Israel

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This Israeli App Could Save Your Life

It’s been a good few months for Reporty, maker of a free app enabling smartphone users in 160 countries to communicate with emergency dispatchers even without an Internet connection.

Launched in March, Reporty won first prize in the TLV Startup Challenge three months later. In October, the company announced a $5.15 million international Series A funding round led by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Available for iOS and Android, Reporty offers touch options for reaching fire, medical, police, or municipal command and control centers wherever you are in those 160 countries.

In the growing number of areas fully integrated with Reporty (across Israel, and soon in several European and Asian cities), real-time video and audio reporting from the scene of the call is supported by an indoor positioning system that can locate the caller within less than a meter’s accuracy.

Reporty already employs 22 people, and will open a New York office on November 1.

CEO Amir Elichai told ISRAEL21c that the idea came to him three and a half years ago when he was robbed at a beach in Tel Aviv.

“I called the police, and the dispatcher asked me where I was, what’s my name, what am I seeing – all kinds of questions,” he said. “Since I was on the beach, it was hard to explain exactly where I was. And I wondered why in the 21st century you have to supply so much information to the dispatcher.”

Given his background – Elichai is a former officer in an elite IDF unit and had nine years of operational experience in military and security fields, in addition to a law degree – he saw a unique opportunity to automate the process.

Backed by four patents, the startup has a VIP board of directors, investors, and advisers, including Barak, former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff; Pinchas Buchris, the former commander of IDF’s Unit 8200 cyber intelligence division; and robotics expert Prof. Gal A. Kaminka of Bar-Ilan University.

“Step by step we are connecting with different governments,” said Elichai, who expects to introduce Reporty features in a few large U.S. cities, followed by locations in Canada and Latin America.

(via Israel21c)

[Photo: Courtesy]