Filipe Pereira from Airport.AI “UPTEC is a renowned innovation hub. The community it harbours and the support it provides to startups is outstanding.”
At UPTEC we welcome not only the most recent startups, but also big and established companies. This month at “Open Doors”, we present Filipe Pereira from Airport.AI who came back home to Portugal and chose UPTEC because his friends told him to.
Filipe Pereira || Co-founder and CTO
Airport.AI || 6 employees @Portugal
Airport.AI is automating customer service for the air travel industry.
Why did Airport.AI come to Portugal?
Throughout my career in Europe and Asia, I’ve always aspired to come back home. Our rapid growth offered an opportunity to relocate to Portugal, a country we love with plenty of skilled professionals and a vibrant startup scene to continue supporting it.
What made you choose UPTEC to develop Airport.AI?
UPTEC is a renowned innovation hub in the country. The community it harbours and the support it provides to startups is outstanding. Plus, I had friends working there which confirmed my opinion and very much encouraged us to join.
What do you think about your experience in Portugal?
We relocated to Portugal in February 2020, and you all know what happened next! It’s been a peculiar time since, but even in the current circumstances we are very happy with our choice and we’re confident the best is yet to come.
How did you get the idea for your business?
We started experimenting with bringing new digital solutions to the travel industry, especially into more traditional companies. Our CEO’s experience and contacts in the market helped us obtain our first customers in the airport industry. Since then we’ve been enabling airports to provide a better and more personalised customer service to passengers through automation.
To what do you attribute Airport.AI’s success?
The close relationship with our first customer was a key factor in allowing us to develop quickly a product that worked well for airports and their passengers. Our team’s expertise, adaptability to change and perseverance drove us to high paced, steady growth towards the position of market leaders we occupy today.
If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?
Never stop learning, your personal development will always stick with you no matter what. Don’t give up easily and as one of my favourite authors put it: “Sê todo em cada coisa. Põe quanto és no mínimo que fazes.” (Fernando Pessoa).
