these founders go out there, they carry their university’s reputation everywhere they go. By sharing stories like Luis’s, we’re proving that this ranking isn’t just a list of numbers. It’s about ambition. It’s about people deciding to build something new.
Startup Portugal unveiled its latest university ranking at Web Summit 2025, using data from its Ecosystem Mapping Platform (Dealroom) and direct input from the schools themselves. It’s a big moment, Portugal’s top tech event shining a light on the institutions that help launch the country’s founders. But there’s something telling hidden in the numbers: only 13 universities even bothered to send in their data. That’s a red flag. Are these schools really ready to put entrepreneurship at the heart of what they do, or are they just not paying attention?
So why does any of this really matter? Because universities aren’t just places to sit through lectures, they’re where big dreams start. When a graduate’s startup goes global, it’s not just their win; it’s a win for their university, too. A unicorn out of ULisboa doesn’t just make headlines, it puts the school on the map and gets future students excited about what’s possible.
For the ecosystem, this ranking is both a celebration and a challenge. Celebration, because it validates the maturity of Portugal’s startup scene: founders are no longer isolated dreamers but products of structured environments. Challenge, because it demands that universities across the country step up. Entrepreneurial education cannot be an optional add-on; it must be embedded into every course, supported by incubators, and celebrated as much as academic research.
As Portugal positions itself on the global innovation map, the role of universities will be decisive. The 2025 ranking is more than a scoreboard, it is a mirror reflecting how knowledge is being transformed into companies, jobs, and economic value. The next step is clear: ensuring that every university, from Algarve to Minho, sees entrepreneurship not as a side effect but as a defining mission.
