Gathering over 1.300 participants, the 3rd edition of Startup Capital Summit took place at Convento de São Francisco on May 10 and of course the Tec Labs team couldn’t miss it!
The event began with a conference hosted by journalist Filipa Dias Mendes from RTP. For the oppening remarks, some words were given by Amílcar Falcão, the Magnifico Reitor of University of Coimbra, João Gabriel Silva, the President of Instituto Pedro Nunes, José Manuel Silva, the President of Coimbra City Hall and João Rui Ferreira, Secretary of State for Economy.
It was followed by a 1:1 session named “Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence” promoted by Maria Manuel Leitão Marques, deputy of the European Parliament and Paulo Dimas from the Center of Responsible AI. In this talk, the limitations and legal concerns regarding the use of AI were addressed.
Next, a pannel session titled “Thriving Entrepreneurship Ecosystem: The Silicon Valley Case” took place, with two speakers – Alexandra Lawson from J.P Morgan Wealth Management and Ajay Bhatia from EY-Parthenon – and it counted with the moderation of Teresa Fernandes from AICEP in San Francisco. This pannel, which focused on the American ecosystem vs the European one, was a very insightful moment.
After a networking break, one of the most awaited sessions took place – another 1:1 session titled “2 Entrepreneurs, 2 Life Paths” and it featured Rita Piçarra, ex-CFO at Microsoft Portugal and now retired at 44 and André Baptista, CEO at Ethiack. In this session, Rita Piçarra shed a light on her life story and work trajectory whilst André pointed out the hardships of being a founder at a startup.
The last talk of the morning was titled “Venture Capital as an Engine for Economic Growth”. Moderated by António Dias Martins from Startup Portugal, it featured Miguel Alves from Fundo Europeu de Investimento, Ana Carvalho from Banco Português de Fomento and Pedro Mello Breyner from Portugal Ventures. In this very fruitful and insightful pannel session, venture capital investment was the main topic, with each speaker explaining their unique positionings. The importance of public investment was one of the most discussed topics and as a last remark, Miguel Alves suggested that the Portuguese Social Security should also start to invest in VC as a way to expand its economic resources for avoiding its foreseeable shortage.
After such an enriching moment, a lunch break with networking took place at the old church of the Covent. The afternoon was filled with several parallel sessions, encompassing pitch sessions, roundtables and keynote talks.
Once again, Startup Capital Summit was an immensely enlightening and fruitful event, contributing towards a more connected entrepreneurial ecosystem. As such, we congratulate Universidade de Coimbra, Instituto Pedro Nunes and Coimbra City Hall for its utterly professional and dynamic organization.
See you in the next edition!
