We’re getting excited about Lisbon Investment Summit and the awesome people we’re bringing to speak, inspire and connect on the 6th and 7th of June.
We’re proud to welcome some top investors and speakers to our event, so here’s a little peek at some of the confirmed speakers.
Katz Kiely
Katz is an award-winning serial entrepreneur and pioneer. She built the first open-innovation platform for HP, re-architected the way a UN agency does business and designed a behavior change platform with Intel that connected mobiles, big screens and data.
Currently:She is the founder and CEO of beep: the Behavioural Enterprise Empowerment Platform. beep is an enterprise-level, decentralized, AI software that empowers employees to innovate for efficiency, effectiveness and productivity.
Previously, as the VP of Capital at Lepe Partners, she was responsible for building the portfolio of Lepe Capital, through the due diligence to execute the investments and working with the companies in the portfolio. Before Lepe, Itxaso worked as an early stage investor at EC1 Capital, responsible for deal flow across sectors. For the past ten years, Itxaso has worked with startups in London, Silicon Valley, Spain and Latin America.
Past Investments: Unbabel, Onfido, Leaf.fm, Evermore Health, Trouva, BridgeU
Sean Seton-Rogers
Sean is a partner and co-founder of PROfounders Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund located in London that invests in and support digital companies. Over a decade of venture capital experience, including stints at with Benchmark Capital Europe and Commonwealth Capital Ventures.
Past Investments: Tweetdeck, OneFineStay, LeapMotion
Board of Advisors: wundertax, NDGIT GmbH – Next Digital Banking
Previously, he spent several years gaining experience as an operator as well as working closely with founders in the roles he held at Faber Ventures, Seedrs and Seedcamp. Ricardo is especially passionate about businesses building competitive advantages through data and addictive products able to change people’s habits.
With previous experience in venture capital, entrepreneurship and financial markets, he believes his entrepreneurial drive, team spirit and empathy have helped him to achieve his professional goals. Specialties: Venture Capital, Corporate Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship, Startups, Enterprise Software, SAAS, Industry 4.0
Join Capital’s Investments: German Bionic, Prodsmart, Proxyclick, Codacy
Member of the Board: Proxyclick, Prodsmart, German Bionic
These are just some of the kick-ass venture capital speakers we’ll have on stage at #LIS19. Investor Full Access and Investor Ultimate early-bird tickets are already sold out, so hurry up and don’t miss out – get your tickets for #LIS19.
It has been noted lately that even though founders do not decide where they base their company on investment flows, but that investment flows adapt to the popularity of cities chosen by founders – and it’s already showing in the city of Lisbon.
According to data from Dealroom and Startup HeatMap, Lisbon has seen an increase in investment in 2018 of > 2500% comparing to the previous year. It’s an unprecedented growth, that makes Lisbon jump 17 ranks on the European Startup HeatMap, currently ranking 5th.
According to data, the sum of investments in Lisbon was €358M, the most noteworthy companies invested being OutSystems, Unbabel, Prodsmart, Undandy and Valispace, with a percentage of 60% of foreign investors.
Impressed yet? Get in on this action: join us at Lisbon Investment Summit, a slightly unexpected startup conference gathering the most promising startups, innovators and seasoned investors in Lisbon on the 6th and 7th of June.
Investor Full Access and Investor Ultimate early-bird tickets are already sold out, so hurry up and don’t miss out – get your tickets for #LIS19.
Present since its early stage in the USA and Europe, Attila’s co-founders traveled to Lisbon to join the fall edition 2018 of Lisbon Challenge. With a product directed at commercial banks, they made their way through Lisbon Challenge and are trying to conquer the Portuguese market.
What is your product?
Attila is an AI-based Virtual Financial Advisor able to engage retail banks’ customers in meaningful and automated financial conversations with a deep focus on customer understanding.
What made you apply to Lisbon Challenge?
The Portugal banking industry is a favorable market for Attila due to the strategic orientation of the Portuguese banks. Today they are focused, more than ever before, on improving their customer experience and customer journey’s to ensure their survival in the digital era. Lisbon Challenge represented a perfect soft landing opportunity for us in this unique and growing market.
Why is Portugal an attractive market for Attila?
Right now, is a good moment for us because the Portuguese banks are willing to do a leapfrog in their digital processes and that’s what Attila stands for: enabling banks to quickly catch up tech companies in terms of UX thanks to Machine Learning. There’s also a growing and dynamic tech ecosystem we can learn from and build partnerships with.
What are Attila’s goals for the Portuguese market?
Our main objective is to build successful case studies by finetuning our product to the needs of south European market. This represents a gateway and solid reference for the European market as a whole and the markets across the Atlantic.
What was the biggest win for Attila in the programme?
Having the opportunity to meet customers allowed us to reach a higher level of validation, adjust our value proposition and generate a pipeline of leads including top Portuguese and international Banks.
In which way Lisbon Challenge’s team helped you the best?
Lisbon Challenge’s team gave us honest and straightforward feedback that helped us challenge our ideas and plans.
What have been your biggest accomplishments since Lisbon Challenge?
Unlocking a project with one of the largest banks in Portugal – we’re very excited about it!
What is your advice for startups trying to make it in Lisbon?
Don’t hesitate to directly knock on the relevant doors, whether it be customers, partners, or investors, you will absolutely find people willing to listen and open to new ideas. Do not wait for some miracle to happen.
The circular economy is here to stay! It represents both a solution to the environmental problems faced by our planet and an opportunity for business: the estimates say that $1.8 trillion is the worth of wealth that could be created by unleashing circularity.
This mega-trend is already pushing businesses to change and innovate – to respond to a consumer that demands it, to improve their Corporate Social Responsibility, and to create circular flows within their own business that allows them to reduce costs, improve efficiency and create new business opportunities.
Here’s a look at 5 companies who are integrating the circular economy into their business or building the path that allows for this new type of economy.
Desintegra.me
This is a project created by Chilean designer Margarita Talep. Tired of all the one-use, non-recyclable packages, she decided to create her own packages. She has created a sustainable, biodegradable alternative, using raw material extracted from algae.
According to the designer, the material only includes natural matter, including the dyes, used to color it, which are extracted from the skins of fruits and vegetable (like blueberries, purple cabbage, beetroot, and carrots), and the material biodegrades in between 2 (in summertime) and 3 months (in winter time).
The bioplastic is best for dry foods, and there are already prototypes for different types of packages: cellophane paper, bubble wrap, spoons, cookie packs, and straws. Even though they are not being mass-produced yet, Margarita believes that “bio-fabrication will be an important part of future industries,” said Talep. “As long as all the processes of extracting these raw materials and their manufacture are done with environmental awareness.”
Recreate Design Company
Recreate Design Company gives companies the option to be 100% sustainable when designing their new spaces.
They create bespoke spaces for both private homes and companies made from sustainable sources: by salvaging old furniture and materials that are then re-designed or re-used by the company to create unique spaces for clients.
They also have a programme to help companies moving to new offices to get rid of the surplus of unwanted furniture. They match the companies with non-profits and local schools who need the furniture so that it can be donated and its lifespan prolonged effectively.
IKEA
Ikea is leading the way in terms of big corporations switching to a more sustainable business, making a huge commitment to become circular and climate neutral by 2030.
They are committed to consume 100% renewable energy by 2020 and also expand their offer of home solar solutions to consumers in 29 different markets.
They have integrated successfully into their products a circular mindset – designing to be recyclable and procuring recycled materials to produce their products – they already have products 100% recycled. This in an impactful measure due to Ikea’s scale – they consume around 1% of the world’s wood supply.
They are also changing their business to fit this mindset – they are now considering selling different spare parts of furniture, experimenting with allowing costumers to bring their used products to be re-homed or recycled in exchange for a voucher, and experimenting with a new business model by renting furniture.
ADIDAS
Adidas partnered up with Parley for the Oceans (a non-profit organization) to reduce the number of plastic in the oceans. They produced a sneaker model completely made out of yarn recycled from ocean waste and illegal deep-sea gill nets.
The model was a success – it’s said that each pair of shoes uses the equivalent of 11 plastic bottles, which means that Adidas has recycled some 55 million plastic bottles this year.
The company now hopes to have 100% recycled materials in its products by 2020.
Salvatore Ferragamo
The circularity mega-trend is impacting both mainstream brands and premium brands. This is particularly true in the fashion industry who is accused of representing a big part of the waste produced (mainly due to fast fashion trends). To contradict this trend, brands are opting for organic and sustainable options. Salvatore Ferragamo created a capsule collection made out of orange fiber fabric – a fabric created with what remains after squeezing citrus fruits for juice – because there are more than 700,000 tons of by-product in Italy only.
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The circular economy has been gaining momentum in recent years. The urgency created by the impact of consumerism on the planet’s environment has created urgency in governments and consumers to support and make the necessary infrastructure available.
So far, the development of tech has been focused on supporting and improving the traditional solutions that already exist and enable circular economy: waste collection, sorting, and recycling.
However, new developments and advanced technologies can and will bring the next level of innovative solutions to enable an (almost) complete circular economy.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality can be useful to in several levels of the circle. This tech can help several activities performed become more efficient, reducing its costs. It’s also useful in the prototyping processes by visualizing design prototypes in 3D, and testing and redesigning manufacturing processes, reducing or eliminating entirely the use of some raw materials.
In real life:
Scope, a Canadian firm specializing in AR solutions for industry, has developed a software tool called WorkLink that can transform traditional paper-based work instructions into Smart instructions, It uses animated, intuitive, 3D computer-generated imagery that overlays on top of the real world.
Internet of Things
Internet of Things (IoT) systems can be an enabler of circularity, offering assistance in the process of resource recovery. Smart objects can give info about their location, status or need for upgrade. IoT can also be used in predictive maintenance (determining the condition of in-service equipment or machinery in order to predict when maintenance/servicing should be performed) to maximize product life span and reduce costs.
In real life:
San Francisco and London have installed solar-powered automated waste bins that alert local authorities to when they are full; creating ideal routes for trash collection and reducing operational costs by 70 percent.
Big Data
Big data play a big role in making industries and supply chains more efficient. It can be very useful for route optimizations, reducing risk, streamlining manufacturing and making supply chains more transparent, by enabling businesses to make decisions based on accurate data-driven insights.
In real life:
DHL has a Big Data Business Platform that supports all its activities. It uses data collected by sensors, on top of getting data from the financial industry, public authorities, retailers, SMEs, and its own research. DHL uses the technology for route optimization, strategic network planning, operational capacity planning, risk evaluation and resilience planning, customer loyalty management, and environmental intelligence (statistics on pollution, traffic density, noise, parking spot utilization, etc.)
Platform Economy
Platform Economy refers to digital marketplaces. Amazon, Alibaba, etc, already changed the way consumers buy industrial products. It’s a concept that can be applied to help implement what is called ”Industrial Ecology” – the concept that the waste of one industry can be the input of another one.
In real life:
Organix an online marketplace for organic waste. It links organic waste producers with biogas operators to facilitate energy recovery from such waste.
Product as a Service
This is a business model in which manufacturers retain control of the product throughout their lifecycles – instead of selling the products, they lease them to costumers. This means that the responsibility of disposing of the product at the end of its lifecycle shifts from the consumer to the manufacturer. It also opens the possibility of recycling or refurbishing the product to give it a longer life span.
In real life:
DriveNow is a sharing service that offers a fleet of the latest BMW and Mini vehicle models. Users can locate a car and unlock it using an app, use it, then park it again.
Blockchain
Famous for its use in Fintech, Blockchain represents trust in transactions, since there is no third-party intervention. It can be leveraged by the circular economy too: blockchain technology can be used to make supply chains more transparent by tracking products from the manufacturers to the shelf. This access to information can help customers be informed about how the products were made and shipped, empowering them to make environmentally friendly decisions.
In real life:
Provenance uses blockchain to make supply chains more transparent, It builds a traceability system for materials and products. It gives consumers information about suppliers by tracing the origins and histories of products.
Upcycling
Circular Economy is all about closing the loop, but unfortunately, not everything can be recycled back to a raw material state to be re-used. Upcycling enables creative re-use of products for different purposes (without breaking them down). Companies can find alternative inputs for their products, and customers can find ways to re-use their products once they’ve reached the end of their lifecycles.
In Real Life:
Samsung has introduced Galaxy Upcycling, which is a program that enables the embedding of IoT in old smartphones to be used in households. On their website, they suggest ideas for using the phones, and they offer the software and the hardware (sensors). For example, the device could be used to monitor fish tasks, check conditions, and give food to fish while the owner is away.
IBM Research published their predictions about the 5 innovations in the food supply chain that will change the way we consume food within the next five years.
Within the next five years, the Earth’s population will cross the eight billion mark for the first time. Our complex food supply chain—already stressed by climate change and finite water supply—will only be tested further. To meet the demands of this crowded future, IBM researchers are exploring new technologies and devices, scientific breakthroughs, and entirely new ways of thinking about food safety and security.
The 5 predictions:
Farming’s digital doubles will help feed a growing population using fewer resources.
Blockchain will prevent more food from going to waste.
Mapping the microbiome will protect us from bad bacteria.
Dinner plate detectives: AI sensors will detect foodborne pathogens at home.
A radical new recycling process will breathe new life into old plastic.
