Like we mentioned in our last article, Circular Economy aims to keep products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value, at all times. The way to do this is to focus on the principals of the model, commonly known as the “7 R’s” of circular economy.
Rethink
Re-thinking business models and solutions at every level to be mindful of resource use and waste production. The sharing economy is proof that ownership of material is dropping, making for fewer materials used. Businesses like IKEA are already looking into renting business models.
At home: Rethink your consumption and evaluate if you really need that purchase – Refusing to consume what you don’t need to.
Reduce
Reduce consumption of energy and materials by applying lean design principles and producing products that are made to last.
At home: Reduce your consumption of energy by switching to low-consumption appliances, turning off unused appliances, and reducing your consumption to a “need only” basis. Invest in quality clothing, with ethically sourced materials, that will last you longer.
Re-use
Reuse products by transferring them to another user. The marketplaces like eBay have already taken hold on consumers’ markets and it’s starting to be used in industries as well.
At home: Sell the products you no longer use to other users and consider purchasing second-hand instead of brand new. Find new uses for products (old bottles can be used as flower vases!).
Repair
Repair components and parts so that products can be used longer by the user. With the slow-down of throw-away consumption, consumers will be thinking about purchasing products that last and the “repair” business will get a boost.
At home: Consider repairing small appliances, like toasters, instead of purchasing new ones when the old ones fail. Invest in quality clothing and take pieces to mended if needed.
Refurbish
To achieve circular economy, businesses can look into recovering and refurbishing old products to be sold again or transformed in new products.
At home: Upcycle old products by giving them new life: recover old furniture and give it a new life with new paint, re-use old pieces of clothing by sewing a transforming them into updated models.
Recover
Recover embedded energy from non-recyclable waste material where feasible. Non-recyclable waste may at least be converted into energy through waste-to-energy processes such as combustion and gasification.
Recycle
Recycle materials or resources by disassembling components and separating parts.
At home: Separate and recycle!
Now that you know the 7 R’s, we challenge you into picking one and changing something according to the principle! Let us know what you did by tagging us on social media: @beta_i
CardioID’s goal was to produce a technology that would allow changing of routines of authentication and biometric identification of users and they did it by monitoring the heart signals. Each one of us has a heartbeat or a cardiac morphology that is unique – like a fingerprint.
CardioID’s core team, all comprised of electrotechnical engineers, first came into Beta-i’s fold when they participated in the first Lisbon Challenge. When the Beta-i’s team took the challenges of Smart Open Lisboa to them, they didn’t hesitate to put in their contributions towards better mobility in the city. They implemented their product CardioWheel: an Advanced Driver Assistance System that acquires the electrocardiogram (ECG) from the driver’s hands to continuously detect drowsiness, cardiac health problems, and biometric identity recognition.
We spoke with André Lourenço, one of the co-founders, about their path to the perfect product and their participation in SOL Mobility.
ReThink: What was your goal when you started CardioID?
André Lourenço: We had an ambitious goal – to have a base technology that could be applied to multiple scenarios. So we thought that authentication using the heartbeat could change our way of interacting with technology – from cell phones, computers, gaming consoles… anything where you can use your hands – we could identify the person and personalize the experience.
We talked with a lot of people but there wasn’t a go-to-market for that technology at the time – although we do hold the patent of the intellectual property – so we had to develop the technology further, to fit market needs. Because of our science background, we had a solution and we were trying to find the problem when usually it is the other way around.
RT: Is this how you got to your product, CardioWheel?
AL: Exactly! As CardioID evolved, we were looking for a market and we had always thought there was potential in the automotive industry, giving the user experience and the inherent problems of driving. So we started making changes to focus on the automotive industry.
RT: Did you change your vision to adapt to the market?
AL: Everything connected to the more operational side of the business was essential to make the product more marketable. Fleets and the managers are looking for lowering costs – those are the pains of a businessman. So, we had to integrate our base technology in a bigger idea that allows for optimization of a fleet.
But we really think this technology can make a difference and better our lives – there’s still so many car accidents. We know there are autonomous cars coming, but that’s not happening tomorrow. CardioID still maintains humans in command of cars but enhances our experience to be safer and smoother. But that is just one thing.
We believe this technology can go much further than cars.
RT: In which industries do you see CardioID in next?
AL: We have a base technology that is algorithms. We also made some hardware because it didn’t exist at the time. So we basically have a technology that can measure signals and process them locally, and that can be applied in anything. Namely, in the area of critical facilities and monitoring of “lone workers” – someone who has to climb a high voltage pole or inspect a pipeline, or other dangerous environments, by himself. Our tech can be embedded in a t-shirt or a band, and the process of analysis of fatigue and stress can be added. We can have these signals monitored by others or by the person themselves – giving him an awareness of his own conditions.
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We saw immediately a slew of companies that we’d been trying to work with, giving that our product was ready to market. We needed a connection to them and SOL accomplished it very well.
RT: Why did you decide to join SOL Mobility? What were the main attractions the program had for you?
AL: The main attraction was the industry that was involved. We saw immediately a slew of companies that we’d been trying to work with, giving that our product was ready to market. We needed a connection to them and SOL accomplished it very well. It was an interesting deck of entities and companies, and we especially liked that several of them had national reach, even though the programme is “Smart Open Lisboa”.
RT: How was the process of working with a utility?
AL: Ferrovial in particular opened up for us, and they have been a great partner. We’re very happy to be working with them. We’ve made more contacts that are still on-going. It opened up a lot of doors for us that we are now developing relationships with. The programme aims to establish procedures and create visible milestones for both sides and it was really effective. The pilot was a real deployment of our technology with a big enough scale – that was important to us.
RT: You partnered up with Ferrovial – what is the pilot about?
AL: We are monitoring the whole driving experience of Ferrovial’s fleet. We’re using not only CardioWheel – which analyses the physiological signals of the driver – but also monitoring the car and the driving and the road itself. We applied complementary technological units to have a system that allows optimizing the costs of the operation and simultaneously greatly improve the safety of the driver.
It’s still early for the results, but we’ve observed some interesting things already. We have several driver profiles, that consider region, type of vehicle, driver’s physiology, route and incidents of the job. For example, there’s a big correlation between the number of incidents (weather, etc) and vehicle consumption.
RT: What were the biggest advantages you took from being in Smart Open Lisboa?
AL: The biggest advantage was the structure of the pilots and the contacts with the companies involved in the programme. The fact that we had all the entities and companies connected to mobility in the same room was very interesting – just having all the players in mobility there brought up ideas that connected with each other. That was a major plus.
RT: Would you recommend Smart Open Lisboa to other startups?
AL: Yes! There’s still so much to do in mobility. We’ve had so many ideas, we wish we had the time to it ourselves. But to take advantage of Smart Open Lisboa, a startup must be mature enough to develop the pilots and apply the technology on a national scale, that’s important to take notice.
You can take a look at CardioID’s pilot presentation below:
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To celebrate Valentine’s day, CBInsights shared a map of the most romantic tech startups. We’ve taken a look at the list and we’ll show how to create a perfect Valentine’s day!
Start the day with a surprise
Flowers are a staple of romance! Surprise your significant other with a lovely bouquet in the morning, even if you’re not with them (that’s even better)! Go for a romantic (and sustainably sourced) design with Urbanstems or go all in with a Bloomon subscription.
Express your love
Valentine’s day is not the day to be shy. Say what you feel with a surprising pop-up card from LovePop, a unique artistic design from Minted, or go digital with a customized card from Paperless Post.
Sweeten the deal
If your loved one has a sweet tooth this is a must! Go with ethically sourced chocolate from SweetRiot or a perfect gift truffle from Love Cocoa.
Get ready in style
If you want to look your best, accessorize! Get a sweet deal on a pre-owned luxury watch in Chronext or rent your dream jewelry at Flont.
Have a fantastic meal
Nothing makes a date like a wonderful meal with your significant other. Make a reservation with Resy, or find the best restaurant recommendations from your friends with Misk.
Open up a bottle of wine
Don’t know much about wines? No problem, Vivino app will let you know what you need about that bottle. And if you’re a connoisseur, VinFolio will get you access to curated collections.
Spice it up
Create exciting moments in bed with Vibease’s app-controlled vibrator, or get an Unbound subscription to keep the passion (and experimentation) alive.
Ready to take the next step?
Start planning your wedding with Zola, and build your wedding website with Joy.
In a Long-distance relationship?
Work on feeling closer with tech: Watch a romantic movie together in real-time with Rabbit and fall asleep listening to each other’s heartbeat with Little Riot.
Single?
Meet your next Valentine with a dating app: look for meaningful conversations via Coffee Meets Bagel or just the closest person, with Happn.
Jungle is an innovative startup that is on a mission to reduce uncertainty. Wind turbines, power transformers, and heavy industry machinery – they use tailored AI models to identify when assets are underperforming and predict when they will fail.
They started out in Delft (Netherlands) in mid-2016, where Alexander Helmer and his co-founder, Tim Kock, were trying different AI technologies – they didn’t wanna focus on a single-purpose product – looking for something that could serve a broad spectrum of applications. Through their network, they landed on a case where they ended up developing their predictive system – that blew their minds and found a place in the world for the Jungle.
Looking to scale their business outside of the Netherlands, they looked into Portugal as a talent-filled pool and a great place to unleash the Jungle. They met Beta-i when they casually walked into a TGIF one day – and liked it so much that they decided to stay.
They’ve been in our hub since April 2017, so we went to talk to Alex Helmer, co-founder of Jungle, them about their experience in Free Electrons.
ReThink: I heard you were not big fans of accelerators or open innovation programs before FE. Why was that?
Alex: (laughs) You’re talking to the right person. The other team members were a lot more open-minded, I was the one that was a bit against accelerators. I think many accelerator programs focus on the first stages of starting a business: defining a product, defining a customer, validating your idea, business model canvasing, these types of things. That was my association with accelerators, that it focusses on early stage – on validation of your concept. So I was not too excited.
RT: So, what made you join Free Electrons?
A: It was actually Rodrigo Zwetsch [Beta-i’s community manager] that came into our office and said that maybe we needed to look into this. I was not fully convinced, I thought that we should keep with our existing customer database and spend time on building it out more. Tim and Silvio were actually more open-minded so we decided to dig a little deeper into what the program consists of. Turns out that, at that moment, it was a very different accelerator than what we thought, and there was actually a really good balance between the time you put into it, and the alignment that it had with the company that we were at that moment. Because we were still validating some of our ideas back then, we wanted to try it on different customers, we wanted to see how our solutions scale from one customer to the next. And this was actually a great opportunity to start testing that because there were a few very big and important utility companies globally present at the event. And we could see how long it takes to turn a solution if we go from A to B and also test it on C, how long does that take.
Turns out that, at that moment, it was a very different accelerator than what we thought, and there was actually a really good balance between the time you put into it, and the alignment that it had with the company that we were at that moment.
RT: So was that your main goal going into the programme, to test?
A: To test our solutions technically for sure, but also to test commercial viability. There are some areas that we work in where the way the stakeholders work together is fairly complex and closed, so we needed to understand better how we fitted in into that. And I would also say, to just create a network worldwide because if you serve, for example, utility companies, or factories of heavy industries as a customer, you can only grow so far within Portugal and the Netherlands, so you need to start looking beyond borders.
RT: You partnered up with EDP and also innogy. What were the pilots you worked on about?
A: At Jungle we currently have 3 products/verticals that we’re working on: one is on wind energy and wind turbines, one is more generic electrical assets like power transformers and circuit breakers, things typically in the electrical grid, and the third one is heavy industry, which is factories of basic materials like steel. The technology and the predictive capabilities that we build, they work pretty much the same for all three of these, so that’s why we have this big approach.
With innogy we worked in wind. The pilot was basically to show them what our predictive technology could do in an offshore farm and what it could do in an onshore farm, and given that result, how can we integrate it to make commercially viable for them.
With EDP, it has been a longer trajectory with them. They have a very big portfolio and different business units and all of them have transformers. And these things may fail – not that often! – but if they do they can fail pretty catastrophically and they’re expensive. We’re taking a look at a big spectrum of data and when you’re able to grab all this data and put it together in a logical way, you can start predicting when these failures might happen and also, with that, how you should operate them to extend their lifetime. So, it’s maintenance and also operations, in the sense that how do you operate them to have less maintenance.
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RT: What was it like to work directly with corporate partners?
A: We had worked with utilities before in the Netherlands, on smaller projects. I think it’s a very interesting trajectory to go through. At Jungle, we’re all quite young – the oldest person is not even 35. So what we see of the world is how we operate. And this is the way we expect companies to work. Of course, we know that a utility company works differently than we do, especially big organizations. But, it is still interesting to observe the dynamics of how a company like that works and how you interact with them and what are the steps that you need to take in order to get a partnership with them.
RT: There must be a big gap between the way they work and the way you do. Did Free Electrons help you bridge that gap?
A: Yeah, there is a big gap. I mean, if you look at the footprint of the company, it’s completely different, it has to be different.
I think the interesting thing is that most of the people in the Free Electrons programme that are from the utilities’ side are from innovation departments, so they’re sort of in-between the two, and I think that’s a really good bridge because without that bridge it would very difficult for us to partner with the utility.
We’ve had really good relationships with the innovation people of the [Free Electrons’] companies we’ve worked with. EDP, obviously, because they are also an investor of ours, we’re next door, we’ve got a good relationship. But also with innogy – I mean, Tim went to Hamburg in October for an update, and he stayed at the Innovation Manager’s house – crashing in his guest bedroom – and he even picked him up at the airport at midnight. It was a very funny dynamic for sure, but without those people, it would be very very difficult.
RT: You developed a long term relationship with the utilities there, they are still your partners and your clients, right?
A: Yeah, of course! But I think this is also a bit of a given – as a startup, at least in the area we are, you have to develop a long term partnership with a company like that because the projects that we do are so big that it doesn’t make sense to do this in the short-term. In these projects, we only worked on a couple of wind farms for them, but they have dozens of wind farms, so we need to push for that.
I think it’s something that outside of a programme like that, it would have taken us just so much time.
RT: What surprised you the most in the program?
A: I think what maybe surprised me, and this is given my perspective of accelerators earlier on, it is how effective the time was that we spent during those four weeks. It was an intense programme for all four of the phases, but just putting all of these people in the same room, having a decent schedule, knowing what the goals are… I think it’s something that outside of a programme like that, it would have taken us just so much time. So, I guess, that’s the thing that surprised me, being against accelerators (laughs)!
RT: In the end, did it change your mind about accelerators?
A: (laughs) Yes, totally. I’ll confess to that!
In the end, we just asked Alex if he would recommend Free Electrons to other startups looking to go global. Here is his video reply:
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!
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!
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
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!
