The Swedish-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce (CLS) is pleased to welcome OctoFlex as new member to our network. OctoFlex is a Portugal-based company built around a simple idea: experienced people should be able to create and deliver international businesses without building unnecessary layers of structure around them.
Established in Lisbon in 2025, OctoFlex provides the operating platform behind a group of specialist businesses working across international markets. Its activities range from enterprise and Salesforce consulting to digital learning for emergency services and technology designed to make high-risk work safer.
Rather than operating as a traditional consulting firm, OctoFlex provides the commercial, operational and organisational structure that allows these businesses and their senior teams to work internationally from Portugal. The model is deliberately lean: a strong core organisation, access to experienced specialists, and direct involvement of senior people in the work.
International Experience at the Centre
OctoFlex was founded by Ivo Costa and Chris Timmerman, who continue to shape the company’s international strategy and broader development as Board Members and Group Strategy Leads.
Ivo Costa brings more than 25 years of experience across organisational development, education, people strategy and executive leadership. His career has included senior HR and CHRO positions in international technology companies, as well as leadership roles within the Salesforce ecosystem. With an academic background in psychology and pedagogy and a PhD, he has spent much of his professional life working at the intersection of people, organisations, technology and business strategy. For Ivo, Sweden is also not simply a new market on a map. He previously lived and worked in the country and has maintained a strong connection with Sweden and its business culture throughout his career.
Chris Timmerman brings extensive experience in international business development, entrepreneurship and commercial growth. He works alongside Ivo on the international strategy of the group and is currently particularly involved in its expansion into the United States.
Portugal as a Base for International Growth
In Portugal, OctoFlex’s ambition goes beyond serving the domestic market. The company wants to build a strong operating base from which international businesses can grow, connecting senior Portuguese and international expertise with clients abroad, creating high-value work in Portugal and giving specialist companies the structure they need to operate across borders.
One example is Twelve Senses, a company within the wider Octopus ecosystem developing technology for people working in high-risk environments. As Twelve Senses develops its presence in the United States, OctoFlex will continue to support its growth from Portugal through operational capacity, specialist expertise and shared infrastructure. It illustrates the broader OctoFlex model: companies can address large international markets while drawing on a flexible, highly experienced European operating base. Today, a significant majority of OctoFlex’s activities are already international, with business across several European markets and a growing connection with the United States.
Why Sweden, and Why CLS?
That international perspective is also what brought OctoFlex to the Swedish-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce.
Both Ivo and Chris were part of the OctoFlex delegation that travelled to Sweden earlier this year as part of the Swedish-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce business mission. Following this trip, OctoFlex has been developing relationships with Swedish companies and institutions in areas including enterprise technology, digital learning, industrial operations and risk prevention. The objective is not a short-term sales campaign - OctoFlex sees Sweden as a market where trust, quality, direct communication and long-term relationships matter, and those are principles that are very close to the way the company itself prefers to work.
The Chamber also provides something particularly relevant to OctoFlex: a bridge between two business environments that the company already considers strategically important. Portugal offers talent, quality of life, growing technological capability and an increasingly international business environment. Sweden brings a long tradition of innovation, industrial excellence and international entrepreneurship. OctoFlex sees significant potential in connecting the two.
Through CLS, the company hopes to deepen existing relationships, meet companies and decision-makers on both sides, and contribute to creating more practical business links between Sweden and Portugal.
As Ivo puts it:
“We are much more interested in building a few strong relationships than collecting a large number of contacts. If there is real alignment, we want to build something that lasts.”
We warmly welcome OctoFlex to the Swedish-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce!
