Be my eyes - the mobile platform that allows sighted people to lend their eyes to the blind and visually impaired
In spite of being a minority, there are 36 million blind and 217 million visually impaired people in the world, with 25 million living within the EU. To them, trivial, but important things most people do not pay attention to, such as looking into the expiration date from food, read the allergen information on a food label or getting a can of coconut milk from the pantry, are daunting tasks. However, these discouraging moments follow a recognizable pattern within their everyday life. Hans Jørgen Wiberg, the inventor of Be My Eyes (and visually impaired himself), recognized this thanks to his work at “The Danish Association of the Blind”. In January 2015, the start-up BME IVS launched Be My Eyes, the largest cost-free crowdsource mobile platform, especially designed for the blind and visually impaired, lending them a “pair of eyes” when they need it. Through a live video connection, our 58,000 blind and visually impaired users can ask any of our 865,000 sighted volunteers for help to overcome their challenges, 24 hours a day in more than 130 languages. Now, we have decided to move to the next level and create Be My Eyes Enterprise, the first mobile platform where companies (our clients) provide visually-adapted customer service to their customers. By just pressing a button our platform connects the customer with specialized agents, who can solve any issue via live connection, screen sharing and screen control. We have already formal agreements with corporate clients such as Microsoft or Lloyds Bank, thus proving the viability from our business model. The global market of assistive technology is expected to grow at an annual CAGR of 6.9% until 2019. Hence, this is a growing market which lacks companies offering visually-adapted customer service. With Be My Eyes Enterprise, we want to seize this business opportunity, anticipating revenues of €11.7 million by 2024, whilst creating 30 new direct jobs within the company to satisfy our growth needs.