The Demo Day of the 2nd edition of the Empreender@Braga Program took place on December 16, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., at the Braga Youth Center, and admission was free. The event supported by Startup Braga culminated a training program, with six bootcamps and talks from November 18 to December 5, dedicated to entrepreneurs and youth associations with innovative projects in the areas of entrepreneurship and youth. In the end, 17 projects stood out, 14 of which were presented at the session by entrepreneurs and youth associations.
Winners
The UMinho Academic Association’s project for student mobility, which is part of the Recurso app, won the Youth Associations category, receiving 1000 euros and support in providing spaces in the Youth Center to hold events. The podium was rounded off by projects from CeSIUM – the University of Minho’s Computer Engineering Student Center (2nd place in the Youth Associations category) and the European Vocational School. The Entrepreneurs category was won by the Me-Vet project (entitled to 2,500 euros, mentoring and incubation for up to a year at Startup Braga), which enables professional veterinary care without leaving home. The podium in this category also included the “Augmented Cobotics” and “Bolt42” projects.
The director of Startup Braga, Luís Rodrigues, points out that the 2024 edition was the first to bring youth associations to the event, in an “environment of a lot of interaction, of joint learning”.
For four weeks, the finalists took part in six bootcamps, consisting of workshops, talks and mentoring sessions. According to the official, this reformulation of Empreender@Braga proved to be “very positive”, helping to build sustainable business models and drawing on the “entrepreneurial spirit”.
The winning projects received prizes of 2,500 euros in the entrepreneur category and 1,000 euros in the Youth Association category, as well as other support, such as “the provision of infrastructure for holding events at the Youth Centre [in the case of youth associations], and specialized mentoring awards for business development, for the startups”.
Luís Rodrigues says that the ignition program is intended to encourage new businesses and that the support goes beyond this Demo Day. The Youth Centre will continue to support these associations to create more sustainable business models and to have strategies for “raising funds and mobilizing their communities”.
Also aware of the importance of Entrepreneurship and Innovation within the academic community, and with the aim of promoting the creation of more spin-offs and start-ups operating in the areas of Engineering, the School of Engineering launched the Innovate & Entrepreneur Agenda in 2024, with several incubators in the region as partners, including Startup Braga.
Congratulations to the entire Cesium team!
Photos: Foto Francisco de Assis/Diário do Minho e Marcelo Hermsdorf /RUM
