SBI Consulting runs the business behind the startup

A restaurant app needs someone to mind the numbers. A pharmacy software company needs help deciding what to do next. A municipality needs an incubator that does more than rent desks. SBI Consulting has made a business of these unglamorous assignments, working in the space between a promising idea and the organization required to make it useful.

The Lisbon consultancy’s portfolio offers an unusually concrete tour of that territory. It provides financial management support to restaurant platform DIG-IN, strategic advice to pharmacy technology company Loopfarma, and program delivery for public and private organizations. Its work reaches entrepreneurs directly, but also travels through the institutions that support them. Sometimes SBI is the adviser across the table. Sometimes it has organized the table.

The business behind the business

Founded in 2002, SBI describes itself as a boutique management and innovation consultancy. Co-founder Marta Miraldes is its innovation director and managing partner; Sérgio Andrade is listed as a partner. The current team also includes specialists in project management, incubator operations, communications and design. That mix makes sense for a company whose assignments include both financial planning and getting people to show up for a program.

The financial roots run deep. In his published professional history, co-founder Paulo Simões Correia describes SBI’s early positioning as an intermediary connecting entrepreneurs with banks and private and institutional investors. His account of working there between September 2002 and March 2004 includes venture-capital transactions and restructuring assignments. Today’s accelerator vocabulary sits on top of an older, recognizable business: helping companies organize themselves and obtain resources.

SBI now groups its offer around startups, small and medium-sized enterprises, and innovation ecosystems. The commercial model is professional services: business plans, advisory work, outsourced financial support, and the design and operation of programs. The purchaser can be a company seeking help with its own business or an institution organizing support for many businesses. That second customer is essential to understanding the first.

DIG-IN gets a finance department on call

DIG-IN makes the service tangible. Following its rebranding from Zomato Portugal, the restaurant discovery business expanded its business-to-business offer through DIG-IN Biz, including restaurant reservation software and services for takeaway and delivery. SBI’s stated contribution is CFO On-Demand: financial planning, reporting, management control and support for decisions, adapted to the company’s operations and growth.

These are different responsibilities from building the app or selling restaurant bookings. SBI is helping management see what the business is doing financially. Its wider CFO service includes budget forecasts, communication with investors or lenders, and identifying opportunities to reduce costs and use resources more effectively. For a startup, the attraction is access to financial management without committing to a full-time chief financial officer.

Loopfarma illustrates a different engagement. Developed by pharmacists and software engineers from 2021, its modular platform combines pharmacy loyalty tools, SMS and email marketing, and online shops connected to a pharmacy’s app or website. SBI provides personalized strategic advisory support around decisions, business challenges and processes. The distinction matters: Loopfarma supplies the technology; SBI advises the company behind it.

For established SMEs, SBI’s work extends to internal controls and financing applications. It describes examining existing structures and systems, identifying risks, and implementing procedures with staff support. Funding assistance can include preparing documentation, submitting applications and negotiating with financial institutions or investors. The practical proposition is continued help with execution, including after financing arrives.

An accelerator with restaurants in mind

From Start-to-Table shows how SBI works at a different scale. Promoted by Unicorn Factory Lisboa with support from Turismo de Portugal, the program targets restaurant technology and sustainable food and beverage products. SBI says it designed, implemented and ran the program across its editions. The subject matter is refreshingly specific: waste, menus, orders, payments, staffing and the customer experience.

The program’s website lists its first edition in 2018 and a seventh edition in 2025. Its offer includes mentoring, help structuring pilot projects with partners, and the chance to win €10,000. That prize is an opportunity within a competitive program, not money automatically available to every participant. For founders, the more consequential question may be which operator can actually test their product.

In 2025, From Start-to-Table took first place in the supporting digital transition category of Portugal’s national European Enterprise Promotion Awards. The award belongs to the program and its promoting partnership. For SBI, the relevance is its delivery role in an initiative that received recognition beyond its own marketing. For a prospective participant, the relevant follow-up remains the same: what work will happen between admission and the final presentation?

Eight weeks, ten weeks, a real sector problem

SBI’s other programs follow a related pattern with different industry partners. Net Zero Health Systems, launched by AstraZeneca in 2023 and promoted by Unicorn Factory Lisboa and Startup Lisboa, addressed hospital energy efficiency, sustainable mobility and connected healthcare. SBI describes designing and implementing the program, from applications through its bootcamp and acceleration phase to Demo Day. The acceleration ran for eight weeks.

Clean Future applied a ten-week format to construction, mobility and retail technologies intended to improve urban sustainability. Its partners included MEXT from Mota-Engil, EMEL, GS1 Portugal, Eletrão and Galp. SBI’s role covered conception, implementation and management. The recurring commercial capability is assembling a program around a defined problem, recruiting the relevant expertise, and keeping the process moving.

HealthQ UP adds another layer of specialization. Launched in 2026, the accelerator was developed by SBI and promoted by INOVA Quality Hub and the Portuguese Institute for Quality, IPQ. Its agenda includes product and market validation, regulation, risk management, intellectual property, fundraising and leadership. The program offers opportunities for pilots through healthcare partners, alongside access to mentors with sector experience.

That emphasis on quality has an institutional home. SBI also supported the implementation strategy of INOVA Quality Hub, IPQ’s incubator. Its network includes expertise in standardization and metrology, alongside business support. The pairing explains where a specialist operator can be useful: a healthcare founder needs access to people who understand the sector’s requirements as well as people who understand a business plan.

The local shop belongs in this story, too

Business Factory, the Mafra municipality’s incubator, gives SBI a continuing community to support. With hubs in Mafra and Ericeira, it focuses on tourism, the blue economy and agri-food. SBI coordinates incubation and helps deliver initiatives including the Startegy training program and MafraUp ideas competition. In February 2026, SBI announced a new strategic plan and rebranding that sharpened Business Factory’s positioning around early-stage, sustainable and technological businesses.

Lisbon’s Comércio+ brings the same practical instinct to local merchants. Promoted by Lisbon City Council with SBI’s implementation support, it combines training with individual assistance in finance, marketing and digitalization. Sessions are offered in person or online at 7 p.m. The scheduling detail says something useful about the intended audience: business education has to fit around the hours spent running the business.

These engagements place SBI among Portugal’s business advisers, outsourced finance providers and accelerator operators. Its distinguishing feature is the combination: direct company support alongside responsibility for programs and incubators. A buyer choosing between providers should compare the actual assignment. Preparing financial reports, running a cohort and maintaining a municipal business community require different kinds of attention, even when one company offers all three.

The price of getting people into the room

A historical training event offers a concrete cost. Startup Pico’s first EMPREENDAZORES, delivered in partnership with SBI in March 2023, advertised admission at €30 per person for early registration and €99 afterward. The three-day schedule covered idea generation, the Business Model Canvas, validation and business planning. Participants needed a laptop; the course and materials were in Portuguese. Those were event admission prices, not SBI’s general consulting rates.

Other activities use a free-entry format. A Business Factory webinar announced in September 2026, on building a business contact database, offered free participation. It focused on newsletters, email marketing and reducing dependence on social platforms. The contrasting formats underline a practical point: the cost to an attendee depends on the initiative. Access to a sponsored event and hiring a consultant are separate purchases.

An international community needs an understandable invitation

The most revealing criticism comes from inside Business Factory. In a January 2025 interview, Miraldes identified communication with international members as an area needing improvement, particularly when institutional public events took place in Portuguese. She also described the difficulty early-stage companies faced in putting sustainability commitments into practice.

“The will is there, but implementation is sometimes very difficult.”

Marta Miraldes, on integrating sustainability into early-stage projects, January 2025

These observations put conditions around the promise of a network. An invitation only helps if its recipient can participate. A sustainability ambition needs work that a young business can execute. The transferable lesson is modest and useful: design support around the people using it, make expertise accessible, and turn broad objectives into specific activities.

SBI’s portfolio supplies practical examples of those activities: a financial reporting assignment for DIG-IN, business advice for Loopfarma, sector mentoring in HealthQ UP, and evening training for merchants. For a founder or institution considering its services, that is a useful place to begin the conversation. Bring the decision, the operational problem or the community that needs support. Then ask what SBI will actually deliver.