Microsoft challenges 20 startups to shine at Web Summit

Microsoft is back at the Web Summit, the world’s largest technology summit. In addition to the return of Brad Smith, president of technology, to the main stage, Microsoft will partner with several summit initiatives and support 20 startups that are part of its Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub program.

Brad Smith returns to the main stage of the Web Summit

Based on the motto “Innovating our way out of the carbon crisis“, Brad Smith will speak, on the main stage, at 12:10 pm, on the tools, technology and skills needed to address decarbonization. In addition, the president of Microsoft will participate in the session “Ethical brand leadership for a better world“, with Charles Trevail, Executive Chairman of the Interbrand Group, at 2 pm, on the Pandaconf stage.

First day with Microsoft-supported Roundtables and Masterclasses
The first day of the Web Summit will be marked by “The Gathering”, a pre-opening moment of the conference that will bring together startups, investors and venture capital companies, sponsored for the first time by Microsoft.

The technology company will participate in the roundtable sessions “Building for scale”, on product development, at 10:30 am, with Ricardo Fiel, Senior Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft and “Unified commerce”, which will focus on the retail sector, at 11:30 am, with ShiSh Shridhar, Global Retail Startups Lead at Microsoft and Vasco Portugal, CEO at Sensei, as well as the masterclass “Do more with less”, on collaboration tools, at 1:30 pm, with David Bjurman-Birr, Security Architect at Microsoft.

Microsoft gives a stage to national and international startups
In order to support and strengthen relationships with the startup ecosystem, Microsoft will also have an island dedicated to the promotion of 20 startups that are part of its Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub program.

Located in pavilion 5 of the Web Summit, the “Microsoft Startup Island” will be a showcase for startups to expose their solutions and provide access to mentoring hours, investors’ office hours and networking with venture capital companies and partners in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

From the list of startups present, eight are Portuguese – Taikai, DreamShaper, iLoF, Modatta, Networkme, Fashable, Reviewpad and We Can Charge – and the rest from Germany, Greece, Ireland, United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland.

Founded in 2018, Taikai’s digital acceleration platform has a community of more than 38,000 programmers, entrepreneurs and students, having already supported more than 60 organizations in creating innovation challenges, including hackathons developed with Microsoft Portugal.

In the field of Education, DreamShaper is an online tool that guides students through practical and motivating learning experiences, by project, with the support and guidance of their teachers.

Fashable, on the other hand, has developed, in partnership with Microsoft, an application that allows you to create clothing designs based on an AI system. Using data from social networks, online stores, among other sources, the app absorbs trends and applies them to their own unique creations, allowing brands to test the receptivity of products before sending them to production, saving resources and raw materials.

iLof seeks to bring about a new era of personalized medicine. Through a digital library of disease biomarkers stored in the Microsoft cloud, it provides patient triage and stratification tools in an accessible, fast and portable way.

Reviewpad has created a platform that uses AI to simplify the SaaS code review process and help development teams be more efficient, available on GitHub.

Modatta is a marketplace for solutions based on consented personal data, where companies and consumers establish positive and relevant relationships, fostering a fair digital economy.

Networkme is a career development platform that connects students to companies and professionals. Recently, it announced the raising of 1 million euros of investment to accelerate the Iberian expansion.

Founded in Braga, the startup We Can Charge allows hotels, universities, car parks or restaurants to monetize their charging stations for electric vehicles.

Launched in March of this year, the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub is a program that aims to support startups around the world, helping them to grow with access to technical and commercial resources to accelerate their sustainable expansion.

Since 2018, Microsoft for Startups has been driving the global entrepreneurship ecosystem. Currently, the initiative is present in 140 countries and enables the acceleration of thousands of technology startups, leveraging a global partner network.

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