In the previous episode of Tech Odyssey, we visited Portugal Ventures to see how a public venture capital institution supports early-stage startups in Portugal. This time, we moved further upstream — to Coimbra, a small city where university research, applied R&D, and entrepreneurship are closely connected.
Coimbra is better known for history than startups. The city has a population of around 140,000 and is home to the University of Coimbra, founded in 1290. Its ancient buildings and academic traditions often define the city’s image. But behind that historical setting, a technology transfer system has been quietly taking shape.
At the center of that system is IPN, or Instituto Pedro Nunes, a technology transfer organization that originated from the University of Coimbra. According to Paulo Santos, IPN’s Executive Director of Incubation and Acceleration, the organization works across three main areas: business incubation and acceleration, applied research, and specialized training in management, entrepreneurship, and technology.
This structure makes IPN different from a conventional incubator. Its applied research labs work with SMEs and incubated startups on technology and product development. Each lab is led scientifically by a professor from the University of Coimbra, while IPN’s own team manages daily operations. In practice, startups can access not only business support, but also research and engineering resources.
Over the years, IPN has supported the creation and development of more than 500 startups, including three that reached unicorn status, as well as more than 30 scaleups. Two of Portugal’s best-known tech unicorns, Feedzai and Talkdesk, are located within IPN’s accelerator system.
IPN has also built links beyond Portugal. In 2013, the European Space Agency invited IPN to partner on an incubation program for startups using or developing space technologies. According to Santos, the program has supported more than 60 companies so far. In this context, “space technology” can also mean applying technologies originally developed for space to problems on Earth, including agriculture, water systems, industrial monitoring, and medical devices.
One example inside IPN is Sensing Future, a Portuguese medical device company focused on physical and vestibular rehabilitation. Its co-founder and CTO, LuÃs Ferreira, introduced the company’s balance rehabilitation station, which combines a pressure-sensing platform, a mobile cart, and software.
When a person stands on the platform, the system shows how body weight is distributed between the legs and how the center of pressure moves during different exercises. The data can then be turned into reports for doctors, clinics, or patients. For rehabilitation, this makes balance assessment more visible, measurable, and easier to track over time.
Another startup, FiberSight, is developing a monitoring system based on fiber optics. CEO Tiago Neves said traditional monitoring often requires many discrete sensors, especially in agriculture or water infrastructure. Those sensors can be expensive to deploy and maintain, as they require batteries, outdoor power, or solar panels.
FiberSight uses fiber as a continuous sensing line. According to Neves, its system can detect and measure temperature and humidity across kilometers of fiber, with a spatial resolution of one meter. In water systems, the fiber can help locate leaks. In agriculture, it can be buried in soil to monitor different crops and soil conditions.
The advantage lies in coverage. A traditional sensor measures a point; a fiber line can collect data along its entire path. Neves said one fiber can replace more than 5,000 discrete sensors, reducing deployment complexity and cost.
Together, Sensing Future and FiberSight show how IPN’s model works in practice. One startup is making rehabilitation more data-driven; the other is turning fiber into sensing infrastructure. Both are built around specific technical problems and real-world use cases.
That may be Coimbra’s real strength. It is not trying to become another Lisbon or Porto. Instead, the city connects a centuries-old university, applied research labs, startup teams, and international partners such as the European Space Agency. In a small university city, hard-tech entrepreneurship grows through long-term technology transfer rather than startup hype.
In the next episode of Tech Odyssey, we will head to Braga and visit Startup Braga, another key incubator in Portugal’s innovation landscape.
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