Heptasense, a portuguese startup, was selected to join Data Pitch, an ambitious European project to accelerate startups from the continent, and challenged to solve a series of challenges by working with data. Beta-i, in partnership with the European Commission, ensures coordination of this acceleration program.
Heptasense, whose solution is already being used in Mercedes factories, is an artificial intelligence software that can recognize and predict accidents on the streets to alert operational teams in real-time.
One of the biggest causes of traffic, and consequently high carbon emissions, are accidents. This problem is worse on highways, because it is hard to detect on time, and very difficult to manage afterwards. Heptasense is a software platform that leverages data from surveillance cameras to detect accidents and alert the operational teams in real-time. Although this solves part of the problem, the goal is also to mitigate such risks. That’s why the platform is also merging data from weather, GPS and historical accidents data to predict when and where accidents may occur so that operational teams can be ready to act.
Heptasense is one of 29 new Data Pitch startups that were this week introduced at a celebratory reception held at the Google Campus in London. This new cohort brings the total number of Data Pitch companies to 47, each receiving up to €100K equity free funding, expert mentoring, investment opportunities, and access to data from established businesses and the public sector.
The project is coordinated by Beta-i, in partnership with the University of Southampton, the Open Data Institute and french data platform Dawex. The initiative, which kicked off officially today, will be financed by the research and innovation program Horizon 2020, the European Union, and each startup will be in the program for six months.
“This is a fantastic opportunity to build a platform for collaboration between startups and companies covering all of Europe. Startups will have the opportunity to access huge data blocks from some of the largest European companies in order to try to resolve previously identified challenges, using the development of new products and services. This European accelerator brings together a wide and diverse batch of industries, working in an engaging and collaborative way, and we see this opportunity as a chance to use our experience, as we expand our know-how and methodologies. “
Ricardo Marvão, co-founder and Head of Education of the Beta-i
The ambition is to create an entire ecosystem of innovation for Europe, a space where big companies can work closely with agile startups so they can innovate and learn from each other, using the data as a basis to solve the problems.
Beta-i is joining forces with Câmara Municipal de Lisboa to empower our Community with the best Lisbon Entrepreneurship Week ever. We’re opening the sessions to the community so every startup has a learning opportunity. So, from Monday May 14 until Friday May 18, everyone’s invited to join this entrepreneurship celebration.
The agenda is appealing but here’s only a few slots left for the workshops so be fast if you want to attend them. On Monday from 5pm to 6pm, at Beta-i’s 8th floor, there’s a workshop focused on Public Speaking. We know speaking in public can be frightening, there’s even a name for it, it’s called Glossophobia. Did you know that it’s one of the most common fears among humans?
This workshop given by Lerio Cunha, who has been traveling the World helping people overcome this fear and improve their communication skills, promises to help you face your demons and become a natural at speaking in public.
On Thursday from 5pm to 6pm also at Beta-i’s 8th floor there’s a workshop on “How to work your Customer Retention” given by Orlando Lopes, Co-founder at Eat Tasty. This workshop is for everyone who wants to raise their profit and increase their customer retention – the act of keeping current customers that you’ve already spent money acquiring. Did you know that it costs up to 30 times less to retain existing customers than to invest in new ones? Learn with Orlando how to do it, he strongly believes customer retention is key to success.
Also on Thursday Beta-i is hosting a mee tup alongside Startup Portugal focused on Blockchain at 6pm. How is it going to work? There’s going to be one host from Beta-i and another one from Think Tank and two invited speakers. The meet up will last between 30 to 45 minutes with more 30 minutes for Q&A. The meet up finishes with a TGIT (Thank God it’s Thursday) on Beta-i’s patio.
Friday is set to be a full day. From 2.30pm to 4pm, at Beta-i’s 8th floor, the workshop given by Elsa Ferreira, Lean-Agile Coach at Farfetch, is focused on Lean-Agile Principles, “Do it right the first time”. Get ready for a tip and tool session that will teach you the art of doing things that deliver higher value right on the first try with the least waste. Expect a hands-on approach with examples from Elsa’s professional experience – it’s 29 years of experience.
Daniel Araújo’s Talk, Co-founder and CEO of Attentive.us, follows from 4pm to 5pm and from 5pm to 6pm it will be time for the Data Pitch – Demonstration Day, an open pitch session. If you’re not familiar with Data Pitch, it’s a EU funded open innovation programme focused on Open Data and delivered by Beta-i, Open Data Institute, University of Southampton and Dawex. Don’t miss the chance to get to know the best European Technological Innovation, meet the startups and watch them pitch during the Open Pitch Sessions.
