Personal transport company Uber wants help the best business ideas become reality and to give Portuguese entrepreneurs, dreamers and visionaries the opportunity to take their projects further.
As such, the UberPITCH challenge will enable those with a good business idea to be accompanied by a jury from the national business fabric on an Uber trip, with just a click on the application. The entrepreneurs will have seven minutes to sell their idea to the investor, during the Uber trip - an elevator pitch on wheels – and another seven minutes to get feedback.
This unique challenge will take place in 37 cities in 21 European countries. In Lisbon and in Oporto, the initiative is being held in partnership with Portugal Ventures, the public capital fund aimed at investing in entrepreneurship projects, on 1st June, between 10am and 2pm.
“Every day, Uber connects thousands of people, helping them get around the city. These are the communities in which we operate, in which we invest and where we live, and that is why we know there is extraordinary accumulated entrepreneurship capital to explore.
Those who are innovative should not be afraid to present their idea – they need to reach out to those who are willing to listen to it – and it is with this in mind that we hope that UberPITCH creates a unique opportunity to make that happen”, says Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber.
From today, entrepreneurs in Lisbon and in Oporto will be able to submit their ideas using the form made available by Uber for each market. The ideas selected in each city may request, free of charge, their UberPITCH on 1st June, and only the best in Europe will get the chance to travel to Berlin.
In Portugal we will be able to count on support from four members from Portugal Ventures to assess the ideas submitted in Lisbon and in Oporto:
Diogo Alves: Senior Investment Consultant at Portugal Ventures, Board Member and Advisor of various tech startups and accelerators in the USA and Europe, focusing his efforts in the mobile, media and entertainment areas. His is also active in social entrepreneurship as a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum and Director of International Affairs at the German Federal Association for Sustainability.
Diogo has lived in 9 countries and on 4 continents, having launched and managed 4 startups. He began his career in strategic consultancy in Africa and then became co-founder of the first Iberian platform of Online Printing, Managing Director of a venture of Rocket Internet in Asia, of the largest daily deals website in the Caribbean and of a social mobile app in Europe.
João Pereira: Investment Director of Technology at Portugal Ventures, involved in venture capital investment in Portuguese tech startups in the early stage.
Marcos Osório: Marcos joined Portugal Ventures in September 2013, focusing on investments in the area of Software, Cloud Computing and Consumer Internet, and is also Board Member of a number of Portugal Ventures’ portfolio companies. Before working in Venture Capital, he worked at Vodafone Portugal in the Department of Strategic Planning, and also has experience in Marketing and Product Management. Marcos has a Degree and a Master’s in Management, with distinction, from the Nova School of Business and Economics.
Diogo Patão: With a Master’s in Business Administration from ISCTE Business School and experience in management, entrepreneurship, finance and project management, whilst at University Diogo was co-founder of ISCTE Junior Consulting and assistant professor of management accounting. He started his career as a business developer at Rocket Internet Singapore, at companies Zalora and Foodpanda.
After that, he worked at General Electric Budapest where he held various positions in finance and returned to Portugal in 2014 as Project Manager at Cofidis. Since 2015 he has been a consultant at Portugal Ventures where he has contributed to the assessment of investment opportunities and the monitoring of a number of portfolio companies.
On 3rd June the best Portuguese idea will be announced and, by 7th June the best European idea will be chosen and announced and they will then be presented to the CEO of Uber.
You can find useful information in Uber’s Newsroom via this link -
https://newsroom.uber.com/portugal/uberpitch/
- and read the Terms & Conditions for participation via this link
- https://newsroom.uber.com/portugal/uberpitch-tc/.
The form for submissions in Lisbon and Oporto is available from today, until 31st May, via this link
