blockbird.ventures — Hello World!
We are pleased to announce the birth of Blockbird Ventures. After a few months of work behind the curtains, we have officially incorporated our business this week.
We are an innovative collective of like-minded folks on a mission to democratize and spread blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. We believe impactful innovation happens at the intersection of entrepreneurship, corporations and academia.
This is why our founding team is made of different skill-sets and professional backgrounds. Happy to introduce:
Associate Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) of Universidade de Lisboa (ULisboa), Miguel is a Senior Researcher at INESC-ID and currently the Scientific Coordinator of the Distributed Systems Group (GSD). He has a PhD in Computer Science and more than 150 publications in the areas of (cyber)security and dependability (aka fault tolerance), typically in distributed systems and in the context of different applications (blockchain, cloud, mobile). He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and is also involved in the ISO TC 307 — Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies.
Currently IT Director at Novo Banco for 10+ years and Vice President of the Portuguese Data Science Association, Pedro is the author of the first book about blockchain technology written in Portugal: “Introduction to Blockchain”. After being an IT Consultant at Arthur Andersen and Deloitte, he left to co-found Hitachi Consulting in Portugal.
An entrepreneur and technologist with extensive experience in developing products and technology around Cryptocurrencies, Distributed Ledgers, Compliance, KYC/AML, Fraud & Risk, Trading, Hedging, Integrations and fintech in general. In the last few years, he’s mastered Ethereum and Solidity development, and also learned Neo, Stellar and Hyperledger. In the past he founded software development firm Seegno in 2008 and joined crypto startup Uphold as CTO in late 2013. In 2017 he joined decentralized UK bank BABB as CTO, co-founded enterprise forex company Wayfex, and founded fintech software platform FintechServer.
Since an early age, Carlos has been curious and obsessed with new technologies that empower people. His most recent crush is on distributed ledger technology. Carlos has experience building decentralized applications over Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric and has previously developed a multi-signature Bitcoin wallet. He also performs academic research on the underlying blockchain protocols at INESC-ID where he is currently building a first-of-its-kind Blockchain Simulator. He founded Bitcoin Portugal in 2010, the first Portuguese website about Bitcoin technology.
And myself:
As part of my mission to democratize Blockchain Technology in Portugal, I joined a group of skill-diverse and like-minded individuals and together we founded Blockbird. My focus is on driving Blockbird’s growth and innovation. I previously co-founded and sold Topcheck in 2016, to one of Africa’s leading internet platforms Silvertree Capital, then merged with Compare Africa Group (CAG). I was also a venture builder at Rocket Internet where I helped build up operations of Brazilian ecommerce giant Dafiti and accomodation marketplace Wimdu.
Blockbird Ventures is currently divided into three major areas.
Blockbird Factory
At the Factory we are re-thinking education and career transformation in one of today’s most in-demand technologies. We want to be the go-to startup for training, staffing, and career transitions in the blockchain ecosystem.
We currently offer 6 corporate education courses aimed at managers and decision makers as well as programmers. We plan to launch a b2c Academy to the the general public in the near future. Learn more here.
Blockbird Studio
This is our blockchain development arm where we provide technology services to companies, governmental institutions as well as entrepreneurs. Our webpage is currently under construction.
Blockbird Labs
At the Labs we work on new, promising and disruptive projects. Given our ties with Instituto Superior Tecnico School of Engineering, we are currently collaborating with engineering students, transforming projects and ideas into products and businesses.
At this point, we have three projects under our umbrella: 1) one in the energy sector, 2) one related to healthcare data privacy and security and 3) one blockchain simulator. Learn more here.
We are all eagerly looking forward to the days, weeks and months ahead! Stay tuned for more updates.
