Globant, 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.
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.