iCarezz Raises €20K via Symbid


iCarezz, a Rotterdam, the Netherlands-based startup that has developed an accessory enabling people to physically touch each other over the internet, has raised €20k in crowdfunding. 

116 investors acquired an 8% stake in the company via equity crowdfunding platform Symbid

Founded by CEO Frederic Petrignani, iCarezz has created a membrane that enables online physical contact. According to a written statement, when a user presses the membrane, the user on the other side of the application will be able to feel this pressure through his/her own contact membrane. Applications include gaming, entertainment, family, health care, hospitals and education. 
The company intends to use the funding to advance (R&D and production) the technology with partner VanBerlo, who takes on the design and development phases and will support the production and testing of the membrane. 

FinSMEs

29/07/2012

For some years I have been grabbed by the idea of adding touch to the internet. Not force feedback by hard plastic devices. No, real and realistic human touch. Something th…
Read more on Frederic Petrignani’s profile

http://pressdoc.com/p/000pht
SummaryDespite all the Internet connections, the amount of PC’s per household, online phone services and webcams, it wasn’t possible to touch each other via Internet. Until recently, that is. 

iCarezz has developed a membrane that enables online physical contact. Applications include gaming, entertainment, family, health care, hospitals and education. 

everyone is waiting for the iCarezz contact membrane. And now that the goal funding has been achieved, iCarezz is ready to start developi
Details
26st of July:  – iCarezz believes in online: online physical contact via her contact membrane and online financing via crowd investors. iCarezz’ contact membrane responds to pressure of the user. 

In order to fund the first research and development phases as well as the production of the prototype, Frederic Petrignani, CEO of iCarezz, addressed Symbid’s crowd: “The beautiful thing about crowdfunding is that you receive so much more than just money. My crowd investors have advised me about usability problems, asked for price indications, how the product is going to look, have alerted me about useful information, attracted additional investors and used their own networks to spread the word about iCarezz.”

During his crowdfunding campaign Frederic Petrignani has worked in Asia for a long time, yet this didn’t provide any difficulties for iCarezz: “Because Symbid allows investors from abroad to invest (excl. U.S. based investors, red.), it has been easy to attract investors while I was abroad. In that sense, crowdfunding is very manageable with mainly online resources.”

Korstiaan Zandvliet, CEO of Symbid, is also excited about iCarezz’ successfully proposition: “iCarezz is one of the most innovative products on our platform. iCarezz managed to developed a high-tech product proposition and make it suitable and affordable for the consumer market. That means that crowdfunding in general offers the possibilities to develop innovative technologies that without crowd support never would’ve existed. It’s great that Symbid in that sense can be seen as an incubator that helps startups gather financial and additional resources that developing companies often are very much in need of.”

Relevant links
iCarezz

Symbid

Quotes
“The beautiful thing about crowdfunding is that you receive so much more than just money. My crowd investors have advised me about usability problems, asked for price indications, how the product is going to look, have alerted me about useful information, attracted additional investors and used their own networks to spread the word about iCarezz.” 
— Frederic Petrignani 
iCarezz is one of the most innovative products on our platform. iCarezz managed to developed a high-tech product proposition and make it suitable and affordable for the consumer market. That means that crowdfunding in general offers the possibilities to develop innovative technologies that without crowd support never would’ve existed. It’s great that Symbid in that sense can be seen as an incubator that helps startups gather financial and additional resources that developing companies often are very much in need of.

A . Adds the sense of touch to online communication.
Show details

Join the discussion