'It's been a crazy month': How Portugal's startups rapidly deployed 30 projects in a month to stem the coronavirus
- In just one month, Portugal's Tech4Covid19 has grown into a multi-level organization made up of more than 100 startups and over 5,000 volunteers.
- Portugal has stemmed the rise in COVID-19-related deaths, recording just over 500 fatalities, compared to the tens of thousands in nearby Italy and Spain.
- One project, "Rooms Against Covid", has so far provided 500 medical professionals with temporary accommodation to help them avoid passing the virus onto their family.
- As the emergency continues, Tech4Covid19 has moved beyond public health initiatives into helping the economy and education.
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One month ago, Portugal had not suffered a single death related to coronavirus - but the nation watched in anxiety as the pandemic tore through European neighbors Italy and Spain.
With an approaching health crisis on its doorstep, Portugal's entrepreneurs moved fast, effectively launching relief effort Tech4Covid19 over a series of WhatsApp messages one Saturday afternoon.
"We just thought: We have so many talented people at our disposal and resources to spare," said Felipe Avila da Costa, the cofounder and CEO of Infraspeak, a logistics startup whose clients include Siemens and Domino's Pizza, at the time.
Since then, Portugal has stemmed the rise in COVID-19-related deaths, recording just over 500 fatalities, compared to the tens of thousands in Italy and Spain.
The effort has been helped in part by Tech4Covid19, which has morphed into a multi-tier organization pooling resources of more than 100 startups, 5,000 volunteers and a portfolio of more than 30 projects designed to counter the disease's impacts on public health, education and the economy.
One particular project, Rooms Against Covid, has so far provided 500 medical professionals with temporary accommodation to help them avoid passing the virus onto their family - free of charge.
"It was a lot of pressure bringing that to life," said project manager Mario Mouraz, the cofounder and CEO of Climber, a firm that helps hotels use dynamic pricing to offer the best prices for available rooms.
"I'm aware it wasn't a perfectly formed idea when we launched, but there were so many doctors in need that we moved as quickly as possible."
The initial success of the project convinced the Portuguese government to invest €12 million (or $13 million) in subsidizing the accommodation, paying the water and electricity bills.
While the first weeks were spent finding healthtech solutions to the crisis, Tech4Covid19 has now expanded into edtech and schemes designed to bolster the local economy.
Under one project, those with spare tablets or laptops can lend them to students without, allowing them to attend online classes.
In another project, titled "Preserve", residents purchase vouchers tied to local businesses to spend at a later date, when social distancing restrictions have been lifted.
"It's been a crazy month," Infraspeak's da Costa said. "The speed at which this developed from a few text messages to a movement with thousands of volunteers has been incredible."
With no clear end in sight, the project's leaders say they hope to be able to pass the tools they have developed over to the state - and concentrate again on keeping their own businesses afloat.
Startups all around the world have expressed anxiety about the lack of financial protection available, with many banks reluctant to hand out loans to loss-making scale-ups.
Da Costa hopes the way Portugal's tech startups have stepped up to the plate in this crisis will endear them to officials, highlighting the way the French government set aside an extra €4 billion to bail out its own firms.
Until then, he and his teammates are focused on scaling up their public health initiatives before handing the reins over to the government.
"We are moving towards a place where the state can take over," he said.
"Over the course of the next few months, we want to take the structures we have built and hand them to those in government who have the resources to make them sustainable."
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