Big Bartender Is Watching: Anheuser-Busch Buys Israeli Start-Up That Keeps Tabs on Your Beer Drinking

If you thought that Spotify gathering your data every time you listen to that Britney Spears song was invasive enough, now you’ll have to think twice before you order a beer on tap at your local bar. A database may, in fact, be registering all sorts of details related to your order.

The world’s biggest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, acquired a Tel Aviv-based beverage analytics start-up, WeissBeerger, for a rumored figure equal to tens of millions of dollars. The Belgian giant, which owns hundreds of beer brands across the globe, including Corona, Stella Artois and Beck’s, bought the Israeli tech company last week.

Let’s assume your local bar connects one of WeissBeerger’s sensors to its beer taps. Each time you order a beer, the outlet registers data: The volume and quality of the beer you’re served, as well as the time and location of your order. The sensor then sends the data to the company’s cloud server, which analyzes it. Both the beer manufacturer and the bar itself are likely to be interested in looking at the data.

From a business perspective, WeissBeerger offers the unprecedented opportunity for companies to get real-time data on the market and use the information to improve their operations and increase their revenue. Bars which have adopted the sensor have both increased revenue and reduced beer wastage, according to WeissBeerger.

This is the latest, big move within the realm of the Internet of Things.

Internet of Things (IoT) companies—such as WeissBeerger—develop networks of physical objects and softwares, transferring data from the former to the latter. Over the last few years, funding for IoT start-up companies has grown significantly. The Internet of Things has a distinguished presence in Israel, with companies like GreenIQ and Argus Cyber Security leading the multitude of Israeli IoT-related start-ups.