Motorola Solutions has acquired DeepNeuronic, a startup based in Covilhã, Portugal, that uses AI to analyse live video from existing cameras. The deal was first reported by the Portuguese business outlet ECO on 9 September 2026 and later covered by Portugal Startup News.
Financial terms were not disclosed. Motorola bought 100% of DeepNeuronic's share capital, including its Brazilian subsidiary, DeepNeuronic Brasil Ltda., according to the law firm Cuatrecasas, which advised the startup.
DeepNeuronic's 17 employees are joining Motorola Solutions. They will remain at the company's base in Covilhã, with some working remotely, and become part of Motorola's global development network.
What DeepNeuronic built
DeepNeuronic was founded in 2021 by Vasco Lopes and Bruno Degardin. Its software uses machine learning to watch video feeds as they are recorded and flag situations that a customer has defined as high risk. It runs on cameras that are already installed, turning them into real-time analysis systems.
When it raised money in 2022, the company said its system could recognise more than 20 dangerous scenarios, including road accidents, fires, abandoned objects, assaults, shootings, robberies and falls, and could be trained on new ones. It sends visual and audible alerts as events happen and keeps a searchable log of past incidents, Startupi reported. Co-founder Bruno Degardin said at the time that the technology could adapt quickly to situations it had not seen before.
The aim is to give control rooms usable information while an incident is still happening, rather than only helping them reconstruct events from footage afterwards. The software is in use at airports, bridges, motorways, petrol stations, factories and retail sites. In Portugal its customers include operators of concession road networks and manufacturing plants.
Its Brazilian subsidiary uses the same technology for mobility and security monitoring.
“The uniqueness of this transaction lies in the fact that it represents one of the few exits in Portugal in 2026”
Why Motorola is buying
Motorola Solutions plans to integrate DeepNeuronic's software into Avigilon, its video security platform, and make it available to customers in more than 100 countries. Until now DeepNeuronic's clients have been mainly in Portugal, with its Brazilian arm serving that market.
Portugal Startup News described the purchase as part of Motorola's wider expansion across critical communications, video security and access control. DeepNeuronic's existing deployments, from airports to fuel stations, fall within the kinds of sites that Avigilon's video security products are sold to protect.
According to Portugal Startup News, co-founder Vasco Lopes said the team would stay in Covilhã and join Motorola's global network of development teams, with some members working remotely. Motorola did not say whether the DeepNeuronic brand would be kept or how existing customer contracts in Portugal and Brazil would be handled.
The founders and the funding
Since its founding DeepNeuronic raised more than €2.5 million (about $2.9 million) from business angels and venture capital funds, according to Portugal Startup News. Some of its projects also received European funding.
The largest round on record came in November 2022, about a year after the company started, when Portuguese investor GED Ventures led a €1.5 million (about $1.6 million) investment, Startupi reported. Before that DeepNeuronic had received €535,000 (about $560,000) through a project under Portugal's PT2020 programme and €75,000 (about $78,000) from business angel Sergio Giacoletto, a former executive vice president at Oracle.
The company kept its headquarters in Covilhã throughout, and the acquisition does not change that: the Portuguese team will continue to work from the city as part of Motorola. Neither the founders' future roles nor any retention terms were disclosed.
A rare Portuguese exit
Cuatrecasas partner Vasco Bivar de Azevedo, who led the firm's work on the sale, said the deal stood out because it was one of the few exits in Portugal in 2026. He added that it reflected the improving quality of Portuguese startups and their growing appeal to international buyers. The Cuatrecasas team also included José Archer de Carvalho, Inês Câmara Pestana and Teresa Bettencourt.
