After five successful years in Cascais, it was time to bring our old and new community members together in-person to a new destination! The 2022 EIA program was the first of 5 editions in Porto and ran from July 17 to August 5. After three weeks of non-stop brainstorming, learning new tips and tools to bring their ideas to life, prototype and innovate, win their first customers, and break through the competition, the European Innovation Academy 2022 Porto found its superstars – the teams that proved to the European & US investors that they might be future unicorns! 

“This new agreement, for another five years, allows us to continue to positively impact the entrepreneurial student ecosystem, encouraging young university students to think together on an idea in an international and interdisciplinary environment. We believe this is another step in the right direction, in the sense of empowering these young people for the challenges of the digital economy that the future seems to promise.” – Ricardo Marvão, Beta-i. 

The students’ journey through the hyper-accelerated environment was super rewarding yet demanding, but they all did it. A critical component of their success was the 60 world-class mentors and speakers willing to jump on board with us and share their invaluable knowledge and expertise. With a 50/50 female-male ratio, the lineup of mentors for this year’s program welcomed experts and talents from top-notch companies like Amazon, Kajabi, Wise, Google, Spotify, TikTok, Dell and Pipedrive. 

The experience was truly incredible. Mentors were the most down-to-earth people I’ve ever met. They were all kind, helpful, and interested in the projects and gave us time. It was amazing how we learned from them in a few short conversations. The keynotes every morning inspired me for the rest of the day. Hearing about the speaker’s journeys gave me so much energy to achieve as much as they have.” – Team ReHabit.

Around 500 students and 70 nationalities from 60 universities came together, formed teams, and started their path to making our world a better place by discovering various solutions. From finding solutions to relevant problems in the sustainability and healthcare scene to coming up with hardware projects to tackle students’ security and one of the world’s leading neurodegenerative diseases, the EIA Porto 2022 program students surprised us with some of the best ideas in the history of EIA. After transforming the random words in their notebooks into captivating stories of their startups, the panel of investors chose the top 10 teams based on their 3-minute pitches. 

“The program as a whole was one of the greatest experiences we have had as a team. Without the help of a few select mentors dedicated to our growth in the program, we would not have succeeded as well as we did. With a diverse team in skill and culture, we meshed together surprisingly well and looked forward to seeing where our startup, Lexius, takes us as we develop further.” – Team Lexius. 

EIA Porto 2022

Here are the top 10 teams (in random order) of EIA Porto 2022:

  • Field of Vision: Haptic technology company that meets the needs of blind and visually impaired sports fans.

Field of Vision, by utilizing portable, battery-powered, WiFi enabled, Bluetooth, and 5G compatible technology, allows the user to experience events like never before. 

The team consisted of students from Trinity College Dublin, UC Berkeley, Villanova University, and the University of Porto.

  • MetaFitGame: Your Workout. Anytime. Anywhere. Made Fun.

MetaFitGame is at the intersection of a traditional fitness app and a video game experience to make working out more fun, immersive and motivating through 2 key features: avatars and humor.

The team consisted of students from the University of Porto, Université de Technologie de Compiègne, UC Berkeley, University of Texas at San Antonio, and the Iona College.

  • Outpost: Sustainable Refill Service.

Outpost is a sustainable last-mile refill delivery service for laundry detergent, hand soap, and dish soap.

The team consisted of students from Colorado College, Tampere University, UC Berkeley, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Instituto Superior Técnico.

  • ReHabit: Keeping your clients accountable for their recovery has never been easier.

ReHabit is a gamified platform to improve physiotherapy rehab outcomes and overall recovery tracking. 

The team consisted of students from TUDublin, University of Alabama, Universidade da Beira Interior, and Ohio State University.

  • BTreated: Band-aids for early detection of skin infection.

BTreated provides band-aids that indicate when a wound is infected. The color of the bandage will turn pink, signaling that person needs to disinfect the wound. 

The team consisted of students from University of Arts London, Tampere University of Applied Sciences, and the University of Porto.

  • Steward: Educational game app that teaches young children eco-conscious behaviors through play.

In schools, education focuses on the consequences of climate change rather than encouraging action-oriented solutions. Steward is changing the game with an immersive educational app for young children to teach eco-conscious behaviors through play. 

The team consisted of students from LAZARIDIS School of Business & Economics (Wilfrid Laurier University), UC Berkeley, and GALP.

  • Utensoul: a sustainable and portable cutlery washer that aims to eliminate plastic waste.

Utensoul is reusable utensils on the go, stored in a quick and convenient washing container cup.

The team consisted of students from Eckerd College, University of Porto, Université de Technologie de Compiègne, University of Michigan, and Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto.

  • Sotera: a security company that develops rapid response robots to assist law enforcement in school shootings and other life-threatening situations.

The average school shooting lasts 12.5 minutes, and the average police response time in the US is 18 minutes, meaning that in most cases, police are not even present until after the shooting ends. Sotera wants to use technology to reduce the response time to 3 minutes. 

The team consisted of students from UC Berkeley, Nova SBE, Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave, and the University of Alabama.

  • Lexius: Saving money and preventing shoplifting through AI technology.

Lexius provides a customizable advanced artificial intelligence that detects and classifies shoplifting from surveillance camera footage. At the same time, they remove the initially essential need for an extra workforce and the risk of human error when involved in preventing shoplifting.

The team consisted of students from UC Berkeley, Eindhoven University of Technology, Instituto Superior de Ciencias Sociais e Políticas, and the University of Alabama.

  • AirOver: Explore more cities while paying less through extended layovers.

AirOver is an online travel agency that creates flight itineraries with long layovers, so you can explore additional locations while saving money.

The team consisted of students from UC Berkeley, University of Alabama, Morehouse College, and the University of Malaga.

To support the startups’ journey after the program and inspire them to continue working on their projects, the teams received follow-up mentoring, workshops, and expedited interviews with the worlds leading accelerators. 

We want to give our utmost thank you to: 

Chillitime. A product and innovation company that turns ideas into products for offering follow-up mentoring on UI/UX design and website/app development. 

Miltton New Nordics. An ambitious and forward-looking consultancy company for offering workshops on hiring the best global talent and launching products in the worldwide marketplace. 

Alchemist Accelerator. A venture-backed accelerator focused on accelerating the development of seed-stage ventures with expedited interviews. 

500 Global. An early-stage venture fund and seed accelerator that invests in founders building fast-growing technology companies with expedited interviews. 

Besides having the most fabulous bunch of lawyers and offering the best IP-related education, our long-term partner Nixon Peabody LLP gave out special prizes to three outstanding teams for their accomplishments in the program. 

The Nixon Peabody Patent Innovation Award was awarded to team FYTS. This app scans your inventory to generate outfits based on geographical location, weather, personal style, fashion trends, occasions, and venues. Allow FYTS to help you Find Your True Style. The team consisted of students from Spelman College, SUNY Cortland, University of Michigan, and UC Berkeley.

The Nixon Peabody Trademark Artisan Award for an “exceptionally brilliant” company name or product brand that can be registered as a U.S. trademark was awarded to team Peregrine. This platform helps business travelers to find their activities within the limited time they have tailored to their preferences. The team consisted of students from the University of Texas at San Antonio, University of Arts London, and the University of Alabama.

The Ed Quinones Spark Award for a team that is so exceptional that every team member receives an individual scholarship to use in any way they want for their endeavors was awarded to team Flip Fast Fashion. This sustainable online marketplace where finding sustainable clothing is more accessible, and everyone can be a contributor to healing our earth by supporting businesses that are dedicated to making an impact. The team consisted of students from UC Berkeley, Virginia Commonwealth University, Université de Technologie de Compiègne, and Morehouse College.

Thank you to the Nixon Peabody LLP team for giving close to 200 clinics for the students on IP, patents, and trademarks and offering such a valuable opportunity and motivation for the teams to continue with their startups and ideas. 

“EIA has connected all of us to opportunities we didn’t think possible before, but more importantly, it connected us to lifelong friends. We look forward to growing our startup with the same passion and collaboration we started with.” – team Flip Fast Fashion.

Overall, the European Innovation Academy 2022 Porto had around 1,000 participants – students, mentors, speakers, faculty, partners, and guests joining us in sunny Porto throughout the three weeks for this life-changing experience. We came one step closer to our mission to educate 1 million students by 2028 globally, together with our great partners: Universidade do Porto, Fundação Santander Portugal, Beta-i, Câmara Municipal do Porto, and Fundação Galp.