Vinli is building an app ecosystem for vehicles and just partnered with one of the biggest players in the growing space: Dash.
The two competitors are joining forces to jointly advance their market. I spoke to Vinli’s CEO Mark Haidar and Dash’s CEO Jamyn and they’re both very excited to have each other in their lives. Haidar confessed that Dash “is the best connected car application out there” and Jamyn is just as stoked about the deal, noting that Vinli is a high quality device that’s also affordable.
This partnership is akin to Rocky finding his Bullwinkle.
The two companies are striving for the same thing so it only makes sense for them to work together. Dash will promote Vinli’s hardware and Vinli will do the same for the Dash app.
Both Dash and Vinli will continue to offer their respective API and developer platforms.
“We both care about providing the best consumer and developer experience,” Haidar told TechCrunch. “By working together, we can provide a better experience. There is no exclusivity, but we’re going to feature dash because we believe it is a great application.”
Dash launch last January, promising to produce a “Fitbit for cars”. The app works on various ODB devices that are readily available. Since the start, the company has strived to be device-agnostic, giving consumers the right to choose their own hardware. Even with this partnership with Vinli, Dash will continue to support other hardware.
Vinli launched in September at Disrupt SF 2014. The company is attempting to build an ecosystem of apps around its hardware that’s compatible with nearly every car manufactured after 1996. But building an app platform is hard. Teaming up with the hottest player in the space should help move things along for both companies.