Lisbon announces the winners of the largest social innovation award in Europe

Growappy, Equivalence and Usawa Care were the winning startups in the social innovation competition ‘Lisboa Innovation for All’ organised by Unicorn Factory Lisboa and Lisbon Municipal Council.

The awards ceremony took place during Unicorn Week with the winners of the best social impact projects which will be rolled out in Lisbon, getting €120,000 each.

In the Quality Education category, the startup Growappy was the winning project, while Equivalence was the winner in the Integration of Migrants category. In the area of Access to Health Care, the startup Usawa Care was the winner with its solution.

These projects were tested with organisations and residents of Lisbon and will be implemented in the city, using technology to solve social challenges in the city.

‘Lisbon Innovation for All’ arose when Lisbon was awarded the European Capital of Innovation
in 2023 by the European Union.

The City Council announced that the value of the prize (€1 million) would be invested in the development of Social Innovation projects.

Over the past few months, ‘Innovation for All’ has involved more than 150 institutions and 5,000 people to test solutions in daycare centres, schools, homes and other organisations in the city.

Growappy, which won in the Quality Education category, and which aims to
reduce the bureaucratic burden on education professionals and facilitate communication between
schools and families, has established partnerships with 23 institutions, totaling more than 6,500
users.

During the pilot phase, more than 100 minutes per day were saved on administrative tasks
by education professionals and more than 40 weekly interactions were made with families through the platform.

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Equivalence, which won in the Migrants Integration category, devised a solution that created a link between the past experiences of migrants (education, employment, and voluntary work) and equivalent experiences in the country from which they migrated.

So far the platform has signed up 170 users and has created 12 strategic partnerships.

Usawa Care won the award in the Access to Healthcare Category offering an innovative model using AI enabling an increase in the number of children that a single pediatrician can attend with unlimited access to a pediatrician, and with a waiting list of under 15 minutes. During the pilot phase it collaborated with over 40 institutions and currently has around 600 users with an average of 10 consultations made per week.