Finnish safety button BiiSafe taps crowd

Smart safety button BiiSafe Buddy, which launched this week an equity crowdfunding campaign, is on guard for safety and security of its owner.

While smart watches, bracelets, rings and necklaces collect data from health-related activities such as exercise and sleep, Finnish BiiSafe focuses on user’s personal safety. In addition to traditional activity tracking, such as steps count, it works as a panic button and can be used to keep track of important items, such as keys or phones.

“The BiiSafe Buddy can be carried around inconspicuously in a necklace and used as a ‘panic button’ when the wearer encounters a threatening situation,” says CEO Sauli Kiuru.

Kiuru believes that safety and security constitute the missing element for smart wearables nowadays. According to a study published by Ericsson this summer, personal safety wearables are on demand because consumers want to have a discreet way to send an alert for help in a threatening situation.

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The cookie-sized safety button can be put in a pocket, used as a key-chain or even be a fashion accessory. Thanks to BiiSafe’s collaboration with Finnish jewelry brand Kalevala Jewellery, the Buddy can also be worn embedded in pieces of jewelry.

Equity crowdfunding

Since its reward-based crowdfunding campaign in 2013 the company managed to sell more than 50,000 units of the BiiSafe Buddy in approximately 30 countries. Biisafe raised $43,000 on Indiegogo back in 2013.

Currently, BiiSafe is issuing shares on Invesdor’s equity crowdfunding platform with a goal of raising €220,000–550,000 to support the of the next generation tracker. It has raised more than half of the minimal target with more than 40 days of campaigning still ahead. Investors can read the materials and invest at https://www.invesdor.com/en/pitches/720