Porto is Critical Software's best location

Critical Software history begins in 1998, in Coimbra. Almost twenty years later, the success story continues to be told with a slightly different utterance, Porto style, in the words of the company's CEO, Gonçalo Quadros, "with energy, ambition and creativity".

According to Critical Software's CEO, "Porto has an increasingly strong technological DNA, bringing together all the essential factors - material and human, lifestyle, energy and youth to seduce and contaminate the most qualified talents. And that's what we'll be working for. Because if Porto is already a prominent engineering exporter, it will be even more so in the future".

Critical Software is one of the most important software companies in the world. Its client portfolio includes the United Kingdom Armed Forces, north-American NASA, the  European Agency ESA, Chinese Agency CNSA and Japanese Agency JAXA, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, EDP (Energias de Portugal) and the Bank of New York. 

Policy and environment for attracting investment are key when running a city like Porto, where there is a "technological DNA more capable of fostering competencies, of creating and promoting skills", according to Gonçalo Quadros.

Critical Software's new office space in the city centre is divided in five floors that cover an area of 1,800 m2. Its highly skilled workforce comprises 150 professionals in the areas of Information and Communication Technologies and Engineering. 

NASA was the company's first customer and has since been a constant partner in more than 20 space missions, including the recent Exomars mission. While Made in Portugal, Critical Software is truly global, operating in major world markets and working with clients such as Siemens and Airbus. Their software is literally everywhere, including in space.

The Secretary of State for Industry, João Vasconcelos, said that "Porto welcomes these urban industries always with the support of the Mayor" and is able, at the same time to "be the best tourist destination in Europe and also a destination for sophisticated investments based on knowledge and on innovation."

"I have just arrived from London, where I had several meetings with technological companies and investors and Porto is on everyone's radar. I saw that", affirmed the Secretary of State for Industry, and "tourism plays an important role in this, because people and investors worldwide are aware that this is an investment-friendly city where people feel good and it is safe", concluded João Vasconcelos.

Rui Moreira, Mayor of Porto, also attended the opening and declared that "Investment attraction is one of the strategic vectors of a governmental programme that I have set a few years ago. Today we can say that Porto is a city that assertively positions itself in a European league of locations for technological investments of high added value, whether initiated by increasingly dynamic local entrepreneurs or by outside companies".

The Mayor concluded by saying that "for some, the EBD award appears to be a touristic thing, not connected with anything", but "cities rediscover themselves and people rediscover cities trough these instruments".