Unicorn Factory Lisboa has announced the 2026 Entrepreneurship Awards finalists, recognizing contributions to Portugal’s innovation ecosystem across sectors such as artificial intelligence, healthcare, education, and cybersecurity.
This year’s ceremony will take place on October 27 at the Técnico Innovation Center in Lisbon, coinciding with Unicorn Factory Lisboa’s fourth anniversary. The program will include finalist presentations, discussions, networking, and the announcement of the winners.
Registration is available here.
The finalists across the award categories are listed below.
Entrepreneur of the Year – João Vasconcelos Award
- André Santos is the co-founder and CEO of Nutrium, which provides a mobile app for personalized nutrition monitoring and access to dietitians, alongside employee nutrition benefits that combine technology and professional dietary support.
- Rodrigo Fernandes is the co-founder of Augusta Labs, an applied AI company that helps institutions integrate artificial intelligence into their operations, with a focus on measurable financial performance improvements.
- Vasco Lopes is the former CEO of DeepNeuronic, a Portuguese company acquired by Motorola Solutions that developed AI-powered computer vision systems using existing camera networks for highways, airports, retail, and industrial environments. He is now head of vertical AI solutions at Motorola Solutions.
- Nuno Fernandes is the co-founder and CEO of DIG-IN, a hospitality data intelligence company that collects and validates foodservice data from online sources to provide insights for consumer goods brands, restaurants, and platforms.
- Rui Miguel Figueiredo, Ivo Bernardo, and Nuno Brás are co-founders of DareData, which helps enterprise teams develop and deploy AI systems, from strategy through production.
Most Promising Startup Award
- UpSpeech is a digital speech therapy platform for people who stutter, combining AI-powered speech analysis, structured home exercises, real-time feedback, and therapist integration to support consistent practice and the application of techniques in everyday situations.
- coalex.ai is an AI trust and supervision platform designed to help enterprises move AI pilots into production, enabling employees to supervise and audit AI agents.
- BloodFlow offers a clinical decision-support system that processes patient records and generates evidence-based outputs directly within electronic medical record systems.
Most Impactful Startup Award
- Class of Wonders develops educational platforms combining game-based and collaborative learning, both online and offline, adapted to students’ knowledge levels, learning pace, and individual needs.
- knok is a digital healthcare platform connecting patients, healthcare professionals, and providers. Its technology supports personalized patient journeys, care coordination, and healthcare automation.
- ZeroPact is developing AI-powered technology to automate life cycle assessment calculations at scale. It also offers tools that allow brands and consumers to compensate for the carbon footprint of online purchases.
Youth Startup Award
- Cozecare is a mental health platform connecting individuals with psychologists for online consultations and providing ongoing support through personalized exercises, well-being tracking, and mindfulness resources. It also offers employee mental health services, including aggregated, anonymous insights for companies.
- RTBeamTech is a scientific spin-off from LIP and Instituto Superior Técnico developing beam-monitoring technologies for ultra-high-dose-rate radiotherapy, including FLASH radiotherapy, with a focus on precise radiation beam measurement.
- VARTHEO is an AI-powered platform that uses digital twins of consumers, based on behavioral data, to simulate market dynamics and help companies test product concepts, marketing strategies, and consumer responses before making business decisions.
Rising Female Award
- Carolina Almeida Cruz is the co-founder and CEO of C-MORE, which develops a technology platform that consolidates data to help organizations monitor regulatory compliance, identify vulnerabilities, and manage risks across their operations and supply chains.
- Carolina Sampaio Dinis is the EIT Community Officer for Portugal at the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. Her work focuses on connecting Portugal’s innovation ecosystem with European networks, fostering cross-sector collaboration, and supporting entrepreneurs, startups, researchers, and institutions.
- Catarina Kemper is the founder and CEO of Octo Health, a membership-based health platform that brings together medical records, blood test results, wearable device data, and symptom tracking. The company also offers testing for more than 100 biomarkers.
- Joana Santos Afonso is the co-founder of Simpl.care, a digital platform providing caregivers with educational resources, practical guidance, and access to support services.
- Joana Pinto is the co-founder and CEO of Gleedot, a personalized digital assistant that helps parents discover and plan activities for children, teenagers, and families.
- Maria Ribeiro Soares is the founder and CEO of Immersiv Studios, a company developing augmented and virtual reality experiences for retail, events, education, and corporate training.
- Marta Palmeiro is the founder of Mydra, an AI training and adoption platform that equips teams with the skills, workflows, and tools needed to integrate AI into their operations.
- Rita Barbosa is the founder of Guardian Labs EU, which develops real-time AI technology designed to detect and prevent scam campaigns and fraudulent calls before they reach their intended recipients.
- Rosane Marques is the founder and CEO of iTRTech Group, which provides recruitment and business technology solutions through iTRecruiter, ALLRecruiter, and AiVA.
- Viviana Ribeiro is a postdoctoral researcher at CBQF – Centre for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry, specializing in regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, biotechnology, and biomaterials. Her research background includes scientific publications, patents, and national and international projects.
International Personality Award
- Carole Picou-Katmann is interim marketing director at Global App Testing, a company providing human-led testing of digital products, supported by AI-assisted analysis.
- David de Paula Santos Silva is the founder and CEO of CyberX – The Ethical Hacking Services, a cybersecurity company specializing in penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, threat intelligence, incident response, and other offensive security and cyber defense services.
- Fernando Jardim is co-founder and advisor at 351 Portuguese Startup Association. His work has included supporting startups, organizing entrepreneurship initiatives, and contributing to startup policy discussions at the national and European levels.
- Gina Dragulin is chief marketing officer at DesignVerse, an AI-powered software development platform that uses organizations’ engineering and business context to build enterprise software.
- Jeferson Valadares is the co-founder and CEO of partNerd games, a video game development studio creating original cooperative games for Nintendo Switch 2.
- Katarina M.V. Galic is an entrepreneurship adviser to governments and founder and managing partner of TESLA Venture Studio, which works on developing entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems, adapting its approach to local resources, capabilities, and economic conditions.
- Luis Felipe Gutman is managing partner at OW Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm. He has more than 20 years of experience in technology, venture capital, and impact investing.
- Mira Sergeeva is co-founder and business and ecosystem manager at talents.kids, a child development platform offering personalized support. She also serves as secretary of the board of directors of 351 Portuguese Startup Association.
- Pierre Gein is executive director of the Católica-Lisbon Entrepreneurship Center, which supports entrepreneurship research, education, and student initiatives at Católica-Lisbon School of Business & Economics.
- Thiago Vieira is the co-founder of Cybertech Acceleration, which supports cybersecurity startups expanding internationally. Its activities focus on business development, market visibility, and legal considerations for cybersecurity companies.
Ecosystem Award
The Ecosystem Award will also be presented, recognizing an individual or organization for their contribution to the development and promotion of innovation in Portugal. No finalists were listed for this award in the announcement.
Featured image: Photo courtesy of Unicorn Factory Lisboa
