PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
ESTA magazine went on an awesome challenge when decided to come up with a list of 50 startups just from Portugal. That challenge eventually became a reality and, even in a recession and in the hard times that people face everyday, we did it and realized these are also times of opportunities and very suitable for big ideas to be born. The country is filled with good hopes and optimism and each day has a new story to tell about a new guy that is trying a different and new thing somewhere in a remote village out there. Everyone is moving and thrilled and it sure seems like times are changing. Investment and ideas are spreading out across the emerging hubs of Lisbon, Porto, Braga, Faro or Coimbra. Though, here in Portugal we feel the same as the rest of Europe and startups still complain that the European VC scene is finance focused whereas the Valley is entrepreneur focused. At the same time, it’s impossible to ignore the volume of US investment in London and Berlin – four billion-dollar fund opened in Conduit Street alone this year. We still have a lot of work to do, each and everyone of us. These are not necessarily the biggest, most profitable or best-known businesses – but those that our networks of local friends, entrepreneurs, investors and commentators consider “hot” right now. After an intense period of research we decided this should be the names composing the list. Were we right? We’ll have to wait and see. But who wouldn’t agree that the talent, ambition and execution set out in these pages is Portugal’s greatest, most exciting hope for and economic renaissance?
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PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
Mobile advertising mobitto.com Mobitto is a free smartphone application that allows users to find shortterm deals offered by nearby restaurants, shops, bars, and cultural venues in real time. Headquartered in Lisbon, Mobitto was founded in 2011 and has close to 10 employees. Mobitto gives consumer-facing businesses the ability to incentivize nearby potential customers to come into their establishment through access to the Mobitto community’s likes, dislikes, and habits. These businesses can adapt their deals in real time based on local Mobitto communitymembers’ preferences, attracting new customers and increasing feelings of loyalty among returning customers. Mobitto enables consumers to easily discover and patronize businesses they may never have known existed without the risk of paying full price. Consumers who already know about a business can view its real time promotions and optimize their experiences around town.
+more - Acceleration at StartupBootcamp - Incubation at Startup Lisboa - Global market - 5 people team
features, such as scheduling, real-time updates, online ticket sales, followers, private messaging, scheduling, recommendation system, and integration with other social networks, and has a strong focus on geolocation and elegant code. Tymr was a finalist for the most recent BetaStart business accelerator program run by Beta-I.
The city of Aveiro was chosen to host the first Ubiwhere project due to the large concentration of telephone operating companies, the location of the Portugal Telecom headquarters and a large Nokia Siemens office, and the presence of the Aveiro Telecommunications Institute. Ubiwhere is looking to form partnerships and develop synergies with companies in the telecommunications industry. In 2011, Ubiwhere created a living lab, UbiLL, to facilitate the process of knowledge sharing and to promote new projects and partnerships. The UbiLL is focused on technologies of Ubiquitous Computing and Invisible Computing, related to the development of mobile applications and multimedia interaction, respectively, through multi-touch and gesture recognition. UbiLL has since integrated several projects in the area of mobility, leisure, and tourism. The tourism industry presents opportunities for experimentation. Smartphones and interactive surfaces can be used in certain tourist areas as virtual tour guides. One company, BikeEmotion, enables bike sharing for tourists and locals by using GPS and a locking public bicycle (known as BUGA). UbiLL is part of the European Network of Living Labs and is unique in that it is the only one focused on Ubiquitous / Invisible Computing.
Social media tymr.com Tymr is a social and collaborative event creation and discovery service. Founded in 2011 by Francisco Costa, Tymr is a Portuguese startup that revolutionizes the way to plan, manage, share, and find any kind of event. People can create and share their own events for free in less than 2 minutes, as well as discover new events and manage and organize their calendars. There are no tools that combine event management with social networks while providing feedback and information on all those events. Tymr suggests events according to a user’s profile, social graph, and location to offer an integrated solution for both small events, such as a friend’s party, and large events, such as conferences or music festivals. It combines several
R&D consulting ubiwhere.com Ubiwhere is a startup offering consulting services and software development of heterogeneous networks, with special focus on telecom operators and others who might use networking intensively. Ubiwhere was created in 2007 out of the combined passions of three researchers at the Institute of Telecommunications and Portugal Telecom Innovation. The company is dedicated to researching and developing cutting-edge technologies and solutions to create intellectual property both internally and for clients. It now has 20 employees, who are primarily recent graduates in the information technology and telecommunications fields.
Social media limetr.ee Limetree is a web application that allows users to store messages, photos, and videos they want to preserve as a legacy for their children. The site targets parents, grandparents, or whoever wants to leave a legacy, which can be composed of letters, photos, videos, stories, memories, events registration, or any other recordable thing. Limetree also allows users to set a future access date for loved ones to gain access to all the organized information. From that date, all photos, posts, and videos will be shown chronologically.
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
Personal finance modelo3.pt
Advertising exchanges tuizzi.com Tuizzi works to democratize advertising by enabling small businesses to get great advertising formats and was a runner-up at the Start-Up Games in London. Tuizzi is the first web platform that facilitates access to the purchase, sale, and management of outdoor advertising. It is an online platform that works with operators providing free management software specializing in outdoor advertising media. Features
such as calendars occupations, price lists, statistics, reports, historical, among many others, are already in full use by various national operators of outdoor advertizing. Outdoors, monopostes, gables, rotary, mupies, LED panels, newspapers, magazines, ATM machines, and many other types of media are already represented on the platform and just a click away.
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odelo3 is a platform to help taxpayers to fill out their IRS statements without worrying about the complexities of those documents. This platform shows taxpayers how to pay less and earn more by showing techniques for saving money. Modelo3 is fully confidential and 100% compatible with your personal finance. Modelo3 has been operating since March 2010.
Real estate uniplaces.com
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hose who have studied away from home - or even in another country - know the difficulty of finding a house or a room to rent. Accommodations are either too expensive or too far from the university, or they do not satisfy minimum standards. Founders Miguel Santo Amaro, Mariano Kostelec, Ben Grech and Leo Lara were studying in London and had a terrible time finding a house
to rent. That difficulty became the inspiration behind UniPlaces, created in 2011 with the aim of bridging the gap between quality housing and students. UniPlaces serves to help student associations, which are often outdated when it comes to knowledge of available accommodations. The website gathers rental offers for both houses and rooms close to institutions of higher learning, and allows searches by institution name or location.
At present, the company has more than twenty agreements with institutions of higher education in Portugal, and, since April, in Chile. The website is multilingual to facilitate use by students from other countries. The project has won StartUp Pirates and the StartUp Weekend at StartUp Chile in addition to being well received by the press. Uniplaces is currently incubated in Lisbon, but has plans to expand the platform to other Latin American countries.
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
Last minute deals mygon.com MYGON - My Geo Offer Network is an application that offers promotions and last minute discounts based on a user’s location. However, MYGON stands out because it is not invasive – its network of 200 dealers is filterable so the user only receives offers that the user wants, such as those associated with hotels, activities, spas, or restaurants. MYGON already has more than 7000 Facebook followers and can be accessed through Android, iOS, Windows Phone 7 or Blackberry. The application placed first this year among free applications from the iOS App Store. Those without smartphones can access the deals via the website www.mygon.com. The deals are grouped by interests and proximity to the user. Although the application is free to download, MYGON has a revenue-sharing
Social commerce wishareit.com
model to attract more clients and business. Merchants are not charged for being listed in the app, but rather are charged one euro per booking. Users that recruit new customers or merchants can gain, directly or indirectly, up to 20% of that rate over a period up to two years. The income generated by the recommender can then be paid in cash or donated to charities. Ricardo Vilares, co-founder of MYGON, says the company aims to “achieve the three thousand dealers across the country and more than a million users by the end of 2012.”
Ever had trouble choosing a gift for a family member or friend? Have you ever received a gift that you did not really want? Wishareit, founded by Pedro Moura, João Gomes, and João Romão, overcomes these problems. Based on common experiences of people, Wishareit is identical to a shopping platform that helps you find the perfect gift.
Social media ezimut.com Ezimut is a publisher of digital media travel guides and aims to give users the most diverse points of interest to visit in Lisbon. Neighborhoods, itineraries, routes, accommodation, and even information about events pepper the calendar. Ezimut combines quality with constant updates to content on new media platforms and the mobile web. It looks to provide the best convenient, practical and useful information for global tourists. However, it is still possible to see a selection of 10 essential points to visit in Lisbon within the platform. Ezimut provides the right information for those who want to see the most emblematic places in Lisbon. Ezimut was launched in 2011 and is very useful for tourists researching information on visiting the capital of Portugal.
Mobile advertising youclient.com YouClient is an online platform for users to share opinions about any service or location, anywhere in the world. Users must register and be properly identified when sharing their opinions in order to create a verified community where everyone shares their knowledge, for free. Whether a restaurant, a seamstress, a bookstore, or a university, YouClient users write about almost everything. At the same time, users can discover what others think of places that user knows or would like to know. YouClient follows an affiliate model by linking to various websites associated with a given topic of conversation.
+more - More than 1,000 spots in more than 10 countries - More than 1,500 users in more than 13 countries - Website also in English - Received approval for public funding - Media appearances in national TV
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
Medical appointment scheduling consultaclick.com Consultaclick.com is a startup founded in 2010 to revolutionize the healthcare appointment system in Portugal and abroad. Consultaclick is a web-based appointment-making system, which makes the process more efficient, affordable, and quick process to find and schedule a medical consultation. Patients have access to a transparent, secure, fast, and non-prepay system so they can find the appropriate specialist fit for their needs and availability. Without any added cost, patients are provided a personal area where they register and where all appointments are made for greater control of their clinical progression. At the same time, the platform is available to physicians and brings them greater professional visibility, the ability to disseminate their resumes, simplified schedule and appointment management, and an overall more professional, modern, and efficient process. Doctors will be able to create a profile, post their resumes, provide exact times for potential patient appointments, easily notify patients of any delays or unanticipated communication, and automatically maintain an updated list of patients and their respective queries. Since early internationalization was a goal for the company, Consultaclick. com is headquartered in Lisbon, but already has offices in São Paulo (Brazil) and Madrid (Spain).
Social media tarpipe.com Tarpipe was founded in 2008 by Bruno Pedro and Vitor Rodrigues to make social networking experiences more interactive. It not only allows users to connect different networks and applications, but also to monitor them and synchronize data automatically via a workflow interface. On their website it is defined as “Like yahoo pipes, but much more powerful.”
Online restaurant reservations mytable.pt My table is a brand created by Virtual Lda Index, which seeks to enable users to reserve a table at national quality restaurants, plan a group event, or surprise someone special with complete comfort and safety. My table provides a dynamic and well-structured platform for the general public to express their views and vote on what they enjoyed about restaurants where they have eaten. This vote creates the Top Restaurants list. This information has a real impact on customer choices and aims to gives consumers the power to choose a restaurant based on community opinion. This startup creates the essential conditions for customers to use table reservation services regardless of the form or location of access with a seamless,
IT Services qamine.com
simple, and transparent user experience. My table also created a Customer Service center in order to facilitate and strengthen contact with users.
Collaborative consumption all-desk.com All-desk is an online platform that brings together people who want temporary workspaces and owners who want to share spaces, such as meeting rooms, seating in open space, conference rooms, small offices or training rooms. All-desk was a start-up finalist in the MIT Portugal Competition and promises to become a world reference in the area of services for professionals and companies.
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s a static analysis tool that helps you change and modify code, Qamine searches for spots where a modification might be needed everytime a developer makes a code change. The USA wastes $60 Billion every year correcting bugs. This corresponds to approximately a quarter of the Portuguese GDP in 2011. Qamine is a Software Testing as a Service platform with the purpose of making software developing more efficient. Developers struggle daily with feature development, system refactoring and bug/issue correction. Qamine keeps an eye on your code, suggesting places you may want to modify. It is provided as a service, for cloud hosted software projects, or as a hosted installation for companies that host their code internally. The main goal for the founder Jaime Jorge is then to provide a static code analysis tool that is compatible with cloud projects without the hassle of installation, configuration and workflow modification.
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
Cloud data services crowdprocess.com
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rowdProcess is a webbased distributed computing platform. CrowdProcess aims to help the brightest brains to solve the most difficult problems, but also gives websites the ability to monetize without spoiling the user’s experience. Through a network of websites with thousands of users, CrowdProcess uses unused processing power throughout the world to help solve problems, potentially leading to the discovery of a cure for cancer or to leverage machine learning processes in Business Intelligence.
+more - Incubation at Startup Lisboa - Global market - 5 people team
Cultural entertainment myout.net
Mobile advertising pt.niiiws.com
How many times have you stayed at home because you didn’t know what was going on nearby? MyOut was created in April 2011 and is a simple, complete and updated cultural agenda. Designed by David Sobrinho, André Rodrigues, Diogo Figueiredo and Paul Raymond, it is a platform for the dissemination and organization of events, where users can create a personal account to receive suggestions suited to their personal taste. It is also possible for bands and promoters to publicize their events. The idea of creating this kind of platform arose when the founders took a trip across the country and found that information on events was virtually non-existent or disorganized. The information is available on the website, as it is built in a very intuitive way, dividing the schedule of different types of events and cultural news section. MyOut’s Facebook page has more than 3300 followers. The site is a source of advertising revenue and highlights, but the developers have not put aside the possibility of seeking investment to grow the site’s traffic.
Niiiws, developed by muchBeta, is a news aggregator for the iPad and features daily and constantly updated news from the national press via social network sharing. The app can be customized by news source, author, and subject. The reports are distributed in themed tabs: Featured, National, Politics, Economics, International, Sports, Culture, Science and Technology and Favorites. After tapping an interesting story a blue marker appears in the upper right of the screen that opens several options: save in favorites, the reporting newspaper, the article theme, or options to share the article on Twitter, Facebook or by email.
Social media adegga.com Web 2.0 already lets you share what you do or what pictures you take. Why not share the wines that you drink? Addega was launched in 2007 as a social network where wine enthusiasts can share their experiences and discover new flavors. It was founded by André Cid, Andre Santos, and Emídio Ribeirinho and allows you to create a profile, compare prices, buy online, receive recommendations by people in your network, or discover more about a wine through the criticisms of other tasters. Adegga developed a specialized search engine for blogs, with more than 500 indexed blogs where users can leave a label with matching wines placed on the website. Adegga also developed an innovative method for identifying wines, AVIN (Adegga Wine Identification Number), which assigns a code to each wine profile in the website database, similar to an ISBN number for books. During Spring 2010, the site was renovated and visually currently AVIN is an independent project of Adegga. Social networks and wine producer labels can be accessed via mobile or through AVIN codes.
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
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- 5 people team Investment: - €25,000 (winner of Startup Competition) - €120,000 (Friends, Family & Fools) - €502,000 (QREN) Markets: - Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, Portugal, Hungary, Turkey, Luxembourg Milestones: - 15% market share in Portugal - Top Grossing app in Portuguese app store - Top Grossing app in Swedish app store - Featured by Apple in “What’s Hot” and “New & Noteworthy” sections - Winner of Vodafone Mobile Clicks Portugal 2011 - Top 7 mobile startups in Europe - Vodafone Mobile Clicks - Semi-finalist of MIT Venture Competition - Winner of Prémio Indústrias Criativas 2011 (€25,000)
The website also promotes various events, such as wine fairs, which are easily viewable on the home page. Users can buy selections made by administrators at reduced prices. Despite being based in Portugal, Adegga is an international platform and available not only in Portuguese, but also in French, English, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch.
Adventure travel outitude.com If you can mark your travels and your stays over the internet, why not also check their outdoor activities? Outitude is currently the largest website offering outdoor activities in Portugal, bridging organizations and client events. Offers vary, “from paintball in your city to walking in the Amazon,” according to a company profile on LinkedIn. It all started when Alexandre Carvalho, CEO and founder, decided to form his own business of outdoor activities after several failed attempts to organize a paintball tournament. Designer and developer Nilton Rasollo joined Alexandre Carvalho to produce Outitude. The team has grown, and Outitude now has the support of sports brands like Merrell,
Mobile sports app hole19golf.com
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ole19 helps golfers improve their game. It is a complete solution for the world of golf. It provides golfers with an insight into their game through statistical analysis, by allowing the golfer to plan his round and record his stats through a mobile application, which is complemented by an online analytics platform where golfers can then connect with instructors, other golfers and golf courses.
Ripcurl, and Berg. The website not only allows those seeking an adrenaline rush to find an activity that will pique their interest but also for allows organizations to showcase their activities. Looking for activities is location based, but users can also research future activities nearby or go directly to the desired activity want no matter how far. Outitude was created in Lisbon in 2011, but was not fully released until January 2012. It has more than 80 providers in 30 different categories of water, land, and air activities.
+more - €100000 investment from portuguese Business Angels - 200 portuguese operators - 300 signups in less than 2 months - Reservations from Portugal, Spain, UK and Brazil - 150 Skydrive reservations in 24h in partnership with Let’sBonus - 6 people team
Tourism entertainment excitingspace.com Nuno André Alves and Jason Pascoe, founders of Exciting Space, won the 10th edition of the Business Creation and Entrepreneurship Program of AUDAX / ISCTE-IU and have gone through through the Beta-i acceleration program. They have resided at the Start-up Lisbon incubator since May 2012. The secret to their product is a balanced interactive experience for visitors of any space (park, museum, mall, cities, festivals and many others) using a smartphone. The owners of a space are able to offer a value added service to visitors through Exciting Space’s technology platform guides & games. The guides and games are designed and produced to maximize a visitor’s experience in any room in the world. Other benefits for customers include allowing monitoring and location analysis of visitors, thus opening up a huge range of possibilities for improving the visitor’s experience. Exciting Space aims to revolutionize the ways we explore, learn, and play in spaces and has already developed its first application, “tab and set,” at the Museum of Carriages.
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
Social media bling.io In a nutshell, Bling is a “social network for people who buy things,” said Fred Oliveira to Lusa, a Bling founder. The initial idea was to create a platform where people can find deals nearby, but that evolved into Bling’s current iteration after observing a saturation in the market for travel sites. By enrolling in the social network, you can explore objects that have been purchased to create a wishlist, and discuss individual purchases with other users. Eventually, the creators of Bling want to interact with brands through data collection, so that buyers feel themselves closer to the shops. Bling has been operational since November 2011 and has thousands of website and mobile app subscribers (Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7).
Energy management unplu.gg Energy and savings are the buzz words on a platform that aims to reach the other side of the Atlantic with maximum energy. Unplugg aims to help every citizen to manage their own energy consumption. For nearly a year, four young men decided to join the best they knew how to do: designers and engineers become entrepreneurs. They formed a team with a common goal and prepared to face and overcome the challenges they had and still have ahead. Unplugg is a service that treats information collected by counters and electricity smart meters in homes and presents that information to the user in a useful way. The platform enables analysis of patterns of energy consumption and, at the same time, helps people find answers to improve their energy efficiency. The ultimate goal is to keep people
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ewarket is not just another page of sales and purchases on Facebook. It goes well beyond the concept of e-commerce and outlines the concept of social commerce, where users can buy, sell, exchange, donate, and sell products or services, where a percentage of the sale can be donated to charity. Marco Barbosa won fourth place in the Microsoft Imagine Cup in 2008 with another business idea. Eventually he abandoned his project to join Rui Ramos and Miguel Vieira on creating a social commerce page and application through Facebook. The fact that the team behind the Bewarket has chosen the most used social network in the world has become a competitive advantage in terms of both ease of access, to reach more people every day and the capacity
using the platform. A careful user interface and a mechanism of ‘feedback loops’ that includes monitoring, analysis and challenges on the energy spent at home. The old question of the crisis is more a source of energy for Rafael Jegundo, Jorge Santos, António Pratas and Rui
Social commerce bewarket.com to become “viral”, want to be more user-friendly and allow whoever is behind the project to know what users prefer. In addition to buying and selling, you can filter the products or services, and then evaluate other products and share what interests you. Users can also form a page for friends to give opinions about their future purchase. The user can also give a percentage of the profit to the user of the advertised product Bewarket also allows certain business locate user’s geographical area, shop in groups (eg, a group of friends who get together to buy a birthday present) or create a wishlist. The application, germinated in the incubator StartUp Lisbon, is intuitive and simple to use and now has over 10000 users and about 300 thousand unique views.
Magalhães. Unplugg was created while thinking of a real market and intends to make itself a center of excellence in the area of energy management online. They believe it has potential, and they will achieve success. It is just a matter of time, and energy.
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
Social media brandmymail.com Simple, dynamic, fast, and intuitive, BrandMyMail is a tool that customizes your emails from Gmail, supplementing them with a contact card and information about their presence on social networks. Although it was initially designed for businesses, BrandMyMail can be used by anyone who has an email account on Google to complete with real-time information from Twitter, Facebook updates and even blog entries from Wordpress or Tumblr, among other plugins social media. The base that will be added to your emails is completely customizable. Simply drag the desired plugins to the base. As yet, the site only works in Chrome or Firefox browsers, in iOS and OS for Gmail users, but is developing compatibility with Android and other e-mail services like Hotmail. BrandMyMail was developed in Funchal, Madeira, by Roberto Varela, Limor Schweitzer, and Shay Rojansky and basic usage is free. For a more personalized service to businesses, you can choose two modes with different features but a similar price of 30 € per month.
Local advertising pick.ee Pick.ee lets users discover and interact with people nearby who share the same interests. All this at no cost to the user in real time. The easy and intuitive mobile application lets users customize their privacy settings, giving the user total control over his or her personal information. A team led by João Amaral turned an idea into a real product in less than 12 weeks. Pick.ee tries to shift the dynamics of social networks by narrowing the gap between virtual and real life.
+more - 300 new users per week - 14,000 users - 2012 turnover: €50,000 - Reference in Mashable, Techcrunch and Forbes - €210,500 investment from both public and private entities Social bookmarking bundlr.com
Crowdsourcing weddar.com Weather forecasts are not always accurate, but real people sharing their current weather can ensure that weather reports are accurate. Weddar (homophone for “weather”) was created because it makes no sense that predictions should depend on outdated and ineffective machines based on generic geographic zones. The iPhone and Android apps were created by Ricardo Fonseca and Gonçalo Catarino . The English-language application determines users’ locations and allows them to select the different weather statuses. However, for ease of use, Weddar does not display specifc information, such as temperature. Rather, temperature is given using adjectives like “great”, “fresh”, “ok” and “hell” and leaves four spaces for personalized status updates. This information is uploaded to a Google map and can be shared via Facebook and Twitter. The app was reference in The New York Times and Mashable and reached the second place in the most used free apps in Portugal. The team is currently self-funded, but has investigated possibilities of third party financing.
Bundlr is a digital clipping tool, created in September 2011, which allows users to group information on the topics via a button integrated into the browser. Founders Filipe Santos and Sergio Batista are pleased with their growth this past year - over 11 million people, one-third of them Americans, have used Bundlr. Pages are aggregated so they can be shared with others or on social networks. Some main competitive advantages over sites like Pinterest include the ability to support all types of files: images, YouTube videos, Tweets, or podcasts.
Mobile advertising goclapp.com GoClapp is a platform where you get paid apps for free for trying promoted apps. It helps the developers to get more users inside their apps, with a new concept called Pay-per-Atention, where the developer only pays after the user downloads and interacts with your app for 30 Secs. GoClapp is an app promoting platform that delivers more downloads to developers within a user community. For downloading and interacting with promoted apps users will be rewarded with paid apps for free and local deals and developers can reach the tops easily.
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
Biotechnology medbone.eu
Biotechnology biosurfit.com
edbone - Medical Devices Ltd is developing medical devices since 2008 for orthopedic and dentistry implant surgeries, using innovative technology, for the national and international market, exporting now for more than 20 countries. Medbone´s mission consists in producing innovative high quality implants by providing the Medical Professional with additional tools to improve the living conditions of their patients. The products developed are absorbable biomaterials based on calcium phosphates, including hydroxyapatite (HAp) and tricalcium phosphate (TCP). They are available in the form of granules, cylinders, wedges and in injectable form and its properties are similar to natural bone, allowing a better quality of life for people. Medbone is a company certified by ISO 9001 and ISO 13485.
The premise around Biosurfit is simple - perform rapid blood tests and get results in just 15 minutes. João Fonseca, a chemical engineer, created Biosurfit in 2006. After 6 years, 15 patents, and more than 5.5 million euros of investment, Biosurfit produced the Spinit, which allows for rapid analysis of blood without prior sample preparation. Tests can even occur during a medical consultation. The company eventually wants to perform 80% of blood analyses globally. Biosurfit currently identifies viral and bacterial infections in the blood and plans to launch a second disposable test next year to perform a complete blood count, the blood test most commonly given. Biosurfit’s main customers are Spinit doctors around the world, and although distributors make the sales, the leaders of Biosurfit are always present. João Fonseca, CEO and founder of the company, has received several awards, including the Young Entrepreneur of the ANJE and Best Innovation Award in Bizbarcelona.
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Biotechnology cell2b.com
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ell2B is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing advanced cellular therapies. Cell2B aims to offer a new set of therapies for patients and attendants with inflammatory problems and tumors, among others. These therapies hold great promise for addressing some of those problems. The cells, including stem cells, possess unique properties to refurbish damaged tissue or organ damage. Stem cells can also be found in virtually every tissue, but in small numbers. Cell2B is developing new techniques and protocols, with the aim of increasing their effectiveness and their results with regard to tissue and organ regeneration.
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
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aask is an online peer-topeer community that connects Askers, who need something done for which they don’t have the time and/or the expertise, and Taskers, talented individuals or companies who literally “get the job done”. Co-Founders Luís Martins and Saurabh Khanna met in the Lisbon MBA and understood that in a society simultaneously affected by the lack of time and the lack of job opportunities, this crowdsourcing platform could allow people and companies to come together to find safe, efficient and economic solutions that benefit all. The process is simple: Askers register (for free) and post a task (also for free), indicating the objective, details, when and where they need the task done and required skill set. Taskers (who also register for free) apply to do the job, pitching the reasons that make them the best option and stating how much they would charge. The Asker is
Consumer internet pt.zaask.com notified by email or text message of the several offers, makes his/her pick and after the task is done and paid for, the Tasker gets charged 3-10% commission by Zaask (lower for higher value tasks). This payment is made inside the platform and up to three days after the task is finished. Zaask also allows Askers and Taskers to rate and recommend each other to enhance the sense of community and increase the security and quality of their service. If someone does fantastic jobs, why not let the next Asker know, right? In this way, a positive incentive is created for every user to provide an excellent and convenient experience. On the other hand, poorly rated users or those who don’t abide by the regulations can be banned from the platform. Zaask was launched in May 2012 and after only one month, it had already reached 100 published tasks amounting to 20.000€. Three months later, Zaask had more than 10 thousand
users. Despite only 20 tasks having actually been attributed, Luís is optimistic for the future of the company. He believes Zaask will grow as people become more aware of how the platform works and the full potential of its services as roughly 70% of Zaask’s users are unemployed workers who need an opportunity to get back on their feet. In his opinion, Zaask can be a good temporary or even longer term solution, as some companies are starting to use this platform to scout talent for more than one-time tasks. In the future Zaask will focus on increasing its presence in the entire European market, but in the short term target markets are Spain and Brazil. Additionally, Zaask plans to launch a mobile platform, which will allow Askers and Taskers to monitor their tasks, bids’ acceptance and new opportunities live.
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
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he 5-minutes call center for every size company. This is the value proposition that gave TalkDesk the victory at the Twilio Fund 2011 competition in Silicon Valley, and yet it doesn’t even begin to describe the full potential of this disruptive project. The idea came from Cristina Fonseca and Tiago Paiva, two Masters in Network Engineering from IST whose motivation to build the first prototype was the possibility to win a Mac Book Pro at a competition hosted by Twilio. They did, but they were also invited to fly to the USA and present in front of an audience of over 500 people, including judges, investors and opinion-makers. TalkDesk impressed once again and, of all the investment proposals that followed, Cristina and Tiago ended up accepting 500Startups’ offer to participate in their 4-month intensive acceleration program, one of the most prestigious in USA, parallel to an incubating program at the Taguspark’s Incubator, in Portugal. TalkDesk is a cloud-based service that allows small, medium and large size companies to set up a call center with as little requirements as a laptop and connection to the internet, thus avoiding long term contracts or high
Customer support tools talkdesk.com investments in infrastructure (such as servers and software). Without any installation or complicated setups required, companies can initiate their operations immediately after registering. They buy a phone number, choose how many agents will be taking calls and then “pay as they go”, meaning they can scale the business as their needs arise, adding or eliminating agents and paying only for what they use. TalkDesk integrates with CRM systems like SalesForce and helpdesk software such as ZenDesk and Desk.com, generating a free flow of information that empowers agents to make smarter decisions and provide a better support, all of this without having to ask the same question several times. Passing a call from one department to another is also facilitated, as every department has instant access to the data previously collected. Out-bound operations are also improved, as agents can analyze the data generated from CRM, helpdesk softwares, social networks and even TalkDesk itself to identify leads and opportunities to generate new sales or improve KPIs like customer
conversion rates and profitability per customer. With a total of 450,000€ raised capital, the now three-person team (after Raoul Felix joined at the beginning of the project) is now focused on customer acquisition and, despite having idealized TalkDesk as a solution mainly for small and medium companies, they revealed more than 100 big call-centers have showed an interest in migrating to their platform. The product development will stay in Portugal, “for cost reasons”, Cristina says, while Tiago will do his part in San Francisco to turn this “small idea” into a big company. TalkDesk has been considered by CloudBeat one of the most innovative companies in the Cloud and has recently opened its service to the general public, with their presentation at TechCrunch Disrupt 2012 in NYC. Their success, Cristina says, is a result of their “team, work ethics and ability to fail”.
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
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usikki is an online music search engine launched on November 5th 2011 in Aveiro to “change the way we experience music”. It does so by aggregating in a single, sleek and beautifully designed platform every piece of information about music the internet can provide. The user types the name of a band, artist, music, concert or album and with one click, he/she is presented with general information about the artist, such as the biography and discography, and also with popular YouTube videos, Twitter Feeds, upcoming shows, photos and even related artists. Envisioned by the team of selfentitled “music addicts” João Afonso, Masters Graduate in Multimedia Communication and CEO of Musikki, Juliana Teixeira and Pedro Almeida as the answer to the question “How do we find every bit of useful information with the least amount of clicks?”, this project has already gained public recognition, having been mentioned in Mashable.com, coming second in Movimento SIM by Samsung and winning the ISCTE-MIT Venture Competition, which granted them 200,000€ in seed investment and a twomonth business enhancing experience at MIT, Boston. This investment allowed Musikki’s to further evolve the concept of social integration of music, culminating with the launch of an App for Facebook called “Musikki Social Player”. By allowing Facebook users to create playlists out of their friends and/ or liked pages’ posted music videos, MS Player takes advantage of the enormous quantity of user generated content and revolutionizes the way we discover and share music with our friends. In the future it will also allow users to buy concert tickets and albums (a service already possible in Amazon and to be expanded to other online retailers). Almost two years after the
Social Social music music platform platform musikki.com musikki.com
first prototype started being conceptualized, Musikki has now been visited by users in over 100 countries, had over 40,000 unique visits, 22,000 bands researched and, in the first two weeks after launching MS Player, more than 12,000 videos played. The team has grown from 3 to 9 elements and has now set its eyes on the international market. The next steps include opening an office in Boston, the quest for further investment and launch a Mobile App that aims to improve the live show experience with updated information and social integration. Looking forward, João Afonso describes the team’s global ambitions - “We’re humble, but we also believe what we do is high quality and we can be at the same level as the big international companies”.
Social music platform nmusic.pt NMusic is a multi-platform system that allows users to listen, store, and share their music, without the need to transfer the disc to a mobile device. The company was founded in 2010
as part of Diligence Capital. Later, in partnership with Portugal Telecom, MusicBox was created as a way to bring NMusic to a larger number of users. The” N “in NMusic refers to the huge amount of music you can listen organized a day. Without advertising. Without taking up memory on the disk. Without cables between devices. Just Music. To this end, a user only needs one application and membership to listen to music on a smartphone (either Android, iOS, or Windows), computer, tablet, or even on television through cable services operator MEO. The catalog of digital music has over 12 million songs. Users can group songs into playlists or choose from suggested playlists, and they can save songs to listen while offline. Users receive 10 free monthly downloads, such as phone ringtones or simple mp3s to burn to CD. The playlists can be integrated into Facebook, Twitter and last.fm, and songs can be previewed for 30 seconds prior to download or playlist integration. Depending on the services subscribed, membership is free or € 4.99. For users with no Portugal Telecom access product (internet, telephone, or television) the price increases to € 9.99.
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
Social media inpakt.com
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npakt is the first social network for volunteers. It was created in 2009 by Bernardo Macedo, 28-yearsold, after he applied and got rejected for a volunteer scholarship. Inpakt connects potential volunteers and socialdriven organizations across the entire European Union, using a geo-location enabled map system which highlights existing volunteer opportunities within a certain radius. The platform’s two-way approach makes it the connecting link between volunteers and social organizations, doing so in a dynamic and interactive way, and also the manager of an online community focused on social responsibility. If a potential volunteer wishes to use of this platform, he/she needs to register online and create its own profile. To increase credibility, the user can create a portfolio with the projects and initiatives participated, as well as the other users in the network that can serve as references for the user’s volunteer work. Users can also create discussing topics in the forum and share videos. Ultimately, the goal is to find volunteer opportunities and when one appears, users can actively demonstrate their interest, prompting the organization to be notified. From the institutions’ side, besides managing applications, they can also manage their associates’ quotas, receive donations directly or share news and updates. This allows for a more efficient resource allocation which in turns reduces the organization’s costs of operating. Inpakt is currently available in seven languages, using a translating tool similar to that used by Facebook. The network has today more than 12,500 users and 40 national organizations.
nologies are a communication tool that gives surgical answers for the needs of a generation with very high demands and standards. B-Around offers development, production and management of creative tourism, culture and leisure contents; Publicity and on-line promotion services; Development of websites to set up and update databases of tourism, commerce, services and events, accessible in several formats and platforms. Promotion and propagation of relevant sector contents through different platforms; Deep and specialized coverage of specific markets selected in the tourism sector; Possibility to use a platform such as a tourist guide on the spot through the smartphone application.
IT Services manybots.com
Tourism entertainment b-around.com B-Around works on development, production and management of creative tourism, culture and leisure contents. The company was born as a spin-off of CBB Interactive and is focused on the interactive technology area. Nowadays the state of the art technologies assume a very special place in the tourism. This project creates a strategic instrument for the best outcome of local sectors, creating sensorial surroundings between the tourist and the interactive platform. Adapting technologies for the touristic sector is a vital need to follow tendencies and market evolution, in particular multi-touch tech-
Manybots is a platform where you can create a private account to collect and manage your digital life. All the activities are centralized, are owned, and are controlled by you. So you can search for anything quickly with the search bar; have access to intelligence apps that open a new view and relationship between your activities. The platform was born to grow with innovation and creativity by inviting people to use these services and open technology to expand the ecosystem of digital lifestyle tools. It is an opportunity to benefit from the data created in our digital lives. Alexandre Solleiro, founder of Manybots believes that digital tools have changed the way everyone manages their activities. The more connected we are the longer our lists of activity history grow within the different apps and devices. These lists hold stories of habits, interests, locations, etc. and together make up our digital live.
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
Cleantech emovewaves.com
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Cleantech waydip.com
Mobile advertising pockted.com
Waydip is a startup that develops projects for clean technology R & D. Its flagship project, Waynergy transforms human- and vehicle-generated kinetic energy into electrical energy. Currently, most electricity is produced far from the cities, where most energy is consumed, resulting in power loss and high transportation costs. Cities, however, are characterized by a marked mobility of both people and vehicles – their movement releases kinetic energy to the ground, and this energy is not used for any purpose. With that in mind, Waydip developed Waynergy, a system to capture kinetic energy in the pavement and turn it into electricity. The electricity can be consumed on site, stored for use when needed, or sold directly back to the grid. Waydip was named one of the 50 most promising startups in the world by the Kauffman Foundation.
How many loyalty cards do you carry in your wallet without knowing to what extent they can be used? We all have cards from banks, university and magazines which accumulate over 30,000 discounts. Pockted is an aggregator of all these discounts through a mobile application that gives geo-referenced information depending on the cards that you have. For companies, Pockted solves the problem of commoditization with customer cards and the benefits go beyond brand awareness lying in generated transactional data, allowing them to record and analyze the purchasing behavior of shoppers. This insight leads to higher profitability, giving the needed information to target specific groups. These “behavior analytics” have high commercial value to organizations that want to sell their products and services.
MOVE is a startup company specialized in self-sustainable energy that seeks to become the major player in the offshore wave power sector, in renewable energy generation. Was founded in 2009 and won the first edition of EDP/Richard Branson innovation award in the same year. The product, BluSphere, was designed to capture the energy generated by ocean waves. As a power generator, it uses an innovative and internationally patented technology, the ESG – Electric Spherical Generator (PCT104442) - which converts kinetic energy into electricity from any direction, becoming up to 37 times more efficient than the common generators. From the many renewable energy options available, wave power is perhaps the most reliable, most dense and yet, the most unexplored energy solution. With a current blue ocean market opportunity of 1 trillion USD - 2000 TWh or 53% of electricity consumed in the USA (12% Worldwide) - and a theoretical potential of up to 80.000 TWh (four times the total world’s consumption), this device has the potential to change the world.
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
CHAMPIONS
Software development outsystems.com
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utSystems is a multinational company founded in 2001 and dedicated to the market of agile software development, which offers quality technology at reduced prices. OutSystems uses an Agile Platform, an innovative product that enables the development, maintenance, and upgrading of enterprise applications – in as little time as possible. Some benchmarks show that, using an agile methodology, you can create applications up to 10.9 times faster than using other tools. The product includes the necessary tools to develop, integrate and launch web applications for businesses. The success of Outsystems was so great that reached the return of the initial capital of one million euros in just four months. The annual return is around 231%. He is a member of the Consortium of IT Software Quality (CISQ), an organization that seeks to standardize the quality of software and promote a market ecosystem. The platform created by OutSystems is already used in 22 industries, from healthcare to telecoms, and has 56 partnerships.
Online surveys survs.com Launched in 2009, Survs is a web-based survey tool built by Enough Pepper (enoughpepper.com), a small company consisting of João Alfaiate, Paulo Andrade and Bruno Santos, based in the heart of Lisbon and passionate about building products for the web. Survs lets users create, distribute and analyze online surveys and questionnaires, and is known for its friendly interface and balance between simplicity and powerful features.
+more - Reference in Techcrunch and Read Write Web - Thousands of users around the world - 85 percent of sales are overseas - Main markets: USA, UK, Canada, France, Brazil and India
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
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Telecommunications timwe.com TIMWE was founded by Diogo Salvi in 2002 through bootstrapping and, more than developing applications for mobile phones, which only started in 2011, it is a global provider of mobile monetization solutions for marketing, entertainment and mobile payments. Initially, TIMWE focused on mobile entertainment, development and distribution of content for mobile phones such as wallpapers and ringtones, games and music clips. Later on, the company expanded globally, with a strong focus on emerging countries. Since 2004, TIMWE has been experiencing double digit growth and has expanded the business to what it does today. By the end of 2011, the company employed about four hundred people spread across 26 offices in several countries and saw revenues of 281 million euros, a large part coming from Latin America.
- Operations in 75 countries - Partnerships with state of-the-art content and technology - Connections with over 280 carriers on 5 continents - Access to almost 3 bn potential mobile users across the globe - Over 5 years of consecutive double digit organic growth
IT Services worldwide.vortal.biz Vortal SA is a B2B operator that provides eSourcing and eCommerce solutions to enhance the competitiveness of clients in several markets. Created in 2000 and currently operating in the labs of Nova University’s Science Faculty, Vortal’s online platforms give companies the access to a larger pool of buyers and sellers, facilitating the communication between them and providing a secure and lean way for companies to access products or services they need. By creating a transparent and information-efficient community, Vortal removed the need for paper based forms, revolutionizing the way Procurement and Sourcing is made. Besides the benefits associated with the buy/sell operations, the large amount of information that becomes available on Vortal’s platforms is extremely useful for optimizing other business areas such as market research, human
resources management, marketing, partnership prospection and acquisition and business planning. The first platform, named eConstroi, was targeted at the Construction sector and reached the leadership position in the Portuguese and Spanish markets with an average of 1500 contracts/ week, 250 buyers, 8,000 sellers and a business volume of 3 million Euros. Since then, Vortal launched more platforms targeting other segments, such as Public eTendering (for the Public Sector), Health, Corporate, Energy & Utilities and Industry. Nowadays, Vortal has more than 25,000 companies linked to the network. These are segmented by sector and activity, making the process of finding the most competitive and suitable business partner an almost seamless experience. Clients and experts alike realize the benefit and potential of Vortal’s services, referring mostly to the considerable reduction in operating costs and the increase in transparency, efficiency and competitiveness. Since 2007, Vortal is certified in the ISO 27001 norm, making it an international reference for information security. Also in the same year, Vortal earned a special mention of the PME Innovation COTEC prize and became a Gold certified partner of Microsoft. In 2012, the company was awarded the “Best B2B Ecommerce website” by ACEPI, the Association for Ecommerce and Interactive Advertisement, just one year after having also reached the podium in the category of “Website to promote service sales to Private and Public Companies”. The future, according to Rui Dias Ferreira, CEO of Vortal, will be made both in Portugal and abroad, with Vortal expanding its operations in Spain and Angola and continuing to provide its clients a swift and smooth transition to the digital world.
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
CHAMPIONS
IT Services feedzai.com
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eedzai is a business intelligence company that delivers software solutions for corporate clients to uncover and manage anomalies in real-time. It empowers companies to ‘know the past, measure the present and predict the future’, controlling costs and risks by predicting negative irregularities such as fraud, and capitalizing on revenue growth opportunities created by positive anomalies. In the era of Big Data, the amount of data managers have to deal with and sort through increases every day at an incredible pace. Also the pace at which business decisions need to be made is growing faster, leaving managers with shorter time spans to organize more data and make informed decisions that can be the cutoff for a company to “sink or swim”. In this context, the importance of management software is undeniable, especially those that help sort through overwhelming amounts of data to drive analytical insights on the business itself. Integrated in enterprise resource systems or as stand-alone platforms, these kind of software look at several Key Performance Indicators and other data generated by business activity, organize the information in comprehensible dashboards and analyzable visual tools, and allow managers to draw insights regarding their business performance and potential problems and/or opportunities.
Feedzai does this. But more. And better. Its high performance technology platform Feedzai Pulse, launched in 2011, adds enormous value to clients through ultra-efficient analytics that sort, organize and analyze on a subsecond basis hundreds of thousands of KPIs to generate live-data and very low reaction times. It starts generating critical business information from the moment it is connected to one or more databases and customers typically start realizing value within 2 weeks. The major strengths of this software are the ease of development, high scalability and the ability to see past, present and future in the same interface. Built on the platform’s capacities, Feedzai Fraud Protection provides payment processing companies and other financial institutions the highest quality sub-second fraud blocking, at the same time with the lowest false positive percent rate. Simultaneously, Feedzai Business Monitoring gives managers the chance to proactive control the business, by combining all the data (structured and unstructured, old and new), identifying patterns and trends, establishing a history of the company’s performance and then delivering alerts that predict future anomalies in networks and applications. Founded in 2009 as a spinoff of the University of Coimbra, Feedzai’s innovative value creation method granted the company the Gartner Cool Vendor Award, making it one of the five
companies in the world (and the only non-American) Gartner recognized as a specialist in the area of business intelligence software. It is currently located in Redwood City, USA and in London, UK, where the company won a business competition in 2010. The customer base includes Coca-Cola, Logica, Vodafone, Ericsson, SIBs Payment Solutions, Horizon Wind Energy, BES, EDP and Servebase Credit Card Solutions. When interviewed at Strata London 2012, Nuno Sebastião, Co-Founder and CEO of the company, referred the current value of this type of software – “There’s business value to all of this. Not only a new possibility of dealing with data, […] but you’re actually deriving a lot from all this data”. Following this and the fact that “companies can do these assessments at a much finer level than several years ago”, Nuno believes Feedzai’s high quality product can place the company at the fore front of the Big Data revolution.
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS
CHAMPIONS
IT Services rupeal.com
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upeal is an IT and Services company created by Rui Alves, an engineer turned manager turned entrepreneur whose mission is “Making IT simple” to allow every company to benefit from it. Launched in 2007, the company combines technologic expertise and high-achieving and driven human capital to deliver its three-way value proposition model: create innovative products, outsource tech consultants of all levels of knowhow and provide consulting to help companies optimize their business through technology. Ideas are abundant and can be gamechangers, but closing the gap between ideas and products is a challenge several times too gruesome for aspiring entrepreneurs and even established companies. Rupeal helps closing this gap through a Software as a Service model that keeps the level of client investment and contract commitment to a minimum, while an experienced, talented and multidisciplinary team provides supporting services throughout the entire development cycle of
the new product: business, design, technology and marketing. Highly specialized on Web and Mobile, Rupeal’s elite team has already been co-responsible for the development of products such as InvoiceXpress, JazzDesk and BestTables. Its responsibility lies in helping clients define their business and differentiating traits; contributing to the design of the entire user experience; using the best technologic tools to develop each channel (mobile, web or desktop); and leveraging its online and offline marketing skills to create the most suited marketing strategy for the client and its product. Rupeal’s outsourcing and consulting services allow clients to find the best strategic direction for their business, find the best technologic solutions to fit that direction and also recruit and reinforce their teams in a quick, flexibility, efficiency way. Whatever technology they may need to move forward, stay competitive and conquer new markets, Rupeal is prepared to find and tailor that technologic solution, help integrate it within the
client’s IT ecosystem and later provide maintenance services. All of which while also supplying the required human capital, on a temporary or longer term basis, to enhance the success factor of the team, project and company. Boasting skills in several different technologies (Microsoft, Java, Opensource, among others) and with different levels of experience (Junior, Experience and Senior), the company’s poll of highly talented, mature and sociable professionals can tackle virtually any problem a client might come across. The high quality of its services and its “win-win” mission-driven approach already granted Rupeal references from several prominent companies in the Portuguese market, such as Accenture, TMN, NovaBase, ZON, Optimus and Segurança Social, bringing this company closer to its goal of becoming a relevant and positive reference in every area they service.
PORTUGAL’S 50 HOTTEST STARTUPS