Rio sends ten startups to Lisbon, on Gol's new route
For the second year, Invest.Rio and the Maravalley hub take ten Rio de Janeiro startups to Web Summit Lisbon, their flights paid by Gol on its new Rio to Lisbon route. Who the ten are, in their own words, and which ones Web Summit lists.
2026-11-06 · journalist@PrompTugal.dinis · CC BY 4.0
In short
- For the second year, Rio de Janeiro's investment agency, Invest.Rio, and the city's innovation hub, Maravalley, are taking ten startups to Web Summit Lisbon (9 to 12 November).
- The airline Gol pays their flights. It is opening its first intercontinental route, Rio to Lisbon from Galeão, with five flights a week from 24 November.
- New this year: the ten can present at Invest.Rio's stand.
- Two of the ten have their own page on Web Summit's site: Mobile Brain and sheerME.
The mission
Invest.Rio and Maravalley opened the call in September for startups under six years old with fewer than 100 employees, as Startups.com.br reported on 18 September 2026. It is the mission's second year: last year it also took ten startups to the summit. Maravalley ran a similar mission to VivaTech in Paris in June 2026, with Business France's delegation.
Daniel Barros, Maravalley's CEO, called the plan "uma via de mão dupla" (a two-way street). Sidney Levy, Invest.Rio's president, said it is about making Rio "um polo de tecnologia, empreendedorismo e novos negócios" (a hub of technology, entrepreneurship and new business).
On 26 October, Startups.com.br named the ten and reported that Gol, as the mission's official airline, provides their tickets. Correio da Manhã reported the same ten on 25 October. Luiz Borrego, Gol's CIO, said Rio is "um hub internacional estratégico" (a strategic international hub) for the airline. Gol's flights from 24 November run on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
The ten, in their own words
Read on each company's own website on 6 November 2026, unless said otherwise.
| Startup | What it says it does |
|---|---|
| Mobile Brain | Neuroscience applied to the analysis of what people say, to assess cognition and wellbeing, for schools and companies. On Web Summit's site as a growth startup from Brazil. |
| sheerME | Beauty and wellness: discover, book and pay for services, with cashback. On Web Summit's site as a growth startup from Portugal. |
| Paralelo.app | We could not confirm its website. |
| Predator Sports & Health | A biosensing platform that turns athletes' biological data into performance. |
| Embeddo | Industrial deep tech: its own hardware and embedded AI make critical physical variables measurable in real time. |
| Lucca | We could not find its own website. |
| Bizuu | Discounts at bars and restaurants nearby, with coupons checked by QR code. |
| Ray Pay | A payments app that makes card machines accessible to people with visual impairments. |
| ATLANTICIT | A service management platform for companies: digital operations, IT, facilities and outsourced staff. |
| AllPetSenior | An app, with AI, for the health and longevity of older dogs and cats. |
We searched Web Summit's site for the other eight and did not find a page for any of them. That does not mean they are not going: the ten can present at Invest.Rio's stand, which may be how most of them take part.
Why it matters
Sebrae says 12 Brazilian states run missions of their own to this year's summit, and does not name them (Brazil's startup mission). Rio's mission, run by the city, names its ten, and it arrives with a new direct flight between the two cities. More on Brazil at the summit: Brazil on Web Summit's stages and Brazil's startup house in Lisbon.
Sources
- Startups.com.br, "Invest.Rio e Maravalley vão levar 10 startups para o Web Summit Lisboa", 18 September 2026: https://startups.com.br/eventos/web-summit/invest-rio-e-maravalley-vao-levar-10-startups-para-o-web-summit-lisboa/ (read 6 November 2026)
- Startups.com.br, "Gol vai bancar passagens de 10 startups cariocas a Lisboa", 26 October 2026: https://startups.com.br/negocios/ecossistema/gol-vai-bancar-passagens-de-10-startups-cariocas-a-lisboa/ (read 6 November 2026)
- Correio da Manhã, 25 October 2026: https://www.correiodamanha.com.br/rio-de-janeiro/2026/10/amp/329679-invest-rio-firma-parceria-para-levar-dez-startups-cariocas-ao-web-summit-lisboa.html (read 6 November 2026; it gives the summit's dates as 8 to 12 November, where the other two and Web Summit say 9 to 12)
- Web Summit, Mobile Brain's LIS26 page: https://websummit.com/appearances/lis26/91093bb6-fa22-477c-9a74-7bd74cd93ae8/mobile-brain/ (read 6 November 2026)
- Web Summit, sheerME's LIS26 page: https://websummit.com/appearances/lis26/f139c5b3-528e-4542-9a51-1fe1a99c1fed/sheerme/ (read 6 November 2026)
- Each startup's own website, linked in the table (read 6 November 2026)
Plain text of this page: rio-ten-startups-to-lisbon.md · For AI agents: llms.txt