Digital transformation still has a long way to go before becoming ubiquitous in society and companies. The belief that all the market is fully on digital mode, is actually a myth.
B2B relations might consider more environmental, social issues in their procurement and compliance processes;
Core business technological reinvention is an unavoidable must. Really. At last.
These are some of the key impressions from “Learnings in times of a pandemic – A quick poll on personal mindset changes” ran by Beta-i during the peak of quarantine and self-isolation stress in Europe (May to June). We’ve asked some of our corporate clients, closest startups and other stakeholders (investors, think tanks) about these new perspectives. And you can access the full results here:
Well yes, we do have some exciting news to share. We’re launching our new brand and everything that comes along in these key moments. We’re really happy with the final result – something that was already happening when the entire planet turned upside down with the pandemic:The interesting thing is that our value proposition – collaborative innovation – couldn’t be more aligned with the new challenges brought by this new brand world waiting for us out there, or already impacting us right now whenever we can be.
Beta-i has distilled its approach on innovation during the past years and if there’s a one really important thing to highlight at this point, is that what we’re saying is not a goal or a will. It’s a reality from here to the future. Beta-i has a global reach actually, a strong 10-year track record on innovation ecosystems and an expert team able to share this knowledge.
We have a new branch in Brazil, clients in 20 countries in the 5 continents and an admirable team of 50 people from 15 different nationalities.
We believe collaboration is the key to make things change. To solve things that matter. To help ecosystems and society grow. To, no bullshit, build a collective future. That’s what we have been doing; now, we’re just funnelling these services to the same destination: collaboration to innovate. We’ll keep connecting the innovation voices to transform ideas into a business, pilots into deals, solutions into impact to solve complex changes.
Beta-i was created during the last Portuguese crisis, in the second half of 2009, with the deep motivation of being part of the solution and help to create an innovation ecosystem able to support the next generation of entrepreneurs. We helped to make that in Portugal and abroad, and now we’re leveraging this in a global scale – helping corporates, startups, universities, investors, social impact organizations and other voices to work together. We’re starting a new phase in the best possible moment.
So you’re invited to explore our new site and follow our social media channels. And stay tuned: we have a lot more to share during the next months. And to tell, after 10 years of ongoing innovation.
Portuguese startups seem to be everywhere in the media, and that’s no wonder – they are growing, getting invested and collecting awards – and they have raised over €485M in 2018.
Venture Capital in Portugal is definitely growing: the volume of transactions was 4.4x bigger in 2018 than it was in 2017, and business angels are rising up to VC level, mostly through co-investment.
During 2018, the total value was boosted by the investment of two portuguese unicorns: OutSystems and Talkdesk. Pedro Falcão, managing partner at LC Ventures, added “I believe Portugal will have more unicorns in the next few years – Feedzai might be next.”
While the market is clearly investing in early stage startups, as seed stage investments represent 83% of the total, venture capital still has an immense potential to grow – as it represents only 1% of the investment in portuguese companies.
You can download and read the whole updated report: Venture Capital in Portugal 2018-S12019, the most complete report on the portuguese venture capital market elaborated by LC Ventures and FNABA, and presented by Pedro Falcão at Lisbon Investment Summit.
Lisbon Investment Summit happened over two weeks ago now, but for us, it is still going: through all the things that we learned, the moments we treasured and the relationships we started.
It’s all about community
The most important thing we learned at #LIS19 is something that we at Beta-i have always believed: it’s all about community. Innovation is only possible when different stakeholders join forces together and collaborate to thrive – and #LIS19 is the perfect melting pot that joins entrepreneurs, corporate innovators, investors and decision makers in one place.
The highlights:
Humanity Will Fix the Future
Andrew Keen, the best-selling author of How To Fix the Future and the headliner at #LIS19, spoke about the unfulfilled promises of technology – the promise that it would bring equality, boost democracy and create bridges between people. To overcome these challenges, we must take action through regulation, innovation and citizen engagement. The “fixing” of the future does not rest on more technology – it rests solely on our shoulders.
Investment in Portugal
Pedro Falcão, Managing Partner of LC Ventures, gave #LIS19 attendees an overview of the investment landscape in Portugal. You can download the report here:
Lisbon Investment Summit would not be the same without our amazing pitch competition, sponsored by GROW, which was one of the highlights of these two days – 12 amazing startups pitched on stage but there can only be one winner. The prize went to Musiversal, represented by founder André Miranda (and a Lisbon Challenge alumnus).
This is it! We wrapped up this year’s edition of Lisbon Investment Summit, and we couldn’t be prouder of it.
It was an action-packed event where we gathered over 1500 attendees for 2 days of knowledge sharing, provocative discussions and hundreds of one-on-one meetings between top-tier investors, daring startups and the most innovative corporates.
Humanity Will Fix the Future
We kicked off #LIS (bravely, as Andrew himself put it) with a talk by Andrew Keen on the unfulfilled promises of technology – the promise that it would bring equality, boost democracy and create bridges between people. While Andrew painted a hard picture on the challenges that digitalization brought upon us, he also showed us how to fix it: through regulation, innovation and citizen engagement. The “fixing” of the future does not rest on more technology – it rests solely on our shoulders.
Investment in Portugal
We’re proud of the many good things we have heard today – from investors, industry leaders and startups – about Lisbon and our ecosystem. And thanks to Pedro Falcão, Managing Partner of LC Ventures, we have a clear picture of Investment in Portugal. Don’t worry if you missed his panel – you’ll be able to download it soon on our blog!
The VC path is not for everyone
We started the second and last day of #LIS with a familiar face – Marvin Liao, partner at 500 Startups. Marvin pointed out that there are different paths of entrepreneurship – even if you choose to not get investment, there are other ways to be an entrepreneur – by choosing to be great instead of big. Entrepreneurship is not a science or an art – it’s a practice!
#LIS Pitch Competition
Lisbon Investment Summit would not be the same without our amazing pitch competition, sponsored by GROW, which was one of the highlights of these two days – 12 amazing startups pitched on stage but there can only be one winner. The prize went to Musiversal, represented by founder André Miranda (and a Lisbon Challenge alumnus).
Take a look at some highlights of this year’s edition of Lisbon Investment Summit:
〰️ "Events like #LIS19 are the perfect example of key moments to bring together ecosystem, to nurture a culture of collaboration, to consolidate bridges between entrepreneurs, innovators and investors from different places and to celebrate the joint successes we've achieved in the last years." 〰️ quoting Pedro Rocha Vieira, Beta-i's CEO and CoFounder 🙌 🦄 👏👏👏⠀🎬 Here's a glimpse of the day 1.⠀⠀⠀#lisboninvestmentsummit #betailisbon #startuplife #entrepreneur #investor
The interesting thing is that our value proposition – collaborative innovation – couldn’t be more aligned with the new challenges brought by this new brand world waiting for us out there, or already impacting us right now whenever we can be.
