How is your business helping to solve the health, social, or economic challenges created by COVID19?
With the help of fellow pedestrians, always know what’s happening on your sidewalks and get the best routes for you, with our new pedestrian navigation app: MapinHood.The beta version of MapinHood was released on February 14th 2020 and Canadians can now download the app on both Android or IOS! In light of the COVID-19 Pandemic, our team will be working to release and optimize new updates on the MapinHood app that will help in the fight against the virus by: •Building in an ‘Avoid Crowds/Busy Streets’ setting into our routing engine that will enable users to reduce the risks of encountering others should they need to leave their homes for essential work, goods or supplies. (Based on historic pedestrian foot traffic and then eventually live location data once there is enough user adoption in concentrated areas.)•Incorporation of a ‘Round Trip’ feature that gives users the ability to set a timed route that starts and ends at their homes while avoiding all unnecessary risks while they are outside.•Building in optional survey tools to better help protect our vulnerable communities and track the spread of the virus on a more granular level. For example, we can estimate wait times or the ‘busyness’ of grocery stores with real time updates from users. We also hope to collect and monitor voluntarily contributed data that is COVID-19 relevant from users in coordination with public health agencies to help with risk assessments and transmission tracking.
Does your business contribute most to recovery, response, or resilience?
Response - we're responding directly to issues caused or exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak.
What is the stage of your product development?
I have a market-ready product/service. I could sell it to customers
What strengths does your team bring? Include skills and personal experience with the problem.
iMerciv is managed by Bin and Arjun, who have been long time friends and founded iMerciv together back in 2014. The duo has been working together for over 5 years and have previously commercialized a wearable for the blind (BuzzClip) in over 30 countries which allowed iMerciv to bootstrap MapinHood in 2019. Vision Loss affected both our families and seeing the mobility challenges first hand (obstacles detection & navigation), we decided to create solutions to help people with assistive needs. Bin is the CEO and is focused on everything product related and has always been a tinkerer in all aspects of tech. Arjun is the COO and is focused on everything operation related and usually the one responsible for marketing, generating revenue, and engaging with key stakeholders. Erik Tillberg is the CTO and he has a background as a full stack developer. He recently submitted his master’s thesis for A.I algorithms that optimize advertising.iMerciv has 6 full time employees in total: Arjun, Bin, Erik, Shyam, Fred and Yusup. Fred and Shyam are full stack developers and have over 15 years of combined experience with web and mobile apps. Finally, Yusup brings his ex banking experience to the table and is our key data and metrics person. We are all pedestrians in the city of Toronto and have firsthand experienced the shortcomings of navigation and its implications on pedestrian safety and accessibility.
What countries do you operate in?
Our first product (The BuzzClip - www.imerciv.com) has active distribution in over 25 countries. Our navigation platform (MapinHood) is currently only available in Ontario, Canada however we plan to scale it nationally by July and then internationally into Eastern U.S cities by September.
Is your company headquartered in a US "Opportunity Zone"?
No
