Russian smart ring overreaches crowdfunding target on Kickstarter

On June 21, Ekaterina Romanovskaya — one of the two founders of Russia’s most popular satirical Twitter account, KermlinRussia — launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for her new project, Nimb. The product is a “smart ring” designed to help users inform family and friends quickly when they find themselves in danger.

With almost 1,500 backers, Nimb had already collected more than $168,000 (well over its $50,000 pledge goal) as of July 1. Sultan Suleimanov of Meduza, a independent Russian online publication, spoke to Nimb’s cofounders, Romanovskaya and Nikita Marshanksy, about how they built a distress signal into a ring and why they believe people need it.