The 5th edition of the Acredita Portugal Entrepreneurship Competition Gala honored the initiative’s winning projects tonight, selected from nearly 19,000 submitted business ideas. The projects, spanning fields from retail to high technology, will receive prizes totaling one million euros to help them enter the market.
Lisbon, June 5, 2015 – The winning business ideas from the Acredita Portugal Entrepreneurship Competition were announced today. The event’s gala, held at the Lisbon Congress Center, honored winners in the categories of Commerce and Services, Industry, and Social Entrepreneurship (competition Make Your Dream Come True) and innovation and technological breakthroughs (competition InovPortugal), now providing them with tools to enable or enhance their implementation.
The following projects were selected as winners in the Acredita Portugal competitions: Yogan (ROSS Commerce and Services), Catalvalor (ROSS Indústria) and Inspiring the Future (ROSS Social Entrepreneurship); W|inove (InovPortugal New Ideas), Fact.pt (InovPortugal Web/Mobile) and Blue Stain (InovPortugal High Technology and the SMART EQUITY Award) and TRUCKION (Brisa Mobility Award).
For João Gonçalo Cunha, CEO of Acredita Portugal, “The number of entries received and the quality of the proposals submitted in this year’s edition of the Acredita Portugal Competition are the clearest indication of the importance of an initiative of this kind. Acredita Portugal exists to enable the entrepreneurial spirit of the Portuguese people to be put into practice. The level of participation achieved makes this initiative the world’s largest entrepreneurship competition and attests to the need for a platform of this nature in Portugal. This relevance has been recognized by the President of the Republic’s granting of High Patronage to the Association.”.
The Acredita Portugal Gala marks the end of the process that began with the initial submission of business ideas. After completing all the stages in the DreamShaper educational tool, the finalist ideas went through a phase of mentoring, which culminated on June 1 with the moment of pitch to the jury and investors.
The initiative received 18,702 business ideas, a figure that represents a 30% increase in the number of entries compared to the previous edition. In total, the competition has already directly involved 1% of the Portuguese population, with more than 120,000 candidates participating in the five editions of the initiative.
This year also marks a record in terms of the prizes awarded, totaling one million euros in services for the winners of the contest’s two categories, in addition to other prizes awarded by Acredita Portugal’s partners and by the audience at the event.