UPTEC startups win innovation competition in Macau

Connected is the “Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition (Macau) for Technology Companies from Brazil and Portugal 2024” winner. NIUM won the prize in the Greatest Potential for Transfer of Technological Value category. The startups incubated at UPTEC – Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto won two of the seven prizes awarded in the competition.

Connected is a startup in the space sector dedicated to developing IoT (Internet of Things) connectivity solutions in remote areas or areas with poor terrestrial cellular network coverage. The company has focused on the European market but has always sought to partner with local players in different world regions.

“The fast-growing Asian market is extremely attractive because of the increasing digitalization and the still developing terrestrial cellular network in vast areas of the territory. Over the last few months, we’ve been strengthening our knowledge of this market and exploring opportunities for collaboration,” says Tiago Rebelo, CEO of Connected, adding that this award ”allows us not only to make the company known to the local ecosystem but also to start building bridges and looking for synergies in Asia.”

NIUM, voted the startup with the most significant potential for transferring technological value, is developing a cutting-edge technological platform for modelling gastrointestinal metabolism with various applications. The company is working on a revolutionary system replicating the entire human gastrointestinal system on a chip. This platform will enable the creation of predictive models, facilitating the development of innovative food products and personalized nutritional recommendations, including pre and probiotics.

The competition that distinguished Connected and NIUM, companies incubated at UPTEC, received applications from 64 startups from Portugal and Brazil, from which 17 finalists were selected in biomedicine, medical devices, new energies and agricultural technology.

In the final event, seven projects were awarded monetary prizes, with a maximum value of 150,000 patacas (17,100 euros), and guaranteed support to facilitate access to Chinese funding and the Chinese market, namely the Greater Bay Area.

The competition, organized by the Macau Government’s Economic and Technological Development Bureau and run by the Macau Parafuturo incubator and the Macau Young Entrepreneurs Incubation Centre, awarded two UPTEC startups: Connected and NIUM.