New venture builder supporting high growth in Health Tech in Portugal

• HealthTech Lisboa @ LISPOLIS is a new venture builder for Portugal based startups in health technology.
• With access to world class competence and networks across the globe, HealthTech Lisboa has already attracted/signed up several companies, NeuroSov and FastCompChem (FCC).
• The office is located at LISPOLIS – Polo Tecnológico de Lisboa, which aims to support high growth of startups through the know-how of its many partners

Lisbon, Portugal: HealthTech Lisboa @ LISPOLIS is a new venture builder for Portugal based startups in health technology. Over the recent years Lisbon has become one of the hottest hubs for startups in Europe. Apart from local entrepreneurs it also attracts startups from the rest of EU, USA, Canada and Brasil among others. Portuguese government entities provide excellent support (such as Startup Lisboa, Rede Nacional de Incubadoras and Portugal Ventures). This is a positive environment for startups with skilled English-speaking talent, an attractive environment for scaling a business efficiently and at low cost, affordable living and a fantastic climate.

HealthTech Lisboa is strongly linked to Startup Lisboa, a private non-profit Association that supports startups in their early stage. Startup Lisboa is one of Portugal’s most successful entrepreneurial initiatives, and HealthTech Lisboa now becomes its health technology arm.

HealthTech Lisboa aims to capture the most promising upcoming companies and helps them along the way with growth and a go to market plan. The idea is to help and guide promising initiatives with business concepts, business plans, structure, financing, marketing and sales, to enable scaling up and be successful in a competitive world market. HealthTech Lisboa are continuously on the lookout for candidate startups to join the acceleration and incubation program.

Several companies have already entered the incubator: Neurosov, which has developed molecules that can significantly delay Parkinson’s development, is one example and FastCompChem (FCC), who works with Computer-Aided Drug Design to help pharmaceutical companies accelerate their growth and avoid research on” wrong” molecules. They have also developed algorithms – Artificial Intelligence – which from magnetic resonance imaging can determine COVID diagnosis with high certainty in just a few seconds. Pilot tests on a larger scale are underway.

The CEO (and co-founder) of HealthTech Lisboa is Vitor Crespo. Vitor Crespo is an experienced entrepreneur – startups like Nuada and Criam – with a past from Accenture, Xerox and Microsoft. Vitor Crespo has a strong network of clients, industrial partners and venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, Europe, Hong Kong, Schenzen and more.

Miguel Fontes, CEO of Startup Lisboa, board member of the ISEG MBA strategic council and the science and technology faculties of Universidade Nova de Lisboa becomes chairman of HealthTech Lisboa. The advisory board of directors will also include Vitor Crespo (CEO and co- founder), Bruno Cardoso (CFO and co-founder) with long financial history from banking, finance and Microsoft, Lars Wahlstrom (Partner) with a long tenure in the technology sector as for example former Group Vice President at Oracle, CEO of startups, advisor to private equity etc, Staffan Ericsson, with more than 30 years’ experience as a technologist and entrepreneur, former VP of R&D at PictureTel (original pioneers of video conferencing), long time venture capitalist in the Boston, USA, region, and Christer Köhler, Former Professor of Neuroscience (Bergen University), former VP of Innovative Medicines at AstraZeneca, and a long history of achievements, acknowledgements and positions in the health care sector.

HealthTech Lisboa is located at LISPOLIS – Polo Tecnológico de Lisboa, one of the founding partners of this project. LISPOLIS is a private non-profit Association that manages the Technological Park in Lisbon, one of the preferred locations for technological and innovative companies, which has almost 30 years of experience supporting startups, SMEs and multinationals to grow faster.

ANJE (National Association for Young Entrepreneurs) and UBI Medical are also partners of HealthTech Lisboa, in order to access and validate the potential deal flow.

HealthTech Lisboa also has several experienced and knowledgeable mentors with long, international experience from industries like technology, banking, medical technology, finance, industry, consumer goods, sports, and fashion. Several of these mentors (all of whom – primarily Swedes and Brits living in Praia da Luz – have moved to Portugal in recent years) have also been involved and personally supported the founding of HealthTech Lisboa.

Quote from Pedro Lopes (FastCompChem): “During the last year, the HealthTech Lisboa program has been a tremendous catalyst for FCC, as their staff have connected us to the right people, and increased our access to potential investors and grants. This relationship has helped FCC develop valuable and referenceable partners and greatly contributed to future wins. The entire team at HealthTech is always professional and eager to help us further develop and become a successful company.”

For further information contact: Vânia Fernandes | info@healthtechlisboa.com