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CardMunch founder gives business card scanning another go

A promotional image for a new business card-scanning feature in HiHello
HiHello

A new app aims to address a key unsolved issue of the smartphone era: a replacement for paper business cards.

Why it matters: Two decades after the Palm Pilot allowed people to beam their contact info to one another, there still isn't a great replacement for the old-fashioned paper business card.

There was an app, CardMunch, that scanned in business cards and sent them back in digital form, but it went away after a series of corporate transfers. Now the founder of CardMunch — venture capitalist Manu Kumar — is giving it another try. His company, HiHello is essentially using a similar approach as CardMunch: human-verified card scanning.

Details:

  • HiHello, available for iOS and Android, will offer users 5 free business scan cards per month, while paid options, ranging from $5 to $20 per month, offer more scans.
  • HiHello launched last year as a means for creating and sharing digital business cards to anyone with a smartphone.

History lesson: There was an app, Bump, that let cell phones physically touch to share info, but Google bought it in 2013 and it faded into in obscurity. CardMunch also dealt with it, but it was acquired by LinkedIn, neglected and eventually handed off to Evernote.

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