Applications for the Lisbon Challenge Fall ’16 Edition ended on the 15th of July. Now, after their 4 selection phases, the 14 finalists are known and will start their 3 month acceleration adventure on Monday.
Not only are we excited about this cohort, as the quality of founders increases with every edition, but we are also rolling out a redesigned Lisbon Challenge that will be more focused on the founder and on the product, whilst never losing site of the importance of fundraising.
Nuno Machado Lopes, Program Director of the Lisbon Challenge at Beta-i
Let’s meet the class with their own descriptions:
MONEYTIS: International transfer is one of those old industries that almost didn’t improve since the internet was created. Sending money abroad is still really complex. There are so many solutions, so many I can not trust, and not one available in every country. Moneytis is the booking.com of money transfer – the single place to compare, choose and use the best money transfer offers from all licensed providers such as Transferwise, Blockchain startups or if you want the traditional providers such as Western Union. It takes a couple of clicks and you are sure to find the cheapest, fastest and easiest service.
GRAF.LY: Graf.ly is about collaboration and engagement in the newsroom. We’re working on a new kind of approach to the digital newsroom that puts journalists and editors in full control, and help media organizations to focus on content and monetization, not tools. We’re working with Público, one of the major newspapers in Portugal, to validate our product ideas and increase the market-fit potential. The MVP team has more than ten years” experience working with technology in the digital media business.
WIT TECHNOLOGY LTD.: WIT SDK allows mobile apps to receive data without internet connection by receiving sms. We are building the tools for entrepreneurs and innovators like you to reach those people in an offline state, helping companies to deliver their services in every connectivity condition. No matter if they are traveling abroad or living in a fast developing country. You can reach your customers as long as they can receive an sms. Why are we doing WIT ? The vast majority of people in the world don’t have any access to the internet. We believe connectivity is a human right and we are going to take action about it. Most people in the world don’t have money to spend on data access. With WIT you don’t need to spend a penny for receiving data, just to send it. You will always be able to receive data.
LOW COST HERO: We’re developing a dedicated search and comparison solution for the $50+ billion low cost flight market and the almost 500 million passengers who fly on them each year. Our approach successfully models how low cost flyers actually shop for flights and, by doing so, provides a radically better experience that saves users time and money (often hundreds of EUR/USD/GBP). In some cases, we can help people find the right flights in minutes versus hours of back and forth on other sites. In classic “we’re this for that” Silicon Valley terms, we’re Hipmunk for budget flights and our vision is to become the world’s number one destination whenever you need a short-haul or low cost flight.
YOUDSIDE: Youdside is a global marketplace that connects short-term employees with companies and specialised agencies for jobs at conferences, festivals, fairs and other events. The customers are companies and specialised agencies that are looking for short term employers. Our platform provides a more efficient way to find promoters and hosts through our international database and selection of requirements when looking for short term employers. Our two-way rating system, which is based on previous events, will build up the client’s credibility and as well help them find qualified talent for their events.
PROBE.LY: We’re looking at the next wave of security products for the market. Probe.ly is an innovative product in the area of application security. The team under Probe.ly has a vast experience in information security, having worked in the web and telecommunications industries for over a decade and is specializing in application security.
2NDHANDLER: At 2ndhandler we want to transform the buy & sell process of 2nd hand electronics (laptops, smartphones and tablets), by remotely certifying their quality and usage status. For that, we use a software to remotely inspect the products and ensure they persist like that until the buyer receives it. Based on that information, as well as on information obtained from data mining online marketplaces, we are able to estimate a fair price for the products, and this is our 2nd value proposition. Finally, our 3rd value proposition consists of managing in behalf of the seller the device’s sale on Marketplaces. For our complete service we charge a fee over each sale, allowing to maintain the devices price competitive.
HOUSY: Housy is the new real estate and rental marketplace which puts an end to the endless apartment search. That’s because in this marketplace the tenant isn’t searching for the right apartment but the landlord searches for the right tenant. The tenant just has to sign up, create his personal profile and then receives custom-tailored apartments based on his search criteria, and these real estate exposés do not come from a broker but rather form the landlord himself. After the match, the tenant can contact the landlord directly and apply with just one click on the desired object, without a broker. Housy is completely free for tenants. On the other side, the landlord finds exactly the right tenant for his object. Housy’s matching-algorithm continuously searches for the perfect match between the landlord’s requirements and the tenant’s search criteria. If he finds the perfect match, he can send his exposés directly to potential tenants, can set up walkthrough appointments and can obtain all required forms and documents from the applicants online.
HEPTASENSE: Nowadays, companies use cameras and voice control as natural interfaces. But people don’t feel comfortable when they have cameras pointing at them or microphones recording their conversations, because of security threats and privacy issues. Companies are looking for differentiation using different technologies. However, gesture control devices have pre-defined gestures and the user needs to learn and calibrate very often. Heptasense WAVE is a awarded proprietary gesture recognition/control software for B2B that adapts and learns from the user and not otherwise. It’s the World’s first gesture recognizer that only needs one setup and no further calibrations. It uses two types of data: motion signals and muscle signals. When combined, they allow the customization of thousands of possible gestures.
TIENDOSQUI: Tiendosqui strives to connect traditional shop keepers to the internet, allowing them to offer delivery service to their clients through an app. Tiendosqui allows all shopkeepers to have a mobile app, where they can receive on demand orders from other users that also have the app. Behind the scenes, we have a customer service supporting all transactions and solving any issues that may arise. Shops are charged a variable fee monthly, depending on use of app.
UNLOCKSPACES: We have developed an Airbnb-for-office-space platform that is lightweight, modular and responsive. We are transforming the fixed & traditional Real-estate business into an instant-access service. This allows anyone, anywhere to access a place to work on-demand. Our service is targeted to small businesses, consulting, and freelancers, as well as corporations that seek to pay less and get more for the space they use. Our priority search algorithm and angular.js platform gives us a technological advantage for scaling quickly across devices. For established co-work spaces and companies or buildings that function as such, we have also developed a SaaS, white-label solution that allows them to pay a subscription fee to use our service to achieve maximum occupancy rates for their spaces.
WILDSMILE: Wildsmile is working everyday to become the leading global dental marketplace allowing customers to book and buy treatments at local dental practices, using our dental plans subscriptions, with great dental services, at affordable prices. It is all about a dental care platform that puts customers and dental practice managers in control, matching bookings at times and prices that better suits the consumer, providing the needed dental expertise to look and feel amazing. At Wildsmile we are much more than a smarter dental booking platform. We are the place where normal people can get their everyday smile back.
HUPGRADE: h-upgrade monitors hotel prices daily to provide the best hotel deals of all times. Travellers book a hotel room using our search engine powered by the best OTAs (b.com, expedia…). Our bookings have free cancellation and can be upgraded if we find a better deal. Travellers with existing bookings can also use our service. We monitor hotel prices and look for better deals compared to what the traveler has booked. This can be a price drop on existing booking, a better room in the same hotel or a better hotel for the same price. We email the best deals with a call to action for Travellers to upgrade their booking. We will keep looking for better deals until the end of the cancellation window. This service is free of charge. We take advantage of the fact that hotel prices change over time and approx. 80% hotels offer free cancellation.
AREALYTIC: Arealytic helps make sense out of customer behaviour. Our cloud service turns video cameras into business intelligence tools that can be accessed from anywhere. Use our visual analytics to improve your store layout and deliver the best experience to your customers. We rely on computer vision to screen the footage for customer count, trajectory and engagement with merchandise inside your store. Arealytic works by building data layers, not a storage system. At arealytic, we take privacy very seriously. This is why we developed a solution that offers data without identity.