Ricardo Marvão is the co-founder of Beta-i, a global collaborative innovation platform established in 2010, which has become a key driver of the startup ecosystem in Lisbon. Today, Beta-i serves over 150 major international companies across more than 25 countries and maintains a presence in Lisbon, Porto, São Paulo, Bruxelas and Boston. He is a specialist in innovation, covering strategy, pilot implementation, and venture building, with a particular focus on the Energy, Oceans, Sustainability and Health sectors.

In parallel, he has spearheaded the creation of several educational projects in Portugal. Among them is “Próxima Geração”, an academy dedicated to training the next generation of young politicians, having already trained 75 young leaders across the country; the “Singularity University Portugal”, which raised $4 million and trained 1,000 executives in its first year; and the “European Innovation Academy (EIA)”, a summer entrepreneurship school that hosts 500 university students annually, now in its eighth year in Portugal and currently based in Porto.

Other notable initiatives include “Cientista Regressa à Escola” (“The Scientist Returns to School”), engaging 4,000 primary school children in 30 locations with science lessons delivered by Portuguese PhDs from around the globe; “Astronauta por 1 Dia” (“Astronaut for a Day”), now in its third year, offering 40 high school students from across Portugal the unique experience of a zero-gravity parabolic flight from Beja, inspiring them to explore Science and Space; and the executive program “Space for Business”, developed in partnership with the European Space Agency, Rotterdam School of Management, the University of St. Gallen, and Nova SBE. This program, now in its third year, trains young professionals in space business and encourages them to create startups in this field.

Before founding Beta-i, he accumulated a decade of experience in the space industry. With specialized training in Toulouse and at the International Space University (ISU) in Beijing, he contributed to satellite launches and worked with organisations such as ESA (in Germany), Inmarsat (in London), NASA (in Boston), and Airbus (in Germany, France, China, the UK, and the US). In 2004, he founded a space product startup, which he successfully grew and sold in 2010.

Ricardo Marvão has been a member of the Portuguese Diaspora Council since December 2024.