Finland’s defence-technology companies in Portugal and the Portuguese firms that want to work with them meet tonight in Guimarães. The Portugal–Finland Defence and Innovation dinner-debate (Jantar-Debate Portugal–Finlândia sobre Defesa e Inovação) starts at 19:00 on Wednesday, 28 October, at MIT Penha, according to the business association AEMinho, which is promoting it with Sterling Prime Consulting. The evening closes the Guimarães Economy Month 2026. On the programme are General Sérgio Pereira, Chief of Staff of the Portuguese Air Force, and Christian Lindholm, Finland’s ambassador to Portugal, followed by a business panel that puts the Portuguese units of two Finnish companies, ICEYE and Nokia, next to two Portuguese defence suppliers.
Who is on the panel
The four panellists are Rui Costa, chief executive of ICEYE Portugal; Roberto Yustos, head of sales at Nokia Defense; João Pedro Mortágua, head of defence at Critical Software; and Mário Martinho, co-founder and chief commercial officer of Baseyard. Ana Marcela, editor at ECO and executive director of its defence and technology vertical eRadar, moderates. AEMinho lists secure communications, cybersecurity, satellites, drones, autonomous systems and solutions for critical infrastructure and emergency response as the topics, all of them dual-use technologies with both civil and military applications. The stated aim is to combine Finland’s experience in defence and technology with the knowledge of the Portuguese armed forces and the capacity of Portuguese companies.
The format is a dinner rather than a conference. Dinner is served at 20:00, with welcome remarks at 21:15, the keynote at 21:30, the debate at 22:00 and the close at 23:30. Registration is through AEMinho, with a reduced rate for its members.
Finland’s defence footprint in Portugal
The Air Force chief’s presence reflects the closest of these relationships. ICEYE, the Espoo-based maker of synthetic-aperture radar satellites, builds radar satellites for the Air Force’s Atlantic constellation, and two more ICEYE-built satellites joined it this month. Its Portuguese company, led by Rui Costa, runs a centre of excellence in Lisbon. Nokia has major engineering centres in Alfragide (Amadora) and Aveiro and this month launched a joint innovation programme with MEO; its Nokia Defense unit sells secure and tactical networks to armed forces. ECO reported on 23 October that Ukraine wants to develop sovereign satellite communications with Nokia and ICEYE. The political track is also active: foreign minister Paulo Rangel visited Helsinki on 5 October and agreed with his Finnish counterpart to strengthen strategic and commercial cooperation.
The Portuguese side of the table
The two Portuguese panellists come from companies in different situations. Critical Software, the Coimbra-founded engineering firm that has signed a memorandum of understanding with Saab around a possible Gripen E industrial package for Portugal, said this week that it is rebuilding itself around artificial intelligence. “We are refounding the company. There is a before and after artificial intelligence,” co-founder and chairman Gonçalo Quadros told the Lusa news agency on 27 October, the day it opened a new headquarters in central Coimbra. According to the report, the company is moving away from pure software towards technology and engineering. Baseyard is newer. It plans a defence and dual-use industrial hub in Braga, founded by Latvian businessman Olegs Jakovlevs, with more than €20 million of investment, operations due to start in the last quarter of 2026, about 30 staff at first and up to around 200 by 2029, according to ECO as reported by O Minho. Its focus is autonomous and uncrewed systems, robotics, electronics, communications, AI and detection systems for the European market.
Why it matters for the corridor
Finland is one of the few Nordic countries whose defence companies already have a working base in Portugal rather than just a sales office, and the Air Force is the customer that ties them together. For Finnish suppliers, the north of Portugal offers engineering talent, an industrial base around Braga and Guimarães, and a growing number of local firms trying to enter defence supply chains. For Portuguese companies, an evening like this is a low-cost way to meet the Finnish players already present and the military customer in one room, at a time when Portugal’s defence spending is rising under the EU’s SAFE loan programme.
What to watch
Further ICEYE satellites for the Atlantic constellation and any Portuguese participation in Nokia Defense projects are the obvious follow-ups. The AICEP aerospace and defence mission to Sweden on 17–18 November is the next Nordic defence event for Portuguese firms. Nordic companies operating in Portugal are listed in the directory of Nordic companies in Portugal, and Portuguese exporters selling into the region are in the directory of Portuguese companies in the Nordics.
Sources: AEMinho / IOL, “Defesa e inovação juntam Portugal e Finlândia em Guimarães” (23 October 2026); Notícias de Coimbra / Lusa, “Inteligência artificial está a obrigar a Critical Software a refundar-se” (27 October 2026); O Minho, Baseyard investment in Braga (27 September 2026); ECO, “Ucrânia quer desenvolver comunicações soberanas por satélite com Nokia e ICEYE” (23 October 2026).