Manufacturing and logistics giant PCH International alongside hardware incubator Highway1 have announced that Estimote, a tool for helping retail spaces interact with customers, has been chosen for Best Hardware Startup at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2013.
“I was excited to see a company jump on Apple’s ibeacon technology so quickly to make a location service,” said Brady Forrest, VP of Highway1. “Estimotes are part of the new breed of hardware startups – one that uses hardware to build a unique data set & charge money for web services. We think that touring Shenzhen will help them expand their supply chain.”
Estimote is selling a small device called the Beacon. It allows customers to interact with a retail space using their smartphone and supports touchless payments and will push discounts and information to phones at the customer’s request.