AirTag was a French startup that was acquired by Morpho, at the time a Safran subsidiary, in 2015.[1][2] It was a mobile shopping and payments provider.[3][4]

Logo of AirTag

History

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AirTag was founded in 2006 by Jérémie Leroyer, Cyrille Porteret, Cedric Nicolas and Gunnar Graef. As of late 2012, investors had provided €6 million in seed capital,[5] following a second-round in 2011 when it secured €4 million.[6]

In October 2008, AirTag launched what it called the first NFC software development kit (SDK). It included an NFC reader and four types of NFC tags.[7][8] In 2012, the company launched another SDK. This one included hardware for smartphone-based payments.[9]

In 2009, AirTag and its partner Netsize launched Airtag Pad, an in-store terminal for clients to check their loyalty points, ask about tailored products, etc. Reebok hired it for its line of Go Sport stores.[10]

Nokia C7, the world's first smartphone with an NFC chip, was able to pick up loyalty points and discount coupons on the phone, through a partnership with AirTag.[11]

AirTag built McDonald's France smartphone app GoMcDo[12] which was one of the first to integrate with Apple's Passbook soon after the latter's initial launch with iOS 6 in 2012.[13][14][15]

In 2012, Carrefour's mobile app for near-field communication (NFC) purchasing was built by AirTag.[16] In 2013, French newspaper L'Express ranked AirTag among the top 30 French internet startups.[17] That same spring, AirTag launched KFC’s first mobile wallet to order and pay via smartphone;[18] three months later, 90% of those installing the app were placing orders through it.[19] Late that year, AirTag admitted it was not profitable.[5]

In 2014, the company had 50 employees when it launched mobile commerce applications for Dia France[20][21][22] and for Brioche Dorée.[23]

On November 28, 2018, the sole shareholder IDEMIA Identity et Security France[24] (Courvevoie) decided to dissolve Airtag early without liquidation.[25]

Criticism

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Whereas AirTag said it launched the first NFC SDK in late 2008, industry magazine RFID Update said at the time that there were pre-existing SDK's from Nokia and from Alvin Systems.[7]

References

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  1. ^ "Safran: Morpho a finalisé l'acquisition d'AirTag". L'Express (in French). 8 December 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2020. Morpho, a Safran subsidiary, has completed its acquisition of AirTag, a French startup specialized in new payment solutions for mobile
  2. ^ "Morpho Acquires mPayment Startup AirTag". FindBiometrics. December 10, 2015.
  3. ^ "Is the future of mobile wallets finger-lickin' good? KFC and Airtag think so". Venture Beat. April 3, 2013.
  4. ^ Aroun Benhaddou (9 December 2015). "Morpho sécurise le paiement online avec Airtag". Les Echos (France) (in French). Retrieved 25 April 2020. Airtag designed a single-use virtual bank card to make online purchases [Airtag a conçu une carte bancaire virtuelle à usage unique pour réaliser des achats en ligne]
  5. ^ a b Cohan, Peter. "AirTag Is French for McDonald's Mobile Commerce". Forbes.
  6. ^ "Airtag lève 4 millions d'euros pour profiter de l'essor du NFC". 11 February 2011.
  7. ^ a b "NFC Kit Launched to Spur Application Development". RFID Update. RFID Journal. 1 October 2008. Archived from the original on July 25, 2020. Retrieved 25 April 2020. there have been few NFC development tools released. AIRTAG claims its kit is the first, but Nokia and Turkish firm Alvin Systems are also known to have released NFC SDKs
  8. ^ "AIRTAG lance une solution de développement sans contact et NFC". 3 October 2008.
  9. ^ "Airtag releasing NFC mobile payments developer kit, wishes Apple would help simplify the ecosystem". October 16, 2012.
  10. ^ Levin, Marie-Juliette (1 April 2009). "Airtag Pad, nouvelle borne interactive". eMarketing (in French). Retrieved 25 April 2020. Airtag propose un forfait à partir de 140 euros par mois pour l'ensemble de la prestation. Seule marque à avoir transformé l'essai à ce jour, Reebok, pour son concept de «shop in the shop» dans les magasins Go Sport.
  11. ^ Morel, Claire (16 May 2011). "In partnership with Airtag, Nokia offers the first peer-to-peer loyalty card NFC on the Nokia C7". Relation Client (in French). Retrieved 25 April 2020. Nokia équipe son nouveau modèle C7 d'une carte de fidélité NFC en peer-to-peer. En partenariat avec Airtag, la marque propose de cumuler des points de fidélité et de télécharger des coupons de réduction à distance, depuis le mobile
  12. ^ Pietri, Antoine (23 October 2013). "The new means of payment for daily transactions". Le Nouvel Économiste (in French). Retrieved 25 April 2020. Airtag a ainsi développé des solutions basées sur les smartphones, permettant de supprimer le passage en caisse. La société est notamment à l'origine du service GoMcDo
  13. ^ "McDonald's m-payments app now integrated with Apple's Passbook » PaymentEye".
  14. ^ "L'app de commande McDonald's désormais disponible dans le Passbook de l'iPhone". Internet Retailing (in French). 4 October 2012. Archived from the original on 22 April 2021. Retrieved 25 April 2020. l'application GoMcDo pour iOS6 est l'une des première en France à disposer de la fonctionnalité "ajouter à Passbook"
  15. ^ "L'app de commande McDonald's désormais disponible dans le Passbook de l'iPhone". Internet Retailing (in French). 4 October 2012. Archived from the original on 22 April 2021. Retrieved 25 April 2020. Airtag, fournisseur de solutions de Mobile Shopping vient de rendre compatible son application de commande et de paiement développée pour McDonald's avec l'application Passbook de l'iPhone [...] l'application GoMcDo pour iOS6 est l'une des première en France à disposer de la fonctionnalité "ajouter à Passbook"
  16. ^ "Carrefour uses NFC and QR codes to speed up grocery shopping • NFCW inc NFC World". May 15, 2012.
  17. ^ "The ranking of the companies of the future". L'Express (in French). 28 April 2013. Archived from the original on 29 August 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2020. 28 - AIRTAG - Informatique, télécom, internet
  18. ^ Dembosky, April (3 April 2013). "KFC eyes more orders with 'mobile wallet'". Financial Times. Retrieved 25 April 2020. Jeremie Leroyer, chief executive of Airtag, which built the app for KFC […] in the UK on Wednesday, with the goal to extend it across the country, then to the US and the rest of the world
  19. ^ Borison, Rebecca (20 August 2013). "KFC's Mobile Shopping App sees 90pc of users placing orders via mobile". Mobile Commerce Daily. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  20. ^ Deschamps, François (27 February 2014). "Christophe Pecquerie, Airtag : "le panier moyen dans le m-commerce est supérieur de 30%"". EcommerceMag. p. fr. Retrieved 25 April 2020. Récemment, l'entreprise de près de 50 salariés fondée en 2006, a mis en place l'application m-commerce de l'enseigne de distribution Dia, sur un modèle click & collect, sa spécialité
  21. ^ DELSOL, EMMANUELLE (17 January 2013). "Numérique : le sans-contact, un savoir-faire français". L'Usine nouvelle (in French). Retrieved 25 April 2020. Effectif 4,5 millions d'euros, 50 personnes Clients McDonald's, Casino, Carrefour City
  22. ^ "DIA pilots mobile grocery service, pickup lockers for easy shopping | Retail Dive".
  23. ^ Tode, Chantal (8 May 2014). "Brioche Dorée goes all out on mobile wallet with ordering, payment, loyalty and couponing". Mobile Commerce Daily. Retrieved 25 April 2020. The app was developed in partnership with mobile shopping solutions provider Airtag and Groupe Le Duff
  24. ^ "IDEMIA IDENTITY & SECURITY FRANCE (COURBEVOIE) Chiffre d'affaires, résultat, bilans sur SOCIETE.COM - 440305282". www.societe.com. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
  25. ^ Nédelec, Claudine (2020), "Les Parisiennes selon Furetière dans Le Roman bourgeois", Les Parisiennes : des femmes dans la ville (Moyen Âge - XVIIIe siècle), Artois Presses Université, pp. 155–166, doi:10.4000/books.apu.18484, ISBN 978-2-84832-469-2, S2CID 235869381, retrieved 2023-12-07
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