Paragon ID, a global leading provider of secure identification and traceability solutions, and Dracula Technologies, a pioneer in enabling battery-free IoT through energy harvesting from ambient indoor light, are reinforcing their long-standing partnership to accelerate the deployment of XgenTag-L, the first battery-free, light-powered Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) smart tags. This milestone marks the transition from pilot to large-scale industrial deployment, supported by a multi-year product order representing several hundred thousand of LAYER organic photovoltaic (OPV) modules per year.
Together, the two companies are joining forces to expand adoption in key sectors worldwide and to drive the development of sustainable, maintenance-free IoT solutions that eliminate batteries, reduce environmental impact, and enable high-volume scalability for global logistics and industrial applications. The objective is to reduce production costs, enable high-volume scale-up, and support more granular traceability in demanding supply chains.
Sustainable IoT is delivering value
“The success of XgenTag-L demonstrates that sustainable IoT is not a future vision, it’s happening now and delivering value,” said Eric Cariou, VP of New Product Development at Paragon ID. “By strengthening our collaboration with Dracula Technologies, we’re making this breakthrough technology accessible at global scale across logistics, transport, aviation, healthcare, and retail, with a cost structure that makes large-scale deployment viable.”
“We are proud to deepen our collaboration with Paragon ID, a partner that shares our vision of sustainable and scalable IoT,”added Brice Cruchon, CEO and Founder of Dracula Technologies. “Our LAYER energy-harvesting modules deliver the energy autonomy required for truly maintenance-free connected devices. Together, we’re proving that sustainability and industrial performance can go hand in hand globally.”
From innovation to industrial scale
Jointly developed over the past two years, XgenTag-L combines Paragon ID’s expertise in connected traceability and system integration with Dracula Technologies’ patented LAYER OPV modules, which harvest energy from ambient light to power electronic devices. The XgenTag-L harvests ambient light to power its BLE chip. In bright conditions, the tag can transmit signals every second, enabling real-time tracking without ever needing a battery. The result is the world’s first fully energy-autonomous BLE tag available on the market, capable of continuous data transmission and geolocation without any batteries, maintenance, or dedicated infrastructure. In many environments, XgenTag-L operates seamlessly with customers’ smartphones via an application (APK) provided by Paragon ID, offering an immediate, plug-and-play path to sustainable traceability.
Accelerating the adoption of sustainable IoT
By removing batteries, the XgenTag-L drastically reduces CO₂ emissions, eliminates e-waste, and avoids the use of critical raw materials like rare earths or heavy metals. It’s designed for 10+ years of maintenance-free operation, reducing total cost of ownership by up to 35% with ROI achieved in as little as 6 months.
In the next phase of their collaboration, Paragon ID and Dracula Technologies will focus on industrial optimisation, miniaturisation, and integration into multiple tag and label formats to serve a growing number of use cases:
- Supply chain & logistics: real-time tracking of roll cages, reusable containers, tools, and pallets.
- Healthcare: asset tracking and monitoring of temperature-sensitive materials.
- Transportation & logistics: visibility and maintenance monitoring for ground-handling equipment.
- Retail & circular economy: smart packaging and automated inventory management.
- Aviation: connected tracking of trolleys, Unit Load Devices (ULDs), and high-value equipment and components.