by silvia | Feb 12, 2019 | Startups, Uncategorized
Smart Open Lisboa is back again, in its vertical SOL Housing, dedicated to upgrading Lisbon’s City Life. This vertical has a broad spectrum of opportunities in several areas: assisted living, retail experience, infrastructure and more.
The best way to identify them is to get to know the major players partnering with the programme!
CML – Lisbon’s Municipality
Our goal is to make Lisbon one of the most competitive, innovative and creative cities in Europe. We often hear in major international media that “Lisbon is the new Berlin” or the “New Silicon Valley” to refer to the dynamics of innovation and entrepreneurship that is happening in Lisbon for the past six years. Much of what has been happening is the result of strong ambition and a global and actionable strategy that federates multiple stakeholders, positioning Lisbon in a growth and innovation trajectory unprecedented in its recent history.
Housing Partners
SONAE SIERRA
Sonae Sierra is an international retail real estate company dedicated to serving the needs of investors. We develop, manage and invest in sustainable retail assets and provide investment, architecture & engineering and property management services for clients in geographies as diverse as Europe, South America, North Africa, and Asia, while creating shared value for our business and society.
Sonae Sierra decided to embrace this open innovation program because we are a company with a strong background on Innovation, that is always searching for state-of-art solutions that allows us to reinforce our business competitiveness and our compromise with sustainable development. With this partnership we expect to benefit from the startup’s expertise in different areas, like big data, sensors, devices, etc, to improve our know-how and internal operations, but also contribute to their development and if possible to work with the most relevant ones in a near future.
Ricardo Rosa, Head of Innovation
EPAL
EPAL is the oldest and largest Portuguese water supply company, with 150 years of outstanding history and has long been the reference supply company in the water sector, both in Portugal and internationally. The company provides drinking water to approximately three million people, covering 1/3 of the population, with the responsibility to design, build, operate and manage the water supply and sanitation systems for which it is responsible, including all related activities and businesses.
Developing products and services in the form of innovative solutions and incorporate them into our operations, with the amazing contributions of our technicians expertize, is one of the ways EPAL gets engaged with the smart cities developing programs. It’s also a consistent evidence of our ability to share solutions in the interests of a more efficient water use. EPAL, Smart Open Lisbon Housing program and all startups involved, will certainly leverage strategic innovation in water services and will contribute to improve the quality of the citizens’ lives and to the social and economic development of the cities.
GALP
Galp is positioned as an integrated energy player that develops profitable and sustainable businesses, aiming to create value to its stakeholders. It explores and produces oil and natural gas, and generates and markets electricity. Galp’s strategy is based on a resilient E&P portfolio, embedded with an efficient and competitive downstream business, supported by innovative and differentiating solutions that promote the transition into a low carbon economy.
The company believes that ensuring the protection of people, the environment and assets, as well as the communities it operates in and adopting ethical conduct is crucial for its actions and strategic execution.
MOTA ENGIL RENEWING
Mota Engil Renewing has the mission to be the reference in promotion and operation of Cities’ Renewal, in tight collaboration with municipalities, and responding to the most pressing challenges and needs facing cities and citizens in terms of energy, mobility and housing.
They are a Smart Synergy Provider of Infrastructures and Services, managed by digital platforms (IoT), in the areas of Smart Energy – Smart Charging – Mobility – New Housing, developing integrated, differentiated and competitive solutions, adapted to the reality of each Client – Cities, Companies and Citizens.
2At ME Renewing, we always seek differentiated ways and approaches to respond to and mitigate the problems and challenges that cities face today, whether in energy management, electric mobility or in the housing and real estate market. In the area of New Housing, we are developing and implementing alternative solutions to business as usual, giving priority to Housing-as-a-Service, managed by digital platforms, adding a set of services that make life easier for citizens, areas where the company operates, such as energy, smart charging and mobility solutions, in a global competitive and differentiated offer.”
GEBALIS
GEBALIS has managed, for the past 22 years, the municipal housing districts in Lisbon, ensuring an integrated management policy based on criteria of proximity, improving the quality of life of resident populations and heritage conservation. GEBALIS’ activities are supported by an operating structure located in several points of the city, covering 66 Districts and about 22 949 housing units.
Associated Partners
SANTA CASA (SCML)
Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML) is the oldest and biggest Portuguese charity and its mission is to improve the quality of life of the individuals and communities in the city of Lisbon and to contribute to the well-being of its underprivileged and vulnerable citizens, irrespective of their age or social problems.
SCML is best known for his Social Action and for ensuring the exploitation of the State Social Games in Portugal, but also carries out important work in the areas of Health, Education and Teaching, Culture and Promotion of Quality of Life.
NOS
NOS is the biggest communications and entertainment group in Portugal. It offers the latest generation fixed and mobile phone, television, Internet, voice and data solutions for all market segments. It is the leader in Pay TV, new generation broadband services and in cinema exhibition and distribution in Portugal. NOS is part of the main Portuguese stock exchange index (PSI-20), and has more than 4.7 million mobile phone, 1.6 million television, 1.8 million fixed telephone and 1.3 million fixed broadband Internet customers.
CISCO
Cisco designs and sells a broad range of technologies that have been powering the Internet since 1984. Across networking, security, collaboration, and the cloud, our evolving intent-based technologies are constantly learning and adapting to provide customers with a highly secure, intelligent platform for their digital business.
“Entrepreneurship and innovation are in the DNA of Cisco, who has been a partner of the SOL program since the first edition. It is thus with great naturalness and enthusiasm that we are once again present and, together with the startups, we seek to solve the future challenges of Mobility and Urbanism. “
Sofia Tenreiro, General Manager at Cisco Portugal
AXIANS
Axians is the VINCI Energies brand dedicated to information and communications technology (ICT) and the digital transformation challenge. We answer to all ICT needs through human-centered methodologies with differentiated solutions in telecoms infrastructures, cloud, and data centers, enterprise networks, digital workspace and data analytics. Cybersecurity is a priority within all these areas. The best of ICT with a human touch.
Axians is proud to partner with Smart Open Lisboa. As a startup implementation program devoted to effectively upgrade city life, it fits exactly with our role in society: to improve the life of people, through the meaningful ICT we deliver to our clients. And our VINCI Energies’ way of life is in fact fueled through an entrepreneurial spirit. We truly believe that the key to a smarter and prosper city lies on startups and big corporate companies cooperation, learning from each other, evolving and preserving that unique human touch, at the heart of digital transformation.
Pedro Faustino, Board Member, Axians Portugal
TURISMO DE PORTUGAL
Turismo de Portugal is the National Tourism Authority in charge of promoting, improving and guaranteeing the sustainability of tourism as one of the most important economic activities in the country. As part of the Ministry of Economy, it groups together all the institutional powers related to invigorating tourism, from supply to demand.
“Turismo de Portugal is actively involved in shaping the future of smart cities and implementing projects that solve their challenges: SOL acceleration program enables the development and showcasing of solutions to overcome these challenges and promote sustainable cities. Sustainability is one of our tourism policy priorities and it’s a key driver to innovation.”
Luis Araujo, Presidente do Turismo de Portugal
SHARING CITIES
The Sharing Cities ‘lighthouse’ programme is a proving ground for a better, common approach to making smart cities evermore efficient. By fostering international collaboration between industry and cities, the project seeks to develop affordable, integrated, commercial-scale smart city solutions with high market potentialities. The project draws on €24 million in EU funding. It aims to trigger €500 million in investment and to engage over 100 municipalities across Europe.
At three strategic locations – London, Lisbon, and Milan – the programme will demonstrate the effectiveness of new technologies in improving urban mobility, increasing the energy efficiency of buildings and reducing carbon emissions.
TOMI
TOMI WORLD is a Portuguese technology company that created and developed TOMI, which is an innovative and interactive urban solution that delivers all information that matters in the right place at the right time. TOMI’s goal is to bring cities closer to people who live, work and travel in it.
Currently, TOMI WORLD has offices in Portugal, Brazil, UK, and China and is planning to open offices in main cities across the world as part of its internationalization process.
Do you have a solution that you would like to test with these market leaders? Don’t waste one more minute – apply to SOL Housing!
by silvia | Feb 12, 2019 | Startups, Uncategorized
What makes SOL Housing, the new Smart Open Lisboa vertical, the place for your startup? Explore the reasons why you should consider participating in the programme if you have a startup with a solution for these challenges: urban management & smart infrastructure, construtech, proptech, resource efficiency, smart homes, buildings & retail properties, home care & assisted living, customer & community experience and financial services.
1. Work directly with Lisbon’s Municipality
Lisbon is a city that is now going through a lot of changes: the birth of several innovation hubs, the foreign investment, real-estate development and several programmes from the municipality to invest in the upgrading of the city’s quality is making it a perfect hotspot for new projects to be tested and applied.
Through this programme, you will be working directly with the partners – in this case, Lisbon’s Municipality is the main partner of the programme and you will get access to the decision makers.
2. Test your solution in different industries and sectors
In Smart Open Lisboa, you’ll get the opportunity to test your solution in different industries and sectors, co-operating with different partners of the programme.
You can read here about some of the pilots being developed in the last vertical.
3. Meet prospective clients and the key players in the industry
By joining Smart Open Lisboa, you will get to make partnerships with utilities and companies working actively in the city, and the chance to use their resources and develop a long-lasting relationship. Get to know the amazing partners of SOL Housing here.
4. Equity-free programme
The main goal of the programme is to promote the cooperation between startups and companies – you don’t need to give up any equity of your company to join.
5. Applications are closing soon
The applications for SOL housing, the new vertical of Smart Open Lisboa, are closing on the 13th of February. So, don’t waste any time and click here to apply now!
by silvia | Feb 12, 2019 | Corporates, Featured, Investors, Startups, Uncategorized
A new paradigm that allows infinite growth with finite resources
As we mentioned in our Consumer Trends Report, the Circular Economy is one of the trends that will be taking over the conversations. Don’t know much about it? Let’s do an overview of the basics of Circular Economy!
Why Do We Need Circular Economy?
The linear economy is not sustainable anymore, as we are currently experiencing:
- Resources depletion: Over the last four decades, the global use of materials almost tripled, from 26.7 billion tonnes in 1970 to 92.1 billion tonnes in 2017.2 Not only has material use been increasing, but it has also been accelerating and is forecast to grow to between 170 and 184 billion tonnes by 2050.1
- Waste production: “Throwaway culture” has been having an impact on our planet, especially our oceans. In 2016 alone, the world generated 242 million tonnes of plastic waste – equivalent to about 24 trillion plastic bottles – and that is just 12% of the total waste generated each year2.
- Global Warming: Climate change and material use are closely linked: around 62% of global greenhouse gas emissions (excluding those from land use and forestry) is released during the extraction, processing, and manufacturing of goods to serve society’s needs1.
- Demographic Explosion: In August 2018, the total population of the world exceeded 7.63 billion people, and this number is continuing to grow each day, driven by the economic growth of emerging countries.
What is the Circular Economy?
A circular economy is an economic system aimed at minimizing waste and making the most of resources. This regenerative approach is in contrast to the traditional linear economy, which has a ‘take, make, dispose’ model of production.
The Circular Economy is all about business – economy has always been about how we manage scarcity and resources efficiently. In this sense, we should look into the earth’s resources as finite and design structure to be sustainable, share resources and re-use everything: design everything integrated into a bigger circle and closing the loop for every piece of material produced.
Restorative by design
The Circular Economy is restorative by design: it aims to keep products, components and materials at their highest utility and value, at all times. It’s about maximizing efficiency in all aspects – it’s pure economy.
Even though this system is compatible with environmental causes, it doesn’t really dwell on guilt. It’s about innovation and integrating everything into a bigger purpose: individual action is nice, but cooperation downstream and upstream can really leverage the power of small changes.
Businesses don’t have to choose between profits and doing good for the world – because if they do it right, they’ll be doing both.
What is driving CE?
- Regulation: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement, are just two examples of regulations that will push forward innovation and working in the circular economy.
- Eco Trends: Consumers’ are more connected than ever to causes and to brands who support their convictions (we talked about this in our Consumer Trends Report), so businesses will be increasing efforts to diminish their footprint.
- Business Opportunity: The world economy is only 9% circular. Filling the circularity gap redefines markets and creates tremendous business opportunities. It is estimated that $1.8 trillion is the worth of wealth that could be created by unleashing circularity.
Get more information on Circular Economy and keep up with our updates: subscribe to our newsletter.
1 Source: The Circularity Gap Report 2019
2 Source: The World Bank
3 Source: World Population Review
by silvia | Feb 5, 2019 | Corporates, Investors, Startups, Uncategorized
SOLshare came into Free Electrons programme with a bold mission: to create networks, share solar electricity & eliminate poverty. And they actually proved they can do it – that’s how they became the winners of a $200.000 prize of Free Electrons World’s Best Energy Startup 2018.
Who is SOLshare
A Bangladeshi social enterprise founded by Sebastien Groh in November 2015, it is now a diverse group of people working from Bangladesh, Bogotá and Berlin, to change the way people consume and pay for energy around the globe.
SOLshare Team – image by SOLshare
What does SOLshare do
SOLshare is bringing sustainable, affordable energy access for low-income rural people Bangladesh. Their decentralized peer-to-peer microgrids deliver solar power to households and businesses and enable them to trade their (excess) electricity for profit.
The SOLbox
How are they doing it? Well, they created a peer-to-peer energy trading platform on blockchain technology.
Bangladesh, where more 10 million people are cut off from the electric power system, was already investing in domestic solar panels called Solar Home System (SHS). SOLshare created the SOLbox – a bi-directional DC electricity meter that enables peer-to-peer electricity trading, smart grid management, remote monitoring, mobile money payment and data analytics.
Through the Solbox, consumers can choose whether they wish to be a buyer of energy or a seller (if they have a solar panel installed), and even sell energy to homes that do not have a solar panel system installed.
By connecting several SHS to each other as well as to homes without electricity, the nano-grid can provide a consistent energy network for an entire village.
The plug-and-play nature of the technology allows the grid to grow dynamically from the ‘bottom-up’ as more users can dynamically connect over time. 
The data is stored in the network and the digital platform integrates mobile money infrastructure for remote payment (payments are processed through a phone application via credit or debit) and lockout and provides data analytics and grid management services.
SOLshare’s journey through Free Electrons
Coming into Free Electrons, SOLshare had a lot to offer: with their nano-grids, they could provide to utilities certainty, with their distributed billing they were able to offer controlled systems, and also could provide distributed storage. By partnering up with global utilities, SOLshare had a chance to pilot their products in a long-reaching plan.
They didn’t waste any time partnering up and worked on pilots with both Innogy and Tepco, for a donation platform (Energy SOLidarity Token), where a donor can choose individual users or a predefined group of users (like a village) to donate energy to.
By the end phase of Free Electrons, SOLshare had raised a $1.66M A-series round of investment from utilities EDP and Innogy, and IIX (Impact Investment Exchange).
SOLshare wins Free Electrons World’s Best Energy Startup 2018
Leaving an impact
The peer-to-peer solar grids are changing lives in Bangladesh. They are reaching out to isolated, poor communities in Bangladesh and empowering them to upgrade their lives with the use of power in agricultural and day-to-day tasks and even turning them into business people by providing energy to their neighbors.
SOLshare pioneers a micro-energy transition model 3.0 by interconnecting solar home systems in peer-to-peer networks, monetizing excess solar energy along the value chain in real time with mobile money and empowering communities to earn a direct income from the sun.
They are opening up a path that can be used by utilities globally and the future of clean energy.
First Bangladeshi Startup to make it in the 2019 Global Cleantech 100
In its 10th edition, The Global Cleantech 100 is an annual guide to the leading companies and themes in sustainable innovation. It features the private, independent, for-profit companies best positioned to solve tomorrow’s clean technology challenges. SOLshare made it into the list, proving once again it is one of the most innovative and promising ideas in cleantech and that it’s best positioned to solve tomorrow’s clean technology challenges.
Join the Free Electrons community
If you too have a project that could change the energy industry, apply to Free Electrons – the leading global energy startup accelerator is looking for the brightest startups in the Energy scene to partner up with global utilities in accelerating change in this industry.
by silvia | Feb 4, 2019 | Corporates, Featured, Investors, Startups, Uncategorized
The Lisbon Investment Summit, also known as #LIS, will be back on 6th and 7th of June to our sunny city. The surprisingly informal and slightly unexpected startup conference will bring together the best startups and investors. Here are the top reasons why you don’t wanna miss it!
1. #nobullshit
This is the event’s motto and the main reason why you don’t wanna miss #LIS. This is not an event that appeals to vanity, there’s no fancy clothes, intro or awards – it aims for real content and people with valuable knowledge in their fields.
As Aptoide said: “#LIS is an environment where things happen. During lunch, we casually met a potential investor that ended up leading our Series A round of investment. This was a crucial milestone that ultimately helped us to reach over 3 billion downloads and over 140 million users.”
2. People
Lisbon Investment Summit is an event with a perfect mix of people: the most daring startups, seasoned and savvy investors and most innovative corporate executives. This makes for unique conversations and an open and collaborative mindset. At every corner you’ll have the chance to meet someone inspiring and innovative, and who knows? Maybe they’ll be your next business partner, or better yet, a friend.
3. Startup Pitch Competition
If you’re a startup, you’ll want to apply to the startup pitch competition. Even though the event has an investor-packed crowd, on the competition you’ll have undivided attention, and pitch next to the best and most innovative startups in the scene.
You’re eligible for the competition by purchasing startup tickets to attend – hurry up and get an early bird Founder 2×1 ticket – and filling out a form.
If you’re an investor, here’s the place to see all the up-and-coming startups in the same place.
4. Environment
Ask anyone who has attended previous editions – Lisbon Investment Summit has one of the best floors out there. It’s completely informal, and conversations (and business deals) just flow organically. The event prides itself on being a place where investors don’t hide their badges, and that’s because of the open and collaborative environment created by every person there. You don’t attend #LIS, you are part of #LIS.
5. City of Lisbon
Dinner with strangers in a trendy restaurant? Networking on a boat across the Tagus river with a view of the city? Hell, yeah! Part of the reason Lisbon Investment Summit has such a cool ambiance it’s because of its amazing backdrop: the lively and welcoming city of Lisbon. We’re not psychics but we predict sunny weather, warm temperatures, amazing sights, and exciting side events. Oh, and of course, a bustling and thriving startup ecosystem that you’ll get to know and connect with!
Excited yet? Claim your #LIS tickets here!
Or take a look at the dreamy photos of last year’s edition in the gallery below!
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