A new Israel-focused crowdfunding platform allows communities, organizations and individuals to support Israel in a new way – helping Israeli start-ups do good to the world.
Activists and others who support and care for Israel, are probably familiar with the following challenge: on the one hand, they feel the need to speak the truth and educate with regards to Israel, especially nowadays. On the other hand, the “which side is right” argument is simply not attractive for today’s young adults. Therefore, even for those who “don’t care”, Israel is perceived as a place of non-interesting political conflict with Palestinians.
Israel’s rise as a world-renown hub for innovation, technology and start-ups is very attractive for young adults, Jews and non-Jews alike. However, the “Start-Up Nation” side of Israel does not correlate naturally with pro-Israel messages, since there is no effective way to tie “Start-Up Nation” with “stand up and support Israel”.
Over the past years, there were those promoted investing in Israel as a show of support, from investment in bonds to participation in Israeli venture capital funds, crowdfunding platforms for accredited investors, etc. But, for most Jewish federations, organizations, congregations, Christian-supporting churches and other communities, let alone the average person down the line, it may just be that they are not interested in such business investments. It may also be that all of them are indeed looking for a way to participate and be a part of that ‘Start-Up Nation”, in a way that correlates with other values they cherish.
This is exactly the need that Crowdmii (Crowd-Made-in-Israel) comes to fill. Crowdmii is a new non-equity fundraising platform that focuses on Israeli start-ups who do good to the world, from lifesaving technologies, green energy, the environment, reinventing education through technology, support for the third world, and more. Crowdmii then appeals to its partners – communities, organizations and individuals who may be interested in those start-ups, and together, a campaign is born. Every start-up’s campaign will have a defined fundraising goal, a deadline, and a very clear statement for what the money is for.
Crowdmii and its start-ups, together with the partners, must reach that goal before deadline, otherwise the campaign will not move forward and execute. By that, Crowdmii wishes to generate a direct connection between inspiring entrepreneurs from Israel and a large audience who is interested in aligning with them.
Crowdmii was founded by experienced Israeli businessmen and activists who are passionate about connecting Israel’s innovation to the world. According to Assaf Luxembourg, Crowdmii’s CEO and a known Israeli activist himself, “Crowdmii as just another crowdfunding platform is not our main goal; the main issue here is our vision - generating a new relationship between Israel and its supporters around the world.”
Crowdmii believes that the current and future campaigns for made-in-Israel-world-benefiting-technologies are exactly what should be used by activists when standing up for Israel, in front of movements such as BDS. Or, in the words of CEO Assaf Luxembourg: “We wish to provide better ammunition for those who fight in the fronts of the war for Israel’s name over the world”.
Crowdmii’s first portfolio venture is MyMDband – a lifesaving medical emergency bracelet.
MyMDband is a simple silicon bracelet with a stainless steel metal buckle, containing a unique laser engraved QR code, and PIN number on the back, which is able to provide medical support teams access to the all a patient’s medical information, within seconds, using no special equipment, practically in any language anywhere in the world. Based on an innovative system that adapts to any language, MyMDband provides an immediate solution to one of the most critical problems in emergency medicine, responsible for some 100,000 deaths annually in the US alone: lack of access to a person’s medical information at the time of an emergency.
The really innovative part is less the bracelet itself, but more the system behind it. MyMDband’s technology automatically adapts and displays the medical information in the local medical professional’s language. Using the built-in GPS of the phone that scanned it, MyMDband automatically notifies the patient’s predefined emergency contacts, alerting them they are receiving treatment and may be in need of assistance, as well as providing their loved ones with their location.
MyMDband is fundraising for 36,000 USD to invest in their next development stage, while offering individuals their bracelets, enabling organizations to promote the campaign under their own name, and allowing communities to fund bracelets for those who need it, locally or abroad.
In a separate campaign, MyMDband is fundraising for 54,000 USD in order to fund its lifesaving bracelets for Holocaust survivors in Israel, a population for whom the product can prove very useful, yet may be unable to afford it. Both MyMDband campaigns are currently running on Crowdmii’s website:
www.crowdmii.com