- The Be Kind Tech Fund’s investment will support Polemix in its goal to build and scale the first Web3-based platform facilitating discussion of important causes
- The Be Kind Tech Fund also announced that Spanish venture capital firm Seaya and London-based entrepreneurial organization E2E have joined the Fund’s partner ecosystem
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Globant (NYSE: GLOB), a digitally native company focused on reinventing businesses through innovative technology solutions, announced today that its Be Kind Tech Fund has invested $1 million in Polemix, the first platform to introduce Web3 technology to the world of ideas and opinions. The startup’s mission is to upgrade how people support and oppose opinion leaders, disrupting the echo chambers cultivated by traditional social media platforms.
The Polemix platform enables influential opinion leaders across subject matter areas (including human rights, freedom of speech, feminism, animal rights, populism, and more) to create short videos sharing their opinion on hot-button issues. Supporters can buy Proof of Support tokens (POSU) of the opinion leader’s idea, which can also provide benefits such as special access to the leader. Proceeds of the POSU sales can be used to fund the opinion leader’s work or support a foundation promoting the leader’s cause, but portions of the sales can also be used to reward users who disagree respectfully on the platform’s comment section.
Polemix disrupts echo chambers by automatically showing fans different viewpoints on their leader’s opinion, and financially rewarding detractors who engage in smart and civilized debate. These kinds of interactions foster respect for opposing views and facilitate educated discussion of essential topics, while creating monetary benefits for opinion leaders and generating support for important causes.
“At a time when access to information and misinformation has become continuous and widespread, Polemix offers users a wide range of opinions on important topics, supported by reputable leaders and influencers,” said Guibert Englebienne, Globant Co-Founder and President for Globant X. “NFTs benefit artists, musicians, and other celebrities; however, most key opinion leaders today are not being compensated for sharing their opinions, educating audiences, and generating critical debates. Polemix offers a way to promote a respectful discussion encouraging users to consider both sides of an argument.”
“History happens when technology evolutions are harnessed to change behaviors. Today, Web3 is the new frontier of technology, and Polemix will leverage its innovations to change how people connect with the world’s most influential opinion leaders. Our platform will change how people support a leader’s ideas – instead of just liking a post, they can go further by owning and collecting those ideas, and be rewarded for their support. Polemix will also change how people oppose a leader’s ideas by creating financial incentives for respectful, intelligent replies,” said Ian Sielecki, Founder of Polemix. “For the opinion leaders themselves, it will be a game-changing tool to gather support for their work and channel the passion they generate into a new value proposition.”
Iconic opinion leaders who will be creating tokens of their main ideas on the Polemix platform initially include: Cornel West, bestselling author of “Race Matters” and social justice icon; Steven Pinker, celebrity experimental psychologist and bestselling author of books about human progress; Kishore Mahbubani, former president of UN Security Council and author of “Has China Won?”; Peter Singer, animal rights activist and Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University; and Shashi Tharoor, prominent Indian politician and former under-Secretary General of the United Nations.
Polemix is now available upon sign-up for all users, and membership levels are available in two tiers: standard-tier makes you an official supporter of the cause and gives you passive access to exclusive Zoom calls with the leader; gold-tier makes you the unique digital sponsor to that idea, provides access to intimate calls and the right to speak, ask questions and actively interact with the leader during those calls.
The Fund also announced new partners joining its ecosystem, including Seaya, the leading European and Latin American venture capital fund behind unicorns such as Wallbox, Glovo, and Cabify, and E2E, an ecosystem of groundbreaking entrepreneurs, investors, corporates, and entrepreneurial non-execs.
In 2021, Globant founded the Be Kind Tech Fund, the first and only corporate venture fund focused on supporting startups that seek to mitigate the misuse of technology. Since its launch, the Be Kind Tech Fund has invested in ping, a U.S.-based voice platform company that helps enterprises eliminate distracted driving, and established partnerships with The George Washington University and MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund, as well as investors including Riverwood Capital, IDB Lab, Nazca, and entrepreneurial organizations such as Endeavor, LAVCA, and Newlab. The Center for Humane Technology also joined the Fund as an advisor.
For more information about the Be Kind Tech Fund or to join the ecosystem, please visit www.bekindtechfund.com. For more information about Polemix, please visit www.polemix.io
About Globant
We are a digitally native company that helps organizations reinvent themselves and unleash their potential. We are the place where innovation, design and engineering meet scale.
- We have more than 26,500 employees and we are present in more than 20 countries working for companies like Google, Electronic Arts and Santander, among others.
- We were named a Worldwide Leader in CX Improvement Services by IDC MarketScape report.
- We were also featured as a business case study at Harvard, MIT, and Stanford.
- We are a member of The Green Software Foundation (GSF) and the Cybersecurity Tech Accord.
For more information, visit www.globant.com.
About Be Kind Tech Fund
Launched in 2021, the Be Kind Tech Fund is a $10 million USD corporate venture fund administered by Globant Ventures. The fund seeks to assist global startups looking for support in developing apps, products, and platforms that are focused on mitigating the negative effects of technology, such as online harassment and abuse, data privacy and security, AI bias, screen time abuse, and information bubbles and polarization.
If you are an entrepreneur or startup focused on mitigating the negative impacts of tech, or are interested in knowing more about the Be Kind Tech Fund, please visit www.bekindtechfund.com and join the revolution.
Contact: Morena Monteiro, [email protected]
SOURCE Globant
