The PITCH competition, powered by Siemens, took place at this year’s Web Summit with 650 startups taking part over the three days of the conference based in Lisbon.
The winner of this year’s competition was an environmental startup, Smartex, which is an AI-based solution that reduces defective production of knitted fabrics to close to 0%.
Starting in Lisbon, the company has now expanded to San Francisco and Shenzhen and tackles waste in the fashion industry.
António Rocha, co-founder of Smartex, commented: “Our mission is to provide excellent products with cutting-edge tech to traditional industries and, through continuous innovation, improve the operations of these industries and, most importantly, contribute to a more sustainable and transparent industry.”
“It feels good to get recognition for the work the team at Smartex has been doing. Everyone has been doing
an extraordinary job, with no exceptions, and these kinds of events are good for the team’s morale.”
This year at the Lisbon Web Summit, over 200 Impact startups were present. A core part of these businesses model is the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.