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INESC TEC provides services to startup Grabmark

INESC TEC provides services to startup Grabmark

The lack of tools to support collaborative studies was the motivation to create Grabmark, a platform for students to share and exchange study material. After winning a place in IdeaMove, a competition of business ideas promoted by the TEC-Empreende project, the new start-up has received the support of the Innovation and Technology Transfer Unit (UITT) at INESC TEC to develop and implement the business project.

Fostering collaboration, rewarding the best and facilitating knowledge sharing to improve learning and education are the main objectives of the company, which has tested and validated the concept over the last year through pilot implementations in some engineering subjects at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP).
"The cooperation and assistance provided by UITT allowed the Grabmark promoters to fill the gaps resulting from the inexperience in management and business strategy", acknowledges Pedro Neves, one of the project promoters. "We believe that the participation of Alexandra Xavier is one of the critical factors for the good results we have been achieving", he adds.

The platform, which started being designed in 2011 by Alexandre Sousa, Dinis Félix, Pedro Neves and Bruno Gonçalves (FEUP alumni), is now online and is widely used by Portuguese students. The interface is used by the students to place and clarify their doubts quickly and effectively. This is basically a system of mutual aid for all Grabmark users.

The success of the platform in Portugal dictated the ambition to expand to other markets. "Brazil is part of our roadmap and it is quite natural for us due to several factors, including the Portuguese language, which makes it easier to use the academic content already on the platform", explains Pedro Neves. The recently created company is now establishing close contacts and negotiations that will be very important for the realisation of the company’s growth strategy.