A DC entrepreneur was named a Rise 25 awardee

After working to help folks in the human rights space with technology, a DC entrepreneur was just selected for a worldwide award.

Raphael Mimoun, the founder of DC’s Horizontal, was selected for the Rise 25 Awards by Mozilla, the nonprofit behind the Firefox browser. The Rise 25 Awards honored folks working to make the internet more ethical, responsible and inclusive. Mimoun was selected for the “Builders” category, which highlights individuals making products for a more secure and accessible internet. The additional honorees were selected from countries around the world.

“At a time when many feel they’ve lost control over their digital lives, it’s easy to forget about all that’s wonderful online,” said Mitchell Baker, CEO of Mozilla, in a statement. “That’s why we are honoring these individuals who are doing work that unlocks the internet as a powerful vehicle of imagination and connection. They are 25 people who are reclaiming an internet that is open, accessible and meaningful to everyone.”

Mimoun, who also worked on the Whistler app, founded Horizontal in 2019; he was able to use Whistler’s open-source code to build Horizontal’s Tella app. This app lets activists, journalists and frontline workers document human rights violations in a safe, encrypted way. If someone gets ahold of the phone, they won’t necessarily be able to access any photos or correspondence.

Mimoun said that in his previous roles working in human rights, he slowly became the only person who specialized in technology — and that needed to change.

“That technology was just becoming a critical component of how activists and human rights defenders were doing their work, both because of the opportunity it presented, but also because of all the recent threats that emerged from technology,” Mimoun told Technical.ly.

In addition, he realized many of the people working in this space were particularly vulnerable to surveillance and needed to be protected. Five years later, the company is still building its app and working with communities around the world. It also just launched a new app to prevent phishing attempts.

Mimoun started his career thinking he would work in policy, he said, but quickly realized that real change comes from the bottom up — not the other way around. So he started getting involved in grassroots work and has kept that mindset in the work Horizontal does today.

“One of the big things about the work I do, and the work we do at Horizontal, is about blurring the lines between developers and communities of users, and blending that together and saying: ‘Okay, the communities who need technology should be the ones developing it,’” Mimoun said.

In the next few years, he hopes to keep maturing Horizontal as an organization and exploring new sources of funding. But in the meantime, he said winning this award helps solidify the work that the company is doing.

“It’s energizing, motivating us to keep pushing in the same direction, basically telling us that there is something that we’re doing that’s right and that’s working,” Mimoun said. “So I think it’s super encouraging.”

An award ceremony will be held in Berlin, Germany on Oct. 13. This award coincides with Mozilla’s 25th anniversary.