The Portuguese startup Live Electric Tours has just been recognized worldwide as the best startup in the world in the Sustainability category at the Tourism Startup Competition organized by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), with the support of Wakalua and Turismo de Portugal. The project, founded in 2017, offers an innovative solution for tourism in the city of Lisbon, Porto and Évora through a unique self-drive experience on 100% electric cars equipped with free WiFi, a GPS Audio Guide that optimizes route reading real time traffic and with a Live camera that allow customers to share their experience with friends and family through social networks.
Founded by Djalmo Gomes and Luís Lucas, Live Electric Tours is the first company in the world to introduce Live Streaming technology in the Tourism sector. It offers a unique self-drive experience on 100% electric cars with a Live camera that allow customers to video stream everything they are seeing while driving to Facebook, Youtube or Periscope. The vehicles are equipped with free Wi-Fi, a GPS audio guide, and a Live camera.
This Startup, now present in 3 cities in Portugal, provides experiences for tourists and companies with 100% electric vehicles.
Tours range from €20 (1h) to €129 (7h). There are also exclusive tours that can reach €300. Of the more than 3,000 tours and 6,000 users to date, the majority are foreign tourists and from them, 75% are from more than 80 nationalities.
There are also dozens of national and international companies that already hold corporate events with total environmental responsibility, taking advantage of the entire fleet and the expertise of the Startup to create unique experiences.
With 16 vehicles and a team of 10 people, the company now intends to reinforce the offer and expand to other cities in Portugal and start the international expansion process.
Djalmo Gomes, Founder & CEO of Live Electric Tours, says that “this award is once again the recognition of the work developed over the past 3 years. It is proof that innovating and being disruptive is worthwhile. To be recognized in 2018, as Europe’s best Tourism Startup, and now 2 years later, we will again win a prize of this relevance, it just shows that we still have a lot to give to the Portuguese entrepreneurial ecosystem. It is not just a prize from Live Electric Tours, it is a prize for Portugal. We are showing that we are in the forefront of innovation in this super competitive world market which is Tourism. Today is a happy day for our entire team.”
Rita Marques, Portuguese Secretary of State for Tourism says “I congratulate the Live Eletric Tour for this worldwide recognition that proves, once again, that Portugal is a country characterized by its innovative capacity, talent and excellent human resources, wishing that they continue on the path of success.”.
Pedro Mello Breyner, Director of Portugal Ventures, the startup’s main investor says “the World Tourism Organization is an international player of extreme relevance, so receiving this award attests to the disruption that Portuguese startups are able to bring to the national and international tourism offer. This award is also the result of the innovation effort of the founders and the entire Live Electric Tours team, which are to be congratulated.”.
Live Electric Tours was chosen as a finalist to the UNWTO 2nd Startup Competition, after a selection of more than 5000 candidates, from a total of 150 countries. In Madrid, the final was disputed and won against 3 other Startups from France, Morocco and Australia.
The company, which participated in the Vodafone Powerlab acceleration program, had previously received other distinctions such as the first prize for the best European Startup in Tourism in 2018, awarded at the StartUp Europe Awards in Bulgaria.
