The hottest startups in Lisbon in 2017

Web Summit's new home has used the global economic crisis to kickstart its startup scene

Boosted by the arrival of the annual Web Summit conference (previously held in Dublin), Lisbon's startup community is thriving - with healthy support from the Portuguese government. In June 2016, it created a national network of tech hubs and the StartUP Voucher initiative that gives more than 400 entrepreneurs a one-year fellowship to pursue their ventures. "The economic crisis served as a catalyst to entrepreneurship," says Pedro Costa, venture partner at Faber Ventures. "The scarcity of capital made projects more resilient."

Attentive

Founded by Pedro Araújo, Luís Braga and former Google engineer Daniel Araújo, Attentive is an information-assistant tool for sales teams. Its app integrates with CRM tools such as Salesforce and Hubspot and sends alerts about their clients and competitors. It has been selected to take part in the 2017 Techstars Boulder programme. attentive.us

Unbabel

Y Combinator alumnus Unbabel translates online content for Pinterest, Skyscanner, Under Armour, Trello and Oculus. The startup, founded in 2013 by Vasco Pedro, João Graça, Sofia Pessanha, Bruno Silva and Hugo Silva, uses machine learning and 50,000 humans to translate text. It has raised $8 million (£6.3m). unbabel.com

Feedzai

Feedzai can detect commercial-transaction fraud in real time by examining payments and flagging unusual behaviour. Founded by Nuno Sebastião, Paulo Marques and Pedro Bizarro in 2009 ("Before everyone else was talking about AI," says Talkdesk co-founder Cristina Fonseca), it has raised $26 million. feedzai.com

Zaask

Launched in 2012, Zaask helps companies to hire and rate service professionals, from interior designers to language teachers. It operates in Portugal, Spain, Germany, the UK and Brazil and has raised $2.66 million from Shilling Capital Partners, Portugal Ventures, Faber Ventures and Busy Angels. zaask.com

Misk

Google alumnus Madalena Rugeroni, Sofia Pitta and Daniel Rosa launched Misk, an invite-only social network for foodies, in 2016. The Instagram-style app lets its community share recommendations for more than 3,500 restaurants and bars, from Mexico to Indonesia. miskapp.com

Landing.jobs

Landing.jobs matches tech professionals with companies looking for talent. Founded by José Paiva and Pedro Oliveira, it vets job offers and evaluates talent. Also based in London, Landing.jobs has raised $820,000 from Portugal Ventures and its customers include Spotify, Typeform and Farfetch. landing.jobs

Uniplaces

Founded by Miguel Amaro, Ben Grech, Leo Lara and Mariano Kostelec in 2012, this online platform for student accommodation lists more than 40,000 properties in 15 cities across Europe. It has raised $28.94 million from investors including Atomico, and its revenues quadrupled in 2016. uniplaces.com

SWORD Health

Medtech startup SWORD Health uses AI and tracking to digitise human motion and give real-time feedback to patients during physical rehabilitation. It can be used at home, with doctors giving feedback remotely. The startup has partnerships with hospitals in the US, China, Sweden and Portugal. swordhealth.com

Chic by Choice

Founded in 2012 by Filipa Neto and Lara Vidreiro, dress-rental startup Chic by Choice applies the sharing economy model to high fashion. "The future will be about rotating closets," Neto said at WIRED Retail 2016. "You'll still have the basics, but you'll be able to have more fun with fashion experiments." chic-by-choice.com

Mellow

Launched by Catarina Violante and Jose Pedro Ferreira, Mellow has created a $400 sous-vide machine that's controllable by smartphone; users can program it to cook remotely at a specific time and temperature. As well as Lisbon, the company has offices in San Francisco and Shenzhen. cookmellow.com

This article was originally published by WIRED UK