Sphere Ultrafast Photonics, was awarded last Friday 27 November the “Most Promising Technology” prize within the UP Awards 2015, organised by Portugal Startups!
The UP Awards Gala took place at the “Pavilhão do Conhecimento Ciência Viva” (Pavillion of Knowledge Ciência Viva) in Lisbon. This is an event for gathering the whole entrepreneurial ecosystem, and to showcase some of the best work done in Portugal, from Startups to Organizations and remarkable people within this community. More than 300 representatives from start-ups and spin-offs from all over mainland Portugal and the Islands attended the Gala, as well as important economical players in Portugal, such as Microsoft, Sage, and others, and the President of the Lisbon City Council. Sphere Ultrafast Photonics was represented by two of their founders, Helder Crespo and Rosa Romero, who received the award on behalf of the Sphere team: http://portugalstartups.com/2015/11/and-the-2015-up-awards-winners-are/

Sphere Photonics already received the first prize of the New Business Ideas Competition of the University of Porto (iUP25k) in 2013, and counts with the support of the venture capital company 2bpartner (http://www.2bpartner.com), which at this event was also awarded in the category of “Investment Firm of the Year 2015”, having competed with two other finalists, Portugal Ventures and Caixa Capital. Sphere was distinguished by its innovative laser technology that allows for the generation, control and measurement of laser pulses with unprecedented pulse durations, down to 3 femtoseconds (1 femtosecond = 0,000 000 000 000 001 seconds), which are among the shortest events ever produced and measured. The customers of Sphere Photonics include some of the most prestigious universities in the World, such as Berkeley University (California, USA) and École Polytechnique (France). Sphere Ultrafast Photonics has its origin in the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (http://dfa.fc.up.pt) and its research Institute IFIMUP (http://www.ifimup.up.pt/research/groups/ultrafast), in partnership with Lund University in Sweden (http://www.atomic.physics.lu.se/research/attosecond-physics/)