BLE Technology Drives Indoor Asset Tracking in Healthcare, Offices, and the Military – Part 1

Riddle me this. What do Finnish saunas, patient care, hot‑desking and a soldier’s kit have in common? Do you give up yet?

IoT Now’s editorial director, Jeremy Cowan, discusses with Thomas Hasselman, chief marketing officer of Finland‑based Quuppa, how a simple piece of wireless technology – Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) – is powering diverse indoor tracking solutions across healthcare, corporate environments, and even defense.

IoT Now: What does Quuppa do exactly?

Thomas Hasselman: We provide precise, real‑time location services built on technology that originated at Nokia Research Centre in 2012 and was spun out as Quuppa. Our offering is sold through a global ecosystem of more than 100 value‑added resellers (VARs), software developers, and system integrators (SIs), many of whom also develop custom tags and BLE sensors.

Our core technology is BLE. Unlike conventional beacons that simply broadcast a signal, we determine the position of an asset, tag or smartphone by measuring the Angle of Arrival (AoA) – the direction from which the signal arrives. This approach, combined with over 60 man‑years of algorithm development, gives us the accuracy and reliability that customers demand.

IoT Now: What do you currently offer for indoor location?

Thomas Hasselman: We supply ceiling‑mounted locators – small sensors that form the infrastructure – and license our positioning engine, a software stack that can run on an on‑premises server or in the cloud. While we provide reference tags, we focus on partnering with vendors who can supply the full range of hardware and software needed for a complete solution.

To remain a horizontal technology provider, we must collaborate with partners who can deliver best‑in‑class components. From 2012 to 2014, our partners handled everything from infrastructure installation to custom tag design. Today, more traditional SIs and mobile carriers are entering the enterprise space and joining our ecosystem.

IoT Now: Any notable recent partnerships?

Thomas Hasselman: Orange is a prime example. A once‑specialized IoT vendor, Orange now leverages Quuppa’s BLE platform to expand its service portfolio.

IoT Now: How did the name Quuppa come about?

Thomas Hasselman: (laughs) The name comes from a wooden scoop used to pour water over a Finnish sauna. Our first locator prototypes were wooden hemispheres that served as antenna arrays, which inspired the name.

IoT Now: How does Quuppa differentiate itself from competitors?

Thomas Hasselman: Our differentiation lies in AoA and our proprietary algorithms, which deliver reliable, real‑time location. While Ultra‑Wide Band (UWB) also employs AoA and offers similar accuracy, Quuppa’s advantage is proven at scale in large deployments.

Tomorrow, Thomas will discuss specific BLE deployments for indoor asset location.

IoT Now’s editorial director & publisher, Jeremy Cowan, spoke with Thomas Hasselman, CMO of Quuppa.