Portuguese startup Flipside was acquired by US company, Development Seed. Flipside is a web development agency based in Lisbon, building tools for organizations that create social impact. They are responsible for websites like Incendios.pt, Airwolf, Climatescope among others.
We’ve talked with the founder of Flipside, Olaf Veerman and we asked him a few questions about the acquisition and what we can expect in the future from Flipside and Development Seed in Europe.
# Why did you decide to join Development Seed?
Development Seed has a talented team and is working on some of the most meaningful and challenging issues in our field. We’ve worked with them in the past and found that we share a similar set of principles: we both believe that it’s important to do work that matters, in picking the right tool for the job and also that open source and open data are drivers of innovation.
We’ve worked hard to build Flipside and grow it into a healthy company and fun place to work. Becoming part of such an experienced and recognized team allows us to grow further, solve harder challenges and work with partners that have an even bigger impact on people’s lives.
# Can you disclose the details of the agreement? How much money is involved?
I’m not at liberty to disclose the details of the agreement. However, I can say that one factor that we weighed was Development Seed’s interest in further investing in operations in Lisbon.
# What are the plans for the future? What can we expect from Development Seed in Portugal/Europe?
Opening an office in Lisbon is a big step for Development Seed and one that will allow us to connect better with partners in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. We will continue to build technology and data tools that address big challenges like climate change, clean elections and disaster response. The Lisbon office will be a big part of this. We are working on Development Seed projects in Lebanon and Nigeria, already. We will grow the Lisbon office to better tap the creativity and talent in Portugal and across Europe.
We also look forward to contributing to the open data and technology community here in Portugal. We will work alongside other passionate civic and government actors to improve the availability and usefulness of public sector information in Portugal and to do it in line with European standards. AMA – Agência para a Modernização Administrativa – has a smart team that works to gain broader support and foster an open data culture in the public sector. Initiatives like Cidadania 2.0 and Transparência Hackday mobilize civil society by promoting and creating useful tools that build on open data. We contribute to this through the development of applications like incendios.pt, by consulting on government open data strategy, or through organizing open data events and meetups. As part of a global civic hacking organization like Development Seed, we will have even greater resources and expertise to contribute.