The Digital Built Accelerator, an acceleration program promoted by the Técnico Venture Lab in partnership with Unicorn Factory Lisboa, officially began on 6 and 7 May with a bootcamp held at Técnico’s Oeiras Campus. This first stage brought together 25 startups for an intensive moment of mentoring, networking, and direct contact with real challenges in the construction sector. Since then, the teams have been developing and validating their solutions, in a journey that culminated in the demo day on 15 June.

The startups Matterpieces, Typeble, and OZU were the winners of this first edition, which aims to accelerate technological solutions and new materials for the construction sector, promoting its digitalization and sustainability.

The demo day took place at Unicorn Factory Lisboa, in Beato, where ten finalists presented their proposals to key representatives from the construction and innovation ecosystem in Portugal.

Matterpieces won the Construction Impact Award with an upcycling solution for demolition waste, transforming it into high‑quality cladding materials for architecture and interior design.

Typeble received the Digital Innovation Award for its use of artificial intelligence and computer vision to convert technical documentation into detailed budgets and proposals.

OZU was distinguished with the People’s Choice Award, voted by the audience, thanks to its infrastructure that translates complex regulations into machine‑readable logic, enabling direct integration into digital systems and processes.

The participating startups will continue to be supported by the Técnico Venture Lab over the next six months and will also receive support from the Engineers Hub at Unicorn Factory Lisboa.

According to João Borga, Director of Técnico Venture Lab, this edition demonstrates “the innovative capacity that exists in Portugal, with solutions aligned with the needs of the European market.” Gil Azevedo, Executive Director of Unicorn Factory Lisboa, also highlighted the program’s role in bringing startups, companies, and specialists closer together, strengthening the sector’s competitiveness.

Integrated into the European initiative EDIH DIGITALbuilt, the program received more than 45 applications, including 26 startups from six countries. Throughout the program, participants benefited from specialized mentoring, access to partners and investors, and direct engagement with the innovation communities of Técnico Venture Lab and Unicorn Factory Lisboa. The initiative is supported by the PRR and the European Commission.