Israeli Ultimate family bike maker raises $1 million in one day

The Taga Ultimate Family Bicycle raised more than $1 million in its first 24 hours on Kickstarter, making the Israeli design and engineering firm behind the campaign the undisputed kings of May crowdfunding campaigns.

“WOW. We’re overwhelmed. We’ve reached our goal in 8 minutes and a million dollars in under 24h. This is crazy. The support we’re getting from you is unbelievable. Thank you!! We will not rest until each and every one of you is super happy. Scout’s honor, ” writes the Taga team to supporters.

The Taga 2.0 family bike is actually the second in a series. The idea for the Taga Bike first came about in 2007. By 2008, a production line in Taiwan was inaugurated and by the following year the Taga 1.0 convertible bike-stroller was selling in more than 40 countries.

In 2014, the Taga team created new plans for the Taga 2.0 and launched it on Kickstarter in May. Two versions — standard and electric — have add-on features including a sun hood, headrests, accessory bar and cargo holds.

Early birds can purchase the bike for $649 through Kickstarter until July 16. After that it will retail for $999.

Miggo

Miggo’s iPhone camera grip, Pictar, raised nearly three times its crowdfunding goal of $100, 000.

Senior industrial designer Ohad Cohen has already chalked up two successful crowdfunding campaigns in the camera gear market. This time, together with a group of designers in Abu Ghosh, he devised an ergonomically advanced camera grip for the iPhone.

Cohen’s track record is filled with industry awards. Among the founders of Kata, one of the world’s leading designers and manufacturers of innovative camera bags, he received the TIPA Award — the most prestigious award in photography — for his involvement in developing Kata’s highly acclaimed GDC series.

In 2013, Cohen and partners founded Miggo(mymiggo.com) and were behind the successful Strap&Wrap and Agua protective carrying solutions for digital cameras. Miggo products are currently marketed in more than 30 countries around the world.

Pictar, which ended its crowdfunding campaign in mid-May, offers five programmable wheels/buttons, an ergonomic one-handed grip and a dedicated app that uses a unique frequency applied to whatever button the setting is assigned to.

Photography magazines around the globe featured the Pictar campaign, noting its innovative design.

“The Pictar is a great case concept … we can see videographers using this for shooting movies. And having access to physical controls is nice, particularly for anyone familiar with DSLRs or other advanced cameras, ” reads a review in Digital Trends.

“The Pictar does an impressive job of replicating the manual controls of a proper SLR, ” according to a report in Endgadget. “Each action (think zooming, taking a photo, tweaking your ISO and more) is tied to a specific high-frequency tone. With the Pictar app installed, the phone listens for those tones and does what it’s told.”

Tapit

Haifa’s Tapit unleashed an ergonomic smartphone case with a transparent physical keyboard to the crowdfunding community in May.

The lightweight case transfers the key presses to the touch screen below. Each user can customize the 18 keys.

Tapit’s buttons are also meant to assist elderly and disabled people with smartphone usage.

“We wanted to make Tapit as user-friendly as possible and part of that is allowing users to fully customize their case’s functionality. My personal Tapit Launch app is set to have “Okay, Google” open up on one-click of the lock screen and have my wife on speed dial. Since each user is different, we decided to just open it up for them to decide what works best for them, ” says Tapit cofounder Rubi Mazaki Tsaig.