by aristeasapera | Dec 7, 2017 | Corporates, Investors, Startups
It’s been two weeks since Smart Open Lisboa 2017, the biggest open innovation program directly connected to the city, came to an end. In the second, remastered and more extended edition the finalist startups had the amazing opportunity to validate their solutions in real time and in real environment contributing to the upgrade of city life.
The partners of the program, Lisbon City Council, Tourism of Portugal, Cisco, Altice, Sharing Cities, Grow, Masai, EPAL & Beta-i chose to focus on 4 intervention fields called challenges: Tourism & Culture, Mobility, Citizen Engagement and Sustainability.
During the Demo Day, our teams presented the learnings they got from the whole program, the results of the Experimentation and their next steps.
On the Tourism challenge, AppyFans, a gamification app that serves as a personal assistant for local shopping, managed to establish a collaboration with 10 of the central stores from the Lojas com história network and they are about to extend this number beyond the program. Go WiFi, the largest network in Portugal of around 200 free wifi hotspots also joined their platform. Following Lisbon, they closed a partnership with the Association of Merchants of Porto to market the platform of their 2.000 associates.
In the area of Sustainability, GreenbyWeb after installing their product Aquamote, a smart irrigation system, in the green spaces of Avenida da Liberdade and Praça de Espanha achieved 71% water savings. While they still have their controllers operating there, they will soon install also in Martim Moniz gardens and they are in contacts with other city councils in Portugal.
Our finalist Trigger Systems with their dedicated IoT platform & apps deployed different solutions for city efficiency and control. Their ongoing irrigation pilot in Jardim de Estrela achieved to decrease water consumption and workforce. The installation of LoRa smart meter controllers at the offices of our partner EPAL facilitated the analytics of consumption data and alerts, among other things. Finally, at Rossio square they installed fountain controllers for the people to interact with through a QR code.
In Mobility, the startup KLC with an electric shared mobility solution for companies has been running a pilot with Card4B (member of the MASAI platform), which will continue for 2 months more. Meanwhile they are getting useful feedback from the users and finalising their mobile app that will mainly permit fleet management, plus having other helpful features.
On the way to increase road safety SOSplus collaborated with Civil Protection & Firemen headquarters and installed their tracker device on 7 ambulances. In this way, they were able to get their first users/drivers, improve their app and at the same time learn first hand the needs of their client. Among their future plans is to integrate into third party apps.
Regarding intelligent transport systems Connect Robotics, a drone delivery service for different kinds of goods, thanks to the interactions with the Partners during the program has discovered various areas of operations. Although they didn’t manage so far to get permissions for the city flights, they got a lot of learnings on the risks they need to consider and they are now working on a collaboration with Europe University for the transport of books & docs.
Another case of product development & useful learnings is Openly, on the Citizen engagement challenge; a search engine to find instantly any governmental info or service. During the Experimentation they made connections with different public initiatives of Lisbon’s City Council, which helped them understand the landscape and test the first versions of their product. Now the bigger picture for them is to organise world’s governance information and so far they have mapped local info of 86 countries and collected around 200K government sources.
As we are always aiming to be better on the work we deliver at Beta-i and take every challenge as a learning opportunity, we are now redesigning the new edition of Smart Open Lisboa program. Watch out for the coming updates on our website.
Watch all the emotion for yourself here.
by Carolina Santos | Dec 7, 2017 | Investors, Startups
After 10 weeks of intensive work and mentorship, the eight startups from Lisbon Challenge found out which ones were getting an investment, but there were no winners or losers, because even the ones who weren’t invested have already closed their first pilots and are ready to make their baby startups grow.
It is not typical for an Investor’s day to be at a brewery but it turned out to be the perfect scenario. They walked to the stage full of confidence and nerves, we could feel their dry mouths while they were pitching and if we could guess their heart rates were racing like crazy. The smile of relief each one of them had while leaving the stage, after asking several questions from investors, was priceless.
They did what they were mentored to do and all of them delivered flawless pitches and made everybody proud. It was good to see that those eight teams became friends, kind of a family and that what an acceleration program is also about.
Yesterday Luvotels, Sparkl and Placeme found out they were being invested. Luvotels got 50k, Sparkl also got 50k and Placeme got 75k, a surprise to all but mainly to those who got it. The ones who weren’t invested are going to continue to work hard towards their goal and we know they are going far.
Today the office is quieter and emptier than it used to be and we all already miss them. The good thing is there will always be another Lisbon Challenge.
Follow the footsteps of these startups and get 10K in 10 weeks.
by rodrigozwetsch | Dec 7, 2017 | Corporates, Investors, Startups
A quick visit to Slush’s website and you will read that the event happens during what is the sh*ttiest weather season of the year. I have never been in Finland before so I don’t know if it can get any sh*ttier, but let me tell you: it is cold.
They claim nothing normal ever changed a damn thing and they couldn’t be more right. The moment we get there we start to think about that sentence and the truth is it reflects exactly what happens during those days in Helsinki.
The event is amazing, to be honest it is one of the best startup and tech events I’ve ever attended (and I’ve had my fair share of tech events). The energy surrounding it is contagious and the concept of the true entrepreneur is everywhere you look. You would think that such a dark space wouldn’t be cosy but you couldn’t be more wrong, in fact that darkness contributes to create the atmosphere we’re so drawn into. Plus, the disruptive ideas and the content quality make this event nothing but normal.
There is no way you’ll get bored in Slush. Everybody is there to share their experiences and make the ecosystem grow. It is extremely focused on startups and that is why they are everywhere, focused mainly on B to B and at the same time totally different from what we know as “conventional”.
It is a must go for startups and entrepreneurs and no matter what I write about it it will never truly describe what happens there, you will never be able to understand how the event’s energy works towards everybody’s feelings and emotions if you don’t actually live it. It is, without a doubt, money extremely well spent.
For those who didn’t have the opportunity to be there I leave you with some of my favourite talks from the event. Hope you enjoy them as much as me.
How Best to Create a World-Conquering Team (Toby Coppel,Alice Bentinck, Kat Manalac) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ9xgu4eYgk
Talk What Will Happen in Artificial Intelligence Next Year (Harri Valpola) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkRpmSld1fI
Talk Back to the Future of work (Karoli Hindriks) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-XdXkB_wxQ
Preparing our kids for jobs that don’t exist yet (Zach Klein) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Ca4m6WLuA
by tombento | Nov 21, 2017 | Corporates, Featured, Investors, Startups
When Jason Calacanis, “arguably the world’s greatest angel investor”, is asked whether you must be located in Silicon Valley to be a successful angel investor, his answer is an emphatic “yes!” According to him, if you’re not it’s ridiculously hard to get any meaningful investments under your belt.
Now, Jason is a straight-maths kind of guy (he’s known for figuring out how much money startups have left in the bank by asking a few simple questions). He knows what he’s talking about. For now, more than half of the world’s unicorns are in the United States (54%), so it stands to reason that if you want to have a go at angel investing, that’s where you should take your shot.
But we also know that this is not contextually true (e.g. two of the three most valuable startups in the world are Chinese) as the time for maturing incumbent markets is upon us. And Lisbon is clearly on that list.
If you think you’ve seen Lisbon at its best, we’re here to assure you that we’re just getting started. That’s why, in 2018, we’re going all in with our newest edition of the Lisbon Investment Summit. You may ask, why you should join us on June 6 and 7? I can think of at least 3 reasons:
Reason One – Emerging Startup Power
Just this year we’ve witnessed new strong investments in the ecosystem, with Farfetch getting a €397 million investment, Feedzai raising a €50 million Series C and Veniam raising a 22€ Million Series B. And there are many more startups coming out blazing that you should keep an eye on. If you want to meet them, #LIS is the place to be.
Reason Two – A Crazy Talent Magnet
When companies like Mercedes Daimler, Zalando, Pipedrive, Amazon and Uber are betting heavily on new offices, digital innovation hubs and operation centers in Lisbon, that’s what we call “validation”. These moves signal a straightforward proof that our sunny city is joining the big dogs. If you’re curious about understanding why it’s a sound bet and how it can be done, guess where you should be during those two fateful days?
Reason Three – Early Stage Startup Gold
In our 2017 edition we brought over 700 startups to Lisbon, with 50% of them looking for early stage seed investments. And 150 investors answered the call. It helps that according to Allianz Kulturstiftung, Lisbon ranks as the fifth-best-performing startup community in Europe, ahead of other powerhouses like Stockholm and Dublin. So if you’re looking for your next investment or if you’re looking to raise money for your startup, you should definitely check us out. We’ll even help you out with the matchmaking.
If this gets your blood pumping, you should know Early Bird Tickets are out.
See you in June?
by amalienaustdal | Oct 25, 2017 | Corporates, Investors, Startups
The Web Summit, and with it an exciting week, is about to take Lisbon by storm. The entire city is preparing to welcome 60,000+ attendees and 1,000+ speakers from 160+ countries. In addition to the tech conference, there are countless satellite events, such as workshops, meetups, and parties.
The week can be overwhelming, there are too many cool events, interesting people and new business opportunities, and not enough time to tend to all of them. It can be difficult to navigate through all that’s going on. For you to get the most out of your stay in Lisbon we have compiled a list of all the events happening during the week.
The type of events vary widely. Some are meant to give you an introduction to the city and the Portuguese ecosystem, such as the Street Art Tour, Secret Food Tours and Lisbon Startup Tour. Some offer meetups and workshops on specific topics and interests, allowing you to learn, develop your skills, and broaden your perspectives, such as Public Speaking Trainings and ntop and Wireshark Users Group Meeting. And some are just meant for you to hang out and party, such as WSCO 17 Web Summit Chill Out and Funky Party by La French Tech and Beta-i.
Go ahead, take a look at the various events happening in Lisbon. They present endless possibilities for networking to create global connections. All you have to do is decide which one best fits your needs, take note and show up. Maybe we’ll see you there?
[contact-form-7 id=”1833″ title=”Beta-i Guide: Events around Web Summit”]
by Carolina Santos | Oct 25, 2017 | Corporates, Investors, Startups
Back in 2015, Paddy Cosgrave explained the reasons for Web Summit moving to Lisbon. He said it’s “for academics to figure out why in certain cities at a certain moment there’s just a great community spirit and real optimism about a better tomorrow”, adding “I saw it in incubators I visited and in the bars where I went for drinks with young entrepreneurs and investors”.
It is exactly that optimism, along with hard work, that has turned Lisbon into a melting pot for entrepreneurs. To share this with the outside world, Beta-i is bringing our third edition of The Lisbon Startup Tour, in partnership with Google, as a side-event during the week of Web Summit. Taking place on November 6th.
The tour offers five different tracks that you can choose from according to your interests. All of them feature visits to the offices of incredible startups. Take your pick from startups such as Uniplaces (raised one of the biggest series A in Europe), Talkdesk (founders made it to Forbes’ 30 under 30 list) and Unbabel (first Portuguese startup on Y Combinator), just to mention a few. For a complete overview of the different tracks and the startups involved visit the Lisbon Startup Tour site.
The Lisbon Startup Tour is a great opportunity to immerse in the startup culture, mingle with founders, hear their success stories, get to know the most noteworthy startups and hubs, and get an intimate introduction to the community hotspots of the Portuguese startup ecosystem. It is also an opportunity to live the city, walk in the entrepreneurs’ shoes and see firsthand what everyone is talking about.
Slots are limited to 25 people for each track so make sure you grab your spot by signing up here.
