At the beginning of the Covid crisis in February, two temporary hospitals were built in the city of Wuhan within just a few days. If it weren’t for BlinkIn, a startup in the current InsurLab batch, it probably would have taken longer than this.
Huber & Ranner, one of BlinkIn’s customers, was contracted with the installation of special ventilation units at the emergency clinics – without the option to send fitters to the crisis region. Instead, product specialists used BlinkIn’s remote video support platform to guidelocal workers through the installation from Huber & Ranner headquarters in Germany.
Blinkin aims to help with all kinds of problems remotely. For this purpose, the company, founded in 2018 and based in Bavaria and Bangalore, has developed a smart videoconferencing system for customer support. Applying technologies such as AR and AI, Blinkin seamlessly transports human expertise to the exact location where it is needed.
“We build a very focused application”, says Josef Süß, one of BlinkIn’s four co-founders,“we want to give the customer the option to face anyproblem together with an expert asquickly as possible. We add a visual layer to these support calls.”
Users simply point their smartphone camera at a deviceor a situation they need help with. At the other end, experts can use the live video to understand the situation, check the settings in real time and for example draw on the customer’s display, which buttons to pushand which levers to turn. This helped BlinkIn customer Wilo, one of the leading pump innovators, to continue their critical service in lockdown situations all around the globe.
With BlinkIn, users do not need to install apps ontheir smartphones or fill in registrations when they need assistance. They simply receive an invitation link from the expert in their smartphones, and the video chat then runs via conventional internet browsers. Pragmatic and simple, usable without training.
“It’s our goal to create impact and value – we’re not interested in fancy showcases. Of course, we’re pushing boundaries of technology by making video chat more accessible andclever.”, Josef says. It’s one of the reasons why BlinkIn has found traction in verticals besides tech-support, like roadside assistance and P&C insurance, closely working with companies like ADAC. The basic narrative stays the same: instead of sending an expert out to the client rightaway, try to understand and resolve the issue remotely at a fraction of the time and costs.
“But we don’t want to replace field service by anymeans – for most of our clients it’s part oftheir business model”, Josef explains. Instead, BlinkIn enables a remote-first visual approach: quick reaction to urgent cases, reduce oravoid redundant on-site visits andpre-inform the visits which are needed. “Most insurancecases require expert eyes at thescene more than once. With our partners, we’re exploringif it’s really necessary to do both pre- and post-works validation in person when the alternative via video can be much more efficient and convenient for both sides – as wellas fraud-proof.”
Furthermore, BlinkIn works to build automated assistance for visual data collection and step-by-step guidance: a Visualbot to empower 24/7self-service. The application is able to learn from the real cases which are solved through human-to-human collaboration on the BlinkIn video platform. Guidance for jumpstarting a car or connecting a WiFi router then can be provided autonomously through the smartphone.
This innovation has created additional attention from large corporations and venture capitalfor the startup who are currently preparing theirfirst investment round. They’re excited forwhat’s ahead: “We’ve built astonishing partnerships over the last two years and received excellent feedback from the market for various usecases. So we’re looking forward to accelerating the development process and being helpful on a larger scale.“