Cosmopolis Digital Platform by StartupBoat to Bring Hope by Connecting Refugees With Compassionate Individuals and Organizations

StartupBoat, a startup that seeks to bridge the gap between compassion and need, is launching its digital platform called Cosmopolis, bringing together refugee help seekers and helpers to uplift, support, and transform lives.

With close to 110 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, there is a huge need for help, including employment and various material and social services. While there are many governmental and non-governmental organizations helping refugees, the nature of help can be impersonal due to the sheer volume of work that needs to be done, and some individuals inevitably fall through the cracks. Some may also lack the resources or knowledge of where to seek help. Cosmopolis seeks to change that.

The platform is built with security in mind, with members being carefully vetted to ensure their legitimacy. Helpers also use a pseudonym, and they cannot be contacted by other members without their consent.

Cosmopolis by StartupBoat was founded by Paula Perla, née Schwarz, who saw and experienced the struggles of traditional support systems during the European refugee crisis on her home island of Samos, Greece. The refugee camp on the island is being criticized for inhumane conditions for refugees, most of whom come by way of Türkiye to escape the conflict in Syria. Perla has built several social startups under the umbrella of StartupBoat to help address humanitarian crises with the help of technology. She has been recognized by Capital Magazine for its 40 Under 40 list twice, Forbes’ 30 Under 30, and the World Economic Forum as a Global Shaper.

Perla is also personally familiar with the hardships of being an immigrant. Meanwhile, Perla, a Greek and German citizen, was only able to obtain a US investor visa thanks to funding from investors who believed in her advocacy to help refugees and immigrants.

Startup Boat is directly linked to StartupBoat, a humanitarian startup incubator that started on boats arriving from the Arab region in Europe during the Syrian refugee crisis. StartupBoat brought refugees together with engineers to build solutions right at the frontlines of the refugee crisis, and was also founded by Perla. Startup Boat’s goal remains to connect refugees, migrants, and project owners with people they would otherwise never meet, in order to help humanitarian projects move forward. Cosmopolis was conceived during the House of Beautiful Impact event in Mykonos, Greece, hosted by Startup Boat from July 25 to August 30. The event brings together innovators and thought leaders from various backgrounds to create, examine, or enable solutions that have a profound impact on local societies and the environment. The next House of Beautiful Impact event is scheduled for October 24th in Silicon Valley, California. Another project under Startup Boat is RefugAI, a hardware device that uses AI without internet to answer any question a refugee might have at the border and that allows people to take professional placement tests to connect them with the right employers as fast as possible. RefugAI helps refugees with translation, navigating bureaucracies, accessing legal services, and employment opportunities.

“The refugee crisis is an extremely complicated matter,” Perla says, “On one hand, governments don't want too many people coming, because their economy and healthcare systems will not be able to handle a huge influx of people. On the other hand, these people are going to try and come anyway, as they no longer have a home to go back to. This desperation is what leads to numerousrefugee boat tragedies, inflicting terrible loss of lives. Startup Boat and the Cosmopolis platform aim to make the refugee integration process easier, allowing help seekers to show what they can do and helpers to extend what they can. We believe these can save lives in a way that is useful for everybody, serving as a bridge between the 1% who have everything and the 99% who have nothing.”