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The Fórum Oceano – Portuguese Blue Economy Cluster will provide digital integration services for the Japanese blue start-up ecosystem, led by the Marine Open Innovation Institute (MaOI), into the Hub Azul Dealroom investment database.
To accelerate Luso-Japanese maritime business, this initiative will be integrated with a blue start-up exchange program between Portugal and Japan, carried out in cooperation with Fórum Oceano and MaOI.
This initiative was announced during the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation in the Blue Economy between Fórum Oceano and MaOI, held at Business2Sea 2025 in Matosinhos on 24–25 November, organized by Fórum Oceano with support from the Municipality of Matosinhos and the Port of Douro and Leixões Administration (APDL).
The Hub Azul Dealroom is a digital platform connecting investors and entrepreneurs in the blue economy. Managed by Fórum Oceano in partnership with Dealroom under the Hub Azul Portugal project funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan, the platform currently lists 2,600 start-ups and 6,000 investment funds, alongside ports, marinas, universities, and accelerators in the maritime sector.
“This collaboration between Fórum Oceano and MaOI is of great significance for the Portuguese blue economy, as it positions the Hub Azul Portugal Network as a global center for scalable investment projects. Portugal, through Fórum Oceano, providing this digital investment intelligence service to one of the world’s most sophisticated markets, Japan, is a major milestone in solidifying our goal: to make Portugal the primary dealroom for monetizing the blue economy”, said Ruben Eiras, Secretary-General of Fórum Oceano.