Inspired by a painful memory of getting lost in Syria when he was a child, Raafat Hantoush, the co-founder of Bote, decided to make something good out of his painful memory. “It took them an hour to find me and I wanted to turn the memory into something positive,” he stated.
With tens and thousands of children going missing every year without a trace, Hantoush knew exactly what it felt like. Having been in the same shoes as these children, he started his own business, Bote, alongside Felix Salomon, to put an end to this dilemma, or at least try his best to do so.
Bote is a smart insole that helps parents keep track of their children by notifying them through their smartphones when they get too far, “We insert chips that contain the latest low-energy technology into the insoles of shoes, and the chip notifies the parents of their children’s location via smartphones.”
Via Bote
Prior to Bote, Hantoush had been working as a senior data scientist in Munich, Germany. He then quit his job when he came up with his life-saving business idea in November 2017. He started working with Salomon right away, who was also working in the same company at the time. They self-funded their own project and are now receiving positive feedback from companies who are offering great partnership opportunities.
Hantoush is not new to the world of entrepreneurship, his entrepreneurship spirit is something he always had. Back in Syria, he founded Agora, a company that built systems for stock exchange companies, brokerage firms, telecommunication companies and some of Syria’s largest banks.
Via Entrepreneur
The future looks bright for Hantoush, with an invention that can make parenting in countries such as Syria so much easier and change so many lives for the better. We’re proud that Arabs are now making massive waves in the entrepreneurship scene. With children going missing around the world every day due to kidnapping, wars, natural disasters or just getting lost, Bote can be a first step solution to the problem. We’re glad that a Syrian-born entrepreneur was able to come up with something so spectacular.
