An aide Bemoir: startup aims to use NFC to make social media more intimate

An Australian startup is looking to leverage near field communications (NFC) technology to allow people to tell stories through their most beloved possessions.

Bemoir, based in Melbourne, hopes to become a social network that is more intimate and personal than other platforms currently on the market.

Founder and chief executive Patrick Beraud told StartupSmart Bemoir will allow users to link videos, photos and sound to physical objects by using NFC technology or QR codes.

“The biggest problem we are having with social media right now is it enables you to talk a lot but it doesn’t enable you to express who you really are,” he says.

“It also creates a distance between your physical world and your digital world. We are fusing your digital world and physical world into one.”

The startup is running a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter with the aim of raising £25,000 ($46,000).

“We need a little bit more money to push us over the finish line and to launch we need to build support,” Beraud says.

“Kickstarter gives us the ability to start building that base and be making the right noise we need to make.”

Bemoir would be ideal for users wishing to add an additional experience to a family heirloom, artwork or childhood toy, according to Beraud. Should the crowdfunding campaign be unsuccessful the startup will turn to the investors it is currently in discussions with.

“One of the main hurdles for us is to make our product very simple and easy to use,” Beraud says.

“There’s a little bit of education we need to bring to the customers along with it because it’s totally different to any social media out there now.”

A number of Australian startups have been leveraging NFC technology, including contactless communications startup Tapit and a South Australian company looking to bring modern technology to traditional memorials.

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