Lisbon Investment Summit: the gathering of the innovation community

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:

#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).

#LIS19 Pitch Competition Winner Gives Advice to early stage startups

#LIS19 Pitch Competition Winner Gives Advice to early stage startups

One of our favorite things at Lisbon Investment Summit is our #LIS Pitch Competition in which 12 up-and-coming startups pitch on stage to a crowd of top-tier international investors.

This year’s award, sponsored by GROW, went to Musiversal – a platform that helps music creators to record sessions in world-class studios with professional musicians.

André Miranda, founded Musiversal as a solo founder and has been growing his team ever since. During its early stage phase, Musiversal was in Beta-i’s acceleration program – Lisbon Challenge – where it was invested by LC Ventures and REDangels.

As Musiversal enters a high-growth phase, building momentum for a successful seed investment round, here is the advice André Mirada had for new startups entering new editions of Lisbon Challenge:

Lisbon Investment Summit gathered top innovators in Lisbon

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

Publicado por Lisbon Investment Summit em Quarta-feira, 12 de junho de 2019

What You Can Expect From Lisbon Investment Summit

Lisbon Investment Summit is knocking on our doorstep – in just a couple of days, we’ll gather the best innovators in the world for 2 days of knowledge sharing and discussion in an action-packed agenda. Here is all you can expect from our slightly unexpected event!

Thought-Provoking Conversations

What happens when you get some of the most daring entrepreneurs, corporate innovators, seasoned investors and forward thinking leaders in one place? A lot of interesting conversations! They will be sparked by our amazing speakers – like Andrew Keen, best-selling author of “How To Fix the Future”, that will share his thoughts on the challenges of digitalization and how society can overcome them. Not to mention talks on how to build a strong startup community, collaboration in innovation and how investment is changing across borders.

Perfect Matches

In the event like Lisbon Investment Summit – with some of the best startups around and top-tier investors we expect to see a lot of partnerships starting. The guests will be able to take advantage of our matchmaking app to find potential clients, but in a relaxed environment like #LIS it’s easy to just strike up a conversation with the person drinking coffee next to you, and who knows? It might be your next business partner.

Girl Power

Gender equality is not just a hot theme, it is something that runs in Beta-i’s DNA. Besides our female speakers – that range from entrepreneurs to venture capitalists – don’t miss #iamremarkable workshop by Google, to empower women to own their achievements, and the book launch of “Ara the Star Engineer”, a book to encourage girls to pursue STEM careers.

Fierce Pitch Competition

Lisbon Investment Summit gives the opportunity for startups to pitch in front of a crowd of top-tier investors and corporate innovators – and these startups are ready to shine. Like Daniela Seixas, founder and CEO of TonicApp told us, winning the pitch competition gave TonicApp the exposure and access it needed to start their investment round. So we can promise they will be ready to rock that stage.

Surprises

Besides our incredible panels on innovation, business and investment, #LIS is full of moments created to surprise you. Have dinner with a stranger and meet some interesting people, enjoy building your network while resting your eyes on the amazing views of the Tagus River, and ride a real-life bullicorn. Anything can happen at #LIS!

Don’t miss any of this at Lisbon Investment Summit – get your ticket (with a 35% discount) here.

“We consider Lisbon Investment Summit to be one of the best events in entrepreneurship and investment in Portugal and Europe” Daniela Seixas from Tonic App

We are one week away from Lisbon Investment Summit, the slightly unexpected startup conference that gathers the most daring innovators, corporate visionaries, and top-tier investors. We spoke with Daniela Seixas, CEO of TonicApp, and winner of last year’s competition, who will be joining Beta-i at #LIS again.

TonicApp, dedicated to the medical community, is an app that aggregates the most useful medical tools for doctors. It lets medical practitioners discuss clinical cases, check drug conversion tables and get informed on healthcare news –  it even has a secure case discussion platform that connects doctors that can help each other in providing better care for patients.

Daniela, a medical doctor herself (neuroradiologist), felt the need to create a place for the community to convey and share. It was a necessity I felt myself and all doctors as we see it. Today, doctors are overwhelmed with pressure from all sides – about costs, about time, and even legal situations in some markets like the United States. Besides that, the scientific knowledge is ever expanding and, nowadays, fragmented across the internet. So the idea was to create a go-to platform for all doctors that solves most of the problems they face daily.”

The startup has a connection with Beta-i from its early days – having participated in open-innovation programs like Techcare, backed by Novartis with whom TonicApp has partnered up -, so Lisbon Investment Summit made sense to them.

We consider Lisbon Investment Summit to be one of the best events in entrepreneurship and investment in Portugal and Europe. At this time last year, we were starting our fundraising, and we specifically decided to start it at LIS, and we applied to pitch to have the exposure we needed. We’re closing the round now and even though we didn’t meet our investors at LIS, we definitely started the process there and communicated differently with each one, and it worked – we got the visibility we needed.”

The startup is not stopping anytime soon – they aim to be the ecosystem doctors need to thrive in all aspects of their profession, giving them the tools and information they need to keep thriving and providing the best care they can give to their patients.

“Tonic App has a lot of resources for doctors – some of them are clinical and some are not. This is our bet, we want to help doctors in their professional life, be it helping them diagnose and treat their patients or other areas.”

To create this, TonicApp is partnering up with other players and entities in a collaborative environment, to progress faster in a fast-paced innovative space.

“Building on an ecosystem idea, we want to work with all players in the ecosystem that have valuable resources for doctors, so we create partnerships with multinationals, like Randstad, or Medtronic or Novartis, but also with public entities, scientific organizations, and other startups like us, like Eventtia and SerFarma. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to develop software ourselves when it already exists – we work as a channel for doctors.”

TonicApp will be at this year’s edition of Lisbon Investment Summit, and Daniela will be speaking at one of the panels at Google Stage – at the Book Launch: “Ara the Star Engineer”. The book tells the story of a young girl who loves numbers and uses her smarts to solve a big problem, by creating an algorithm and encountering real-life women tech trailblazers of diverse backgrounds. It aims to inspire young girls to pursue STEM careers and bring gender equality to the table in the sector.

As a doctor and female founder, Daniela is no stranger to the quest, bringing their unique perspective as a woman, doctor and entrepreneur: “I didn’t feel discrimination much as a female founder. Actually, even though entrepreneurship is a male-dominated field, much more than medicine – which nowadays has a lot more women than men – it’s a much more equitable environment for gender. Founding my own company and becoming its CEO, depended solely on me and my work during this time. In medicine, reaching a leadership position would not depend on me or my accomplishments, but on the established institutions.”

Don’t miss this and other important and thought-provoking conversations at Lisbon Investment Summitget your ticket (with a 35% discount) here.