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Case study: Portuguese technology that is sold abroad, and what it teaches us about packaging ours
Via Verde, Multibanco and MB WAY (SIBS) and ANA's airports, read for how each turned something that works at home into something sold elsewhere, whether any of them is at the summit (not in our data), and what the pattern means for selling the pieces of this newsroom that work.
On this page
A case study for the customers section, asked for by Dinis Cruz on 6 November 2026. The question: what Portuguese technology has been sold abroad or could be, how, and what do we learn about selling ours? Every fact below has its source and the date it was read (6 November 2026). Where a source was a search summary I did not open, or I found nothing, it says so.
In short
- Via Verde sold its tolling back office and its running of a motorway toll to the Netherlands. The technology (from a Brisa group company, A-to-Be) was proven at home first, and it was sold together with the running of it, in a contract of two years to build and five to operate.
- SIBS, which runs Multibanco and MB WAY, goes abroad in two ways: by buying local operators (a Polish ATM and payments company, in a country where it has worked since 2008) and by connecting its network to other countries' schemes (the first MB WAY payments with Spain's Bizum and Italy's Bancomat, 13 November 2024).
- ANA, the airports company, earns about a quarter of its revenue from commercial space and services (shops, food, advertising, parking, car rental): EUR 366 million in 2025. That is a different model from the other two. It sells access to a place full of people, not a technology. I found no evidence that ANA sells technology.
- None of the three is in our data for the summit (read 6 November 2026). The nearest Portuguese companies that are: Feedzai and MEO, each with a confirmed speaker.
- The pattern: work at national scale at home, put a company around the technology, sell the technology with its operation, win a first reference abroad, then buy or connect your way into the next market. For us, the home reference is this site, and the thing to sell is the making-it-work, not the code. See what we can package.
The three cases
| What works at home | What was sold abroad | How | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Via Verde (Brisa group) | the electronic toll service | an electronic toll operation on the A24 motorway near Rotterdam; later, per-kilometre tolls for heavy vehicles across almost all Dutch motorways | a tender won in December 2022 (EUR 16 million: two years to implement, five to operate, two optional extensions of two years each) using A-to-Be's "MoveBeyond Tolling BackOffice", described as fully developed in Portugal; the toll began on 7 December 2024; a consortium led by a Brisa group company with Ascendi O&M and Yunex Traffic runs the heavy-vehicle toll, in force since 1 July 2026 |
| SIBS (Multibanco, MB WAY) | the national ATM and payments network, and the MB WAY mobile payment | processing and ATM services in Poland, and instant payments between MB WAY and Bizum (Spain) and Bancomat (Italy) | in Poland since 2008; in September 2025 it announced buying ITCARD, a Polish payments outsourcing firm founded in 2010 that runs the Planet Cash ATM network (about 5,500 ATMs in Poland; SIBS would manage more than 20,000 ATMs across its operations) and Planet Pay terminals; the cross-border payments were announced on 13 November 2024 |
| ANA (airports) | its airports' shops, food, advertising, parking and car rental | not a technology: a record EUR 1.4 billion of revenue in 2025 (up 9%), of which EUR 366 million (up 15%) was non-aviation | from the airports' own commercial space; aviation was 73.9% of revenue, so non-aviation about 26% |
Via Verde
- Source for the tender and the technology: Observador, 23 December 2022: Via Verde won a EUR 16 million tender to run electronic toll collection on the A24 near Rotterdam; the bid used A-to-Be's Portuguese technology, "totalmente desenvolvida em Portugal"; two years of implementation, five of operation, two optional two-year extensions. The article does not say who awarded it.
- Source for the start and what A-to-Be is: Forbes Portugal, 6 December 2024: Via Verde, through its Dutch subsidiary, began managing the A24 toll on 7 December; A-to-Be is "the technology company for infrastructure of the Brisa Group", and developed the hardware and software; the company had previously entered other markets through its parent.
- Source for the heavy-vehicle toll: ECO, citing Lusa, 8 July 2026: since 1 July 2026, per-kilometre tolls for vehicles over 3.5 tonnes on almost the whole Dutch motorway network, by GPS/GNSS, with no barriers; the contract went to the NedLinq consortium, led by a Brisa group company. The article does not say that A-to-Be built this system, nor give its value.
- I also saw search results about Brisa buying a French toll company (Axxès) in 2025 and asked about a Brazilian operation; I opened nothing on the first, and the search found nothing that confirms the second.
SIBS: Multibanco and MB WAY
- Diário de Notícias, 13 November 2024: SIBS announced the first cross-border instant payments between MB WAY, Italy's Bancomat and Spain's Bizum.
- Executive Digest, 10 September 2025: SIBS buying ITCARD; present in Poland since 2008. (The headline says 20,000 ATMs in Poland; the body gives that figure as the total across SIBS's operations, and about 5,500 for Poland.)
- From search summaries I did not open: SIBS is a founding member of the European Mobile Payment Systems Association (2019), and has announced MB WAY transfers to 13 European countries by the end of 2026. Treat these as leads, not facts.
ANA
- Essential Business, 9 February 2026: record revenues of about EUR 1.4 billion in 2025, up 9% on 2024; about EUR 9.6 billion since the 2012 privatisation; non-aviation revenue EUR 366 million, up 15%, from shops, cafés and restaurants, advertising, car parks and rent-a-car companies. The 26% share is my calculation from the article's 73.9% aviation share.
- I saw search results about a joint-venture tender for duty free across eight airports; its date was not confirmed, so I do not use it.
Are they at the summit?
No, not in our data. I looked in our 120 companies, 204 organisations, 226 events and 249 people (the data as of 6 November 2026) for Via Verde, Brisa, A-to-Be, SIBS, Multibanco, MB WAY and ANA, and found none of them. That is the limit of our data, which lists what the summit's public pages and the team's research name; it does not say they will not be there.
Portuguese companies that are in our graph, with the source our data holds:
| Company | What our data says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Feedzai | fraud and financial crime prevention; founded in Portugal; its CTO is listed on the session "Who let the agent in?", 12 November, SaaS Summit, Stage 7 | Web Summit's session page, read 1 November 2026 (data/companies/feedzai/) |
| MEO | Portuguese telecom operator; its CTO is listed on "The autonomous enterprise: Networks, cloud and AI agents", 11 November, Corporate Innovation Summit, Stage 7 | Web Summit's session page, read 1 November 2026 (data/companies/meo/) |
| OutSystems, Talkdesk | named in a University of Lisbon news item about its ecosystem at the summit; our data holds nothing more | ULisboa, read 5 November 2026 |
What the pattern says
- The home market is the reference. Via Verde's technology ran a national toll before it was bid abroad; SIBS's network is the one the country uses. A buyer abroad is buying "it works, at that scale, for years".
- A company is put around the technology. A-to-Be is, in Forbes Portugal's words, the Brisa group's technology company for infrastructure; SIBS has a Polish business selling processing and ATM services. The technology is sold by a team whose job is to sell and run it.
- The technology is sold with its operation. The Dutch contract is two years to build and five to run. A buyer does not want a licence; they want the toll to work.
- Connect or buy to get into the next market. SIBS buys local operators and links to other countries' payment schemes, rather than asking a country to adopt its network.
- Selling the place is a separate business. ANA's commercial revenue comes from the space and the footfall. It needs no technology and no export, and it only works where the people already are.
What it means for us
| The pattern | Ours |
|---|---|
| The home reference | This site and this team. What runs here is the reference, said with its limits, as REALITY.md does |
| A company around the technology | A shop window and named delivery. PrompTugal.news shows the work and takes the order; a named partner delivers with the agents; a person signs off |
| Sold with its operation | Packages that include the making-it-work and the hand-over, not a repository link: the code is open source (Apache-2.0); what is sold is making it work for a buyer |
| Connect to what they already use | Fit their identity, their vaults, their publishing, not replace them |
| Selling the place | We have no ads, and will not sell the readers. The nearest honest version is services for the people already here |
The packages are on the products page. The caution in all three cases applies to us too: a reference is only worth what it honestly shows, so where something here is partial, the products page says so.
What I could not check
- Whether Multibanco and Via Verde are "exported" in the way Dinis described beyond what the sources above show; I found the Dutch toll, the Polish and cross-border payments, and ANA's commercial revenue, and nothing on Brazil or on ANA selling technology.
- The values and awarding body of the Dutch heavy-vehicle toll, and whether A-to-Be's technology runs it.
- Any plan these companies have to be at the summit. Our graph is not exhaustive.
- Other Portuguese technology that is sold abroad, which a researcher should map next.