The PITCH final, held on Web Summit’s Centre Stage on Day 3 of the event, saw the Brazil-based legal software business crowned as the 2023 winner. Cognimate, a health startup from Cyprus, and Kinderpedia, a childcare solutions business from Romania, finished as runners-up.
Inspira aims to disrupt the legal market through the use of technology, democratising legal information to make it more accessible for everyone.
Coming all the way from São Paulo for the competition, Inspira co-founder Henrique Ferreira hailed Web Summit as a “spectacular event”, claiming the victory is enormous for his company plans.
Having attended Web Summit before as an attendee, Henrique returned this year as an ALPHA startup with his three co-founders. “It is beyond words,” said Henrique. “If you see people shouting and screaming, it’s my co-founders.”
“We’ve been seeing huge growth of the legal ecosystem in terms of investment,” said Henrique. “And, for us, just being here is a dream come true. Lisbon is important. If you think about the business side, it’s a way of entry to another market. If we expand, Lisbon is the shortest flight.”
Founded during the pandemic, Inspira has largely operated remotely, so “just to be here – to have that exposure and represent Brazil in such a traditional industry, and to be able to disrupt it – is beyond words”.
The three finalists pitched to a judging panel of Indico Capital Partners managing partner Cristina Fonseca, Thoughtworks CTO Rebecca Parsons, and Yuno co-founder and CEO Juan Pablo Ortega – all heavyweights in the investment and startup world.
The competition was open to ALPHA and BETA startups that had received less than €5 million in funding.
Earlier in the week, Web Summit announced that the 2023 edition of its flagship Lisbon event hosted 70,236 attendees from 153 countries, with 2,608 startups taking part in the startup programme – the highest number ever.
The cohort of CEOs, startups, investors, media, policymakers and creatives in attendance took part in 1,180 investor to startup meetings, 70 masterclasses, 17 PITCH competition rounds, 25 evening events, and Night Summit parties around the most exciting neighbourhoods of the city.
PITCH is Web Summit’s startup competition, bringing together the world’s leading early-stage startups for a live onstage battle. 105 of the 2,608 startups at this year’s event qualified for the three-day competition, which culminated in Inspira impressing the PITCH final judges.
