Startups & Investment Matching

Theoretical neuroscientist, entrepreneur, author, and mother of two, Vivienne is featured frequently for her research and inventions in The Financial Times, The Atlantic, and the New York Times. Her AI inventions have launched a dozen companies and nonprofits with a focus on human potential: education, workforce, and health. A self-described “professional mad scientist”, Vivienne founded The Human Trust to fight some of the world’s most pressing problems, and she travels the world sharing the stories of these astonishing projects. In her free time, Vivienne works to design AI systems to help treat her son’s diabetes, predict manic episodes in bipolar sufferers, and reunite orphan refugees with extended family members. She sits on the boards of numerous companies and nonprofits, including UC Berkeley’s Neurotech Collider Hub and RFK Human Rights. For relaxation, she writes science fiction and hikes with her wife and children.

Diogo Mónica is the Founder and President of Anchorage Digital. Anchorage Digital brings the world’s most advanced and proven security architecture to cryptocurrency custody, to deliver the services institutions expect from a traditional custodian.

Before founding Anchorage Digital, he was security lead at Docker, an open platform for building, shipping and running distributed applications. While at Docker he worked on the security foundations of the container and orchestration subsystems that are now used as core building blocks of modern IT infrastructure worldwide.

Diogo Mónica was an early employee at Square where he led the platform security team and built the security infrastructure used by Square to move over $80B in annualized volume. He has a BSc, MSc and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science has published several papers in peer-reviewed security conferences on the topic of distributed systems and information security, and is the author of several patents in secure communications, encrypted hardware, and payment systems.

Diogo Mónica is a sought-after public speaker having keynotes, lectures and technical briefings on the topics of usable security, infrastructure security, and distributed systems security. He is also an angel investor and an advisor and board member to numerous startups.

Marcelo is the co-founder and President of Remote. Marcelo was previously VP of Engineering at Unbabel and has held several CTO positions. He frequently speaks at events about leadership and managing remote teams. Marcelo is also a startup advisor and mentor to entrepreneurs. He is a passionate engineer, proud dad, and sci-fi nerd.

Miguel Amaro is a tech entrepreneur and investor, known for his role in co-founding Uniplaces and Coverflex, two pioneering Portuguese startups. His entrepreneurial journey underscored the significance of mentorship, leading him to establish the Entrepreneurs Organization Portugal and become a lead mentor at Techstars. Co-founding Coverflex, a company revolutionizing the world of compensation, further showcased his expertise, propelling it to become the largest pre-seed round in Portugal.

Ryan is a startup founder turned investor with a passion for innovation & storytelling. In 2010, he & his sister embarked on a documentary journey from Alaska to Argentina, tackling big issues post-financial crisis. Sponsored by Timberland & distributed by Participant Media & Huffington, their interview series sparked conversations across continents. He later co-founded LQD, reimagining urban technology with Frog Design – leading to Verizon’s acquisition in 2016. Now, as Managing Director of a Nashville-based family office (GRA), he invests in early-stage startups across multiple sectors.

Based in Portugal after 35 years in Silicon Valley, Mike Sigal is an advisor, coach, and speaker dedicated to helping innovators thrive. As an entrepreneur, he successfully exited four startups—including one through IPO. As General Partner at 500 Startups Fintech Fund, he invested in over 80 early-stage startups, with three reaching unicorn status. He currently serves as advisor and non-executive director to funds, startups, and corporations globally. Through his Pitch Slap Academy, Mike transforms exceptional founders from outside Silicon Valley into unstoppable fundraisers.

An Ecologist at heart, Bárbara co-founded several environmental organizations and has accumulated over 15 years of experience in regeneration and impact investing. Having obtained a Ph.D. in conscious consumerism and becoming a coach and mentor for hundreds of social innovation projects. Bárbara dedicates her life to the transformation of the national regenerative ecosystem and speaks to the world through her theoretical and practical work. Currently, managing the first woman-led Impact Fund in Portugal, Bárbara bridges the worlds of Deep Ecology, Marketing and Impact Investment.

Nuno is an environmental engineer and an innovation and sustainability enthusiast. Before becoming a dedicated entrepreneur, he was in the European Parliament (Belgium) as an advisor for energy and environmental policy, in innovation consulting and funding in Spain and as a project manager for large renewable energy projects in Portugal. He is the CEO and co-founder of Goparity (his third company), an impact finance platform that allows people and companies to invest in projects that contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in already 19 countries worldwide.

Marta Palmeiro is the Co-founder of StudentFinance, a career mobility platform dedicated to helping individuals upskill in the most in-demand skills in the labor market. The company’s mission is to close the skills gap and address the impact of AI on jobs by providing tailored career pathways, access to top-tier upskilling programs, and flexible payment options. These include Government Benefits for Upskilling, Zero-Interest Flexible Payment Plans, and Income Share Agreements, ensuring accessibility for all.

João Guimarães, originally from Porto, Portugal, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Management from Católica Porto Business School and an International Master’s degree in Management from Nova School of Business and Economics. He is currently the Co-founder & CEO of Intuitivo, an edtech startup founded in 2021. Intuitivo is a digital assessment platform with the mission of helping teachers become more productive.

Julian is an entrepreneur and innovator recognised for his pioneering work on photosynthesis and biomimicry. He is the CEO and Founder of Arborea, a company that leverages microbial photosynthesis in a radical new way to convert CO2 and sunlight into the most scalable proteins on the planet. Named by Forbes as one of the EU’s Top 30 Under 30, he is also a TEDx speaker and winner of the Perez Award for Social Innovation. Julian holds dual Master’s degrees in Innovation Design Engineering from Imperial College London and the RCA.

Stephan de Moraes is the Managing General Partner of Indico Capital Partners, a leading venture capital tech and sustainability focused firm based in Portugal. He has invested in 5 unicorns over the last decade and is current President of APCRI – the Portuguese Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. Stephan holds a degree in Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico (Lisbon), and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Jason is the founder of Joyned Capital and a former athlete who found his calling outside of sports. He made it his mission to change the athletes’ narrative and the face of investors in technology.

Madalena is an entrepreneur at heart, startup investor, leadership mentor, and tech and growth enthusiast. A former Googler and startup executive, now focused on helping other tech leaders start and scale their businesses.

António is the founder and CEO of maze, as well as the Managing Partner of the impact venture capital fund. With over 15 years of experience in impact investment across the UK, Canada, and Europe, António has built a career dedicated to driving meaningful change through innovative finance. António also teaches Impact Investment and Impact Venture Capital at NOVA SBE and previously worked as an Analyst at Social Finance UK. Holding an MSc in Business Administration from Católica Business School and recognised a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum.

Cristina Fonseca is the General Partner at Indico Capital Partners, a leading venture capital firm in Portugal focused on tech and sustainability investments from Pre-Seed to Series B. She co-founded Talkdesk in 2011, which became a major cloud-native call center solution, raising $500M. In 2018, she co-founded Cleverly.ai, later acquired by Zendesk, where she now leads AI strategy as VP of Product. Cristina is also a board member of several companies, a Young Global Leader (WEF 2021), and holds key roles at Galp, Singularity University Portugal, and the University of Lisbon.

Inês Santos Silva is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at TejoMed, Portugal’s first membership-based family medicine clinic. She also serves as an Executive Advisor for AthenaDAO, a decentralized community of researchers, funders, and advocates dedicated to advancing women’s health research, education, and funding. Inês is a dedicated advocate for diversity and inclusion, co-founding Portuguese Women in Tech to support and amplify women in technology. Her work focuses on breaking barriers and empowering underrepresented groups in tech and entrepreneurship.

Carolin has been in the Venture industry for the last 10 years, combining experiences in growth, early and Fund of Funds investments across 4 continents. As a Partner at Plug and Play, she oversees the investments in the EMEA region and has led investments into over 70 startups and supported more than 250 in EMEA. She supports 30+ offices within Plug and Play and works closely with the corporate and government partners on strategic investment topics. She is also an active startup mentor, speaker and lecturer.

Mário Tarouca is the co-founder and COO of Framedrop.ai, a SaaS startup enabling traditional media companies to repurpose and optimize content for social media, trusted by brands like A BOLA, BAUER (Rádio Comercial), Diário de Notícias, and Observador.

As Global CEO, Elena runs Liberty’s operations globally overseeing offices across 3 continents as well as a global partner network across the rest of the world. She has over 20 years experience in PR and before that was a broadcast journalist with the BBC. Elena has run international PR programmes for large corporate organisations such as Nokia, Qualcomm, AT&T, O2 and Google as well as for challenger brands covering a wide variety of tech sectors including AI, AR, VR, robotics, telecoms, enterprise tech, fintech, retail tech, martech, property tech, clean tech and many others.

Founder/CEO at Sound Particles, a company that creates 3D audio software for top videogames companies, world class musicians, and all major Hollywood studios, used in productions such as StarWars, Dune, Game of Thrones, Frozen, Mission Impossible, Indiana Jones and Oppenheimer. Former university professor, with a PhD in computer audio, Nuno is also the author of 2 books and more than 20 papers on audio research topics.

Sean is a founding Partner at PROfounders Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund investing in European digital startups. PROfounders invests in technology companies that fix broken customer experiences and has invested and supported leading startups such as Unity, GetYourGuide, Busuu, and Small Giant Games. Sean co-founded PROfounders in 2010 after joining from Benchmark Capital, and in 2019 and 2020 he was selected by Forbes for the Midas List Europe. Sean has an engineering degree from Rice University and an MBA from Wharton.

Ezequiel Abramzon is the founder of LALO, a brand strategy consultancy that works with entrepreneurs and their startups worldwide providing the strategic clarity and creative direction necessary to establish an indisputable market position for their brands. Previously, he was a senior executive at The Walt Disney Company in Latin America and Europe for 22 years, helping develop brands such as Disney, Marvel and Star Wars. As General Manager of digital business in Latin America, he led international teams and established multiple B2B and B2C operations for the company.

Daniela Seixas is a medical doctor passionate about tech. She worked in the pharmaceutical industry early in her career; received her PhD in Neuroscience collaborating with the University of Oxford in 2012. In 2015, she completed an Executive MBA at IE Business School Madrid (entrepreneurship). Co-founded Tonic App in 2016, a digital health startup, to which she is now fully dedicated as CEO.

Founded 4 bootstrapped companies. Conducted and published Big Startup Studios Research 2023. Hosted 7 online conferences for Venture Studios, VCs, & Family Offices with 500-3200 registrations each. Founded a venture studio community.

André Campos is the Transformation Officer at Sogrape, where he oversees the group’s Strategy, Innovation, and Transformation. In his role, André has been dedicated to fostering a culture of innovation within Sogrape and positioning the company as a significant player in the innovation ecosystem. André Campos holds an MBA from INSEAD, a degree in Economics, and a master’s degree in Finance from the School of Economics at the University of Porto.

University of Cambridge graduate, Musician and Co-founder of Musiversal, Xavier helped take Portugal’s fastest growing music startup from 0 to €1.5M ARR in its first 12 months. Xavier also co-led the company’s fundraising efforts, helping Musiversal raise over €5M to date from notable Portuguese VCs including Shilling, Lince and Iberis.