The first startup created in the scope of the CMU Portugal Program Feedzai Awards Best Technology Graduate Students
The first startup created in the scope of the CMU Portugal Program, Feedzai, has distinguished two graduate students with the “Feedzai Award for Academic Excellence and Grit”. Fernando Mendes, Informatics Engineering Master student, and Catarina Maçãs, Information Sciences and Technology Doctoral student were the first students awarded by the Portuguese company.
According to Paulo Marques, Feedzai co-founder and CTO, the awarded students were carefully selected: “We value not only academic excellence, but people who give real contributions and can serve as role models. This distinction is intended to encompass all of the technological academic education spectrum and include both men and women, whose relevance in the industry has increased significantly”. The selection was made by a committee of faculty members of the Information Technology departments of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, University of Minho, University of Coimbra and Faculdade de Ciências of the Universidade de Lisboa.
This award is looking for the best graduate IT students in the country, that may well have a bright future in the industry. But the company is also looking to “find the best and most talented professionals who have the ability to work with the latest big data technology and artificial intelligence”, according to Feedzai CEO, Nuno Sebastião. Feedzai currently has 50 open vacancies, mostly for the Portuguese offices, but the company is also recruiting for France, Germany and the UK.
Feedzai is a company founded in Coimbra by Paulo Marques, Nuno Sebastião and Pedro Bizarro and was the first startup created within the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program.
Specialized in science date, Feedzai offers security solutions for banking and e-commerce. Their product is a software that reduces the inherent risks of online shopping and banking transactions, using real-time machine-learning to analyse data, to detect and prevent fraud in electronic transactions.
Today, it is supported by large international investors, who provided the company with more than 17 million dollars in May 2015. With an annual growth of around 300% since 2013, Feedzai has earned $20 million (approximately 17.8 million euros) last year. For this year, the company’s growth is expected to exceed 200%, as released in a statement. Their current headquarters are in Silicon Valley, but they still maintain offices in Coimbra, Porto, Lisbon London and New York.
October 2016
Related articles:
Feedzai – Portuguese super start-up that grew 300% this year and opened an office in New York(2016)
Feedzai Achieves Profitability with Application Focus (2013)
First Start-up Launched Within the Partnership (2011)
