 Cell2B and Watt-IS, both young start-ups founded by students and faculty from MIT Portugal Program, are going to be present at the event Silicon Valley Comes to Lisbon, held in Lisbon on November 17-18, the anchor event of the Global Entrepreneurship Week in Portugal. Across 115 countries, the Global Entrepreneurship Week celebrates the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare.
Cell2B, a biotechnology-based company, was also invited to take part on the Portuguese President visit to Silicon Valley, USA. Born from an idea developed during the Bio-Innovations Teams, the Cell2B was formed in January this year by four young doctoral students under the MIT Portugal Program. It is dedicated to the development of a new line of healthcare therapies to prevent and treat organ rejection in patients undergoing organ or tissue transplants. Watt-IS, founded by MIT Portugal faculty and students took shape during the current edition of the ISCTE-IUL MIT Portugal Venture Competition. The company, which received an honorable mention in the area of sustainable energy and transportation, provides Watt-IS aims to provide household consumers that have smart meters installed to a broader range of information about their electricity consumption and how they can be more energy efficient. MIT Portugal Program promotes new ideas and the entrepreneurship spirit through courses such as Bio-Innovation Teams and the co-organization of the most important initiative of entrepreneurship in Portugal – ISCTE-IUL MIT Portugal Venture Competition. These initiatives created are now beginning to bear fruit from which these two companies are concrete examples. David Malta, co-founder of Cell2B and a PhD in bioengineering PhD student emphasizes the importance of networking that comes from the company's participation in these events: "The contacts that can be established in such events provide a unique chance to broaden Cell2B's network and facilitates the implementation of Cell2B’ strategic plan”. Miguel Carvalho, co-founder of Watt-IS and MIT Portugal executive director, also points out that events such as the SiliconValleyComesto Lisbon may be a step towards the internationalization of Portuguese companies: "This event can bring international recognition to the solutions presented by Watt-IS, which can be extremely beneficial to the development of the project, both in terms of market coverage and access to international investment”. | 
