Blesh has recently partnered with Volkswagen Turkey for its smart key fobs, to be sold online and handed out to new buyers starting from November 2016.
The smart key fob is a beacon itself, as it works with Bluetooth Smart (aka Bluetooth Low Energy). It is paired with Volkswagen’s mobile app, “Volkswagenim” (My Volkswagen).
The key fob works for 3 main purposes. Once the customer is done pairing the key fob with the app, they can locate their phone nearby by tapping twice on the key fob and hear a beeping sound coming from their phone. They can do the exact opposite and locate the key fob – hence the keys to their car – through the app. It works as a Bluetooth selfie shutter, working like a very long selfie stick by having almost 50 meters of range.
The key fob is unique in a way that it includes Google’s Physical Web functionalities. In fact, it is one of the first major Physical Web products on the market.
The Physical Web functionality will be very useful if the key fob is lost and found by someone else. The device will only send out the Physical Web signals when the device is inactive and might be lost. When someone else finds the key fob, they will see a URL at the Chrome widget on iOS or receive a notification on their Android advice, with information on how to report a lost keyfob.
“Our experience in the beacon market has shown very strong interest from industries like retail and banking, however we see the Volkswagen smart key fob as the first major beacon project in the automotive industry.” said Devrim Sönmez, CEO of Blesh. “We are very excited to announce our partnership with Volkswagen for a device that is not only an innovative IoT product but also can be an integral part of people’s lives. The product also shows how beacons can be used for daily life challenges.”
About Blesh
Based in Palo Alto with offices in Istanbul and Atlanta, Blesh provides a beacon platform for enterprises and developers all around the world. Founded in late-2013, Blesh has already deployed more than 45K beacons, integrated its platform with 100+ apps and reached 25 Million SDK downloads.
Blesh beacons are deployed in leading retail chains, airports, bank branches and ATMs, subway stations, more than 135 malls, cafés and restaurants, office buildings and university campuses. Blesh is also the first official provider of Physical Web beacons and one of the few authorized sellers of the Eddystone beacon format, both announced by Google in 2015.
The company received its first funding by angel investors Turgut Gursoy, Emre Berkin, Kemal Ciliz and Ali Sabanci in 2014 and received $4M Series A funding this year. The Series A round was led by TRPE Capital.