It is with great satisfaction that I tell you that Beta-i and Couture are announcing their merger today, a big step to reinforce our leadership in innovation. Couture is an innovation boutique, managed by Diogo Teixeira and Alisson Ávila, who are joining the board and also joining forces with Beta-i. Besides Diogo and Alisson, there are two other new members on the board, Assunção Loureiro, founder and former Country Manager of Fox Networks Group Portugal and André Rabanea, co-founder of Torke.
I’ll continue to be the CEO, same as always, Assunção Loureiro the COO, and the other partners are Ricardo Marvão, Manuel Tânger, Tiago Pinto, Diogo Teixeira, Alisson Ávila and André Rabanea.
For the past eight years Beta-i has had an important role in building the innovation ecosystem in Portugal, it has been a pioneer in developing new methodologies and has contributed largely in positioning Lisbon has one of the main hubs in Europe. We believe we have been successful in doing so.
Couture, on the other hand, is also in business for eight years, helping important portuguese and international brands grow based on innovation strategies, co-creation and cooperation, all of this due to a deep knowledge of the companies.
Beta-i’s brand will remain focused on Building the Innovation Ecosystem and leading the transformation of a new culture of humanized digital innovation.
We live in an era where digital transformation challenges are getting bigger and bigger and that is affecting most industries and organizations, and our ecosystem is a more matured phase.
The merge between Beta-i and Couture together with André Rabanea and Assunção Loureiro, happened because we shared similar visions, values and ambitions and because we all understand the need to diversify our offer, to consolidate our operations and to prepare for scale in this new global market.
What is changing? We’re growing and that means now we are a one-stop-shop for innovation with 6 different areas (instead of the 5 we had previously): Acceleration, Events, Consulting, Open Innovation, Education and Investment.
We are going to be more than 50 people at the office, all working towards the same goal, all feeding the innovation ecosystem and for that working with startups, corporates and investors. Keep in mind: there may be more of us now, but we’re still the same, and even closer to the ecosystem.