Lisbon's Code For All Lands 19th on Time's Global Ranking of the Best Edtech Companies

A Portuguese company has broken into the upper reaches of a global ranking of education-technology firms, giving the country a rare foothold in a sector dominated by American, Brazilian and Indian names. Code For All, a Lisbon-based startup that trains people for careers in software and digital skills, has been placed 19th in the world — and fourth in Europe — on Time magazine's list of the 500 best edtech companies, compiled with the data firm Statista.

It is the only Portuguese company on the list. Time and Statista screened roughly 6,500 firms worldwide, scoring them on financial performance and industry impact before settling on the final 500. Code For All earned a score of 87.7, placing it within striking distance of the household names at the top: Duolingo, the American language-learning app, led with 95.3, followed by Brazil's Cogna on 92 and India's Unext on 91.2.

Code For All, led by chief executive João Canavarro, runs intensive training programmes — the kind of bootcamp-style courses that retrain adults for jobs as programmers and data specialists, often in a matter of months rather than years. Its appearance on the ranking is a marker of how far Portugal's technology-education scene has come, riding the same wave that has turned Lisbon and Porto into magnets for tech firms, startups and the international workers who staff them.

The company framed the recognition in national terms, saying it reinforces "Portugal's positioning among nations capable of creating technological education solutions with international impact and recognition." Its leadership also pointed to the relentless pace of change in the field, arguing that the rapid spread of artificial intelligence forces training providers to rewrite their curricula constantly — because, as they put it, what was worth learning a year ago "may already be insufficient today."

That observation cuts to the heart of the edtech business. The firms on Time's list are, in effect, betting that the skills employers need are shifting faster than traditional universities can adapt, and that shorter, more flexible courses can close the gap. In Portugal, where the tech sector has expanded quickly but companies routinely complain of a shortage of qualified staff, that promise has obvious appeal.

There was one gap in the Portuguese showing. Time also published a separate "Rising Stars" list of 17 younger companies, each less than a decade old, and no Portuguese firm made the cut — a hint that the country's edtech strength, for now, rests on more established players rather than a deep bench of newcomers.

For the many foreign residents in Portugal weighing a career change, or looking to move into the local tech industry, the ranking is a useful signal. It suggests that at least one home-grown training provider is operating at a level judged competitive on the world stage — and it underscores how central digital reskilling has become to Portugal's pitch as a technology hub, both for the Portuguese workforce and for the newcomers increasingly woven into it.