Israeli car seat startup Carfoldio raises $1.5m - Globes

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Ra'anana resident Jon Sumroy, an immigrant from the UK, has developed a car safety seat one tenth the size of existing products.

Israeli child car safety company Carfoldio Ltd. has raised a third financing round of $1.5m. The investment was led by Sweet Capital, the new investment fund created by the founders of King Digital Entertainment. Investors in the round include Joe Stelzer, founder of Silver Cloud Ventures Ltd, Riccardo Zacconi, King Digital Entertainment CEO, Howard Socol, former Barneys CEO, New York and JCREW, along with many of the original seed investors from around the world. The company has raised $3.3 million, to date.

Based in Ra'anana and founded in 2013 by father of four, Jon Sumroy, an immigrant to Israel from Leeds, UK, the company has already pre-sold $1 million worth of mifold, its Grab-and-Go booster seats, to nearly 13,000 customers in more than 100 countries. mifold is an advanced, compact and portable child car safety seat, which is more than ten times smaller than a regular booster and it is just as safe.

Sweet Capital CEO Christian Dorffer said, "We loved mifold when we saw the crowdfunding video and reached out to Jon. mifold is reinventing the child car safety category and disrupting the market. mifold is a genuinely innovative solution to a real problem that traditional players have ignored. Their worldwide sales are a strong proof of concept."

Sumroy developed the idea for mifold many years ago, when his children were younger and they were living in the US. He said, "I recognized the hassle that comes along with a regular booster seat when my children were in a carpool, getting picked up by their Grandparents, on vacations or in taxis. So I realized that, if I could design a booster that was mighty small and mighty strong, one that kids could take with them everywhere, then they could always travel safely, no matter whose car they were in."

After working on mifold in his spare time for more than a year, Sumroy founded the company in 2013. He added, "mifold achieves its small size while retaining the highest safety standards through real innovation. The patented design of mifold is engineered to protect children from the age of 4 all the way up to 12; guiding the seat belt off the stomach and the neck, making it comfortable, safe and easy to use. Carloads of kids and parents already tried mifold and they love it."

Sumroy originally from Leeds, UK, started his 25-year career in London. He worked in senior executive positions in Unilever, Johnson & Johnson and 888 Holdings on three continents before setting up his own marketing consultancy business in 2008.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 3, 2016

SOURCE: HTTP://WWW.GLOBES.CO.IL/EN/ARTICLE-ISRAELI-CAR-SEAT-STARTUP-CARFOLDIO-RAISE