Australian IoT hardware maker Binary Beer and Canadian IoT software company Kegshoe, specialising in keg trackers and tracking solutions for breweries, respectively, have teamed up to sell their products in tandem. The deal means breweries and distributors in Canada and the US can utilise Binary Beer’s self-install NB-IoT based KegLink trackers for the first time.
The arrangement sees Kegshoe combine its keg tracking software with Binary Beer’s KegLink NB-IoT devices and analytics platform. The KegLink trackers screw under the rim of all-sized beer kegs in all geographic regions, and do away with the need for breweries to send fleets of kegs to specialist fitters, eliminating costs for shipping and fitting. They track each location, movement, and temperature through production, storage, and distribution.
They also count sales volumes. Meanwhile, the Kegshoe tracking software, caled Insights Engine, renders and processes data from the trackers – promising “operational efficiency, traceability, product quality, and waste reduction”. The pair are promising a way to prevent keg loss and improve business efficiency. Rollout of the Kegshoe / Keglink combo in North America will expand in the coming months, they said.
Kegshoe launched in 2016; its software is used to track “hundreds of thousands of kegs in over 30 countries”, a press note said. Binary Beer, also founded in 2016, has deployed devices on four continents, it says. It claims contracts with brewers “big and small, local and international”. For NB-IoT connectivity, it works with Vodafone in Australia and SafariCom in Kenya, among others.
Michael Burton, chief executive at Binary Beer, said: “The collaboration is a great opportunity for Binary Beer to bring our existing technology into a new geographic market. We’re excited to bring a joint solution that specifically addresses the needs of North American brewers across its unique distribution landscape.”
Adrian Pawliszko, co-founder of Kegshoe, said: “Through this partnership, breweries using Kegshoe will be able to supercharge their operations: further minimizing keg loss, improving keg cycles, tracking sales volumes, and ultimately ensuring that better tasting beer is available to their customers.”
Low-power wide-area (LPWA) network technologies like NB-IoT are finding decent purchase with keg tracking, among other asset monitoring disciplines, with the Australian beer industry among the leading proponents.
Notably, Australian keg rental provider Konvoy Group has 200 customers tracking 20,000-odd kegs, connected on NB-IoT rival tech Sigfox. Konvoy has a deal with IoT developer operator UnaBiz, which runs Sigfox networks in Singapore and Taiwan, to provide Sigfox tracking to 95 percent of its fleet in Australia and New Zealand – the figure was scheduled to rise to 70,000 kegs by the end of last year (2020).
