How innovative are you? Beta-i Newsletter

How innovative are you?

I think that is okay if you don’t know how to answer that. I know I can’t, anyway, evaluate how innovative I am. But the latest ranking of Global Innovation Index 2019 places Portugal as the 32nd of the most innovative countries, with Switzerland in the first place, followed by Sweden and the United States of America in the second and third one. Bangladesh is number 116 and has already brought us SOLShare, the winner of Free Electrons 2018, and now 1st prize winner of the Empowering People Award 2019 by Siemens Foundation. SOLShare allows rural people to trade their electricity excess and make money out of the sun while empowering them. Congratulations, your work is definitely inspiring! This is how we get that the word startup holds a direct association with innovation. In fact, startups are becoming more and more as another piece of the rich and diverse tissue of economy. Take Portugal, for instance, where startups were in charge of 1.1% of Portuguese GDP in 2018 according to the data shared by Startup Portugal last week. As for Beta-i, startups are in charge of innovation, always, even during the summer. Check Under the Radar for our open calls and celebrations. See you soon! Best, Cristina Tomé

Under the Radar - 2 minutes or less reading (depending how fast you are)

Meet the ones open for Innovation We have high regards for corporates that decide to work with startups to accelerate their innovation. In the programs we run, we always partner with a set of companies that are willing to move forward with the help of a crazy bunch of startups. You can find out all about the Portuguese tourism entities launching the 2019 The Journey and how an Insurance company, a Hospital and a bank got together to launch Protechting. EatTasty: celebrating over lunch Founded in 2016, EatTasty has now received an investment of 1.1M euros and aims to expand in Spain. Congratulations to Orlando Lopes, Rui Costa and the whole team! The portuguese startup that delivers homemade lunches in the workplace is part of Beta-i’s alumni and has now delivered more than 140k meals in Lisbon and Madrid.

SOL Housing As each city is a living organism, any small change can have a major impact. And that is why SOL Housing was created. To boost the small changes that will improve each citizen’s live. As we have to start somewhere, we have started in Lisbon - check what SOL Housing is all about in this video. We like feedback As you may have noticed, we’re taking the summer to make some changes and experiments in our newsletter. It would be wonderful to know what you think! You can reply to this email with some words if you have something to share with us - even emojis are appreciated.

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