August 8, 2026
A water bottle left behind at school, a cuddly toy lost on the way, a sports bag forgotten at the club: children's belongings go missing sometimes. With smart NFC stickers from Trekka, whoever finds an item gets a simple, safe way to say where it is, while the owner's details stay private.
Trekka is a product of 9to5 Software. The idea started close to home, with a problem we all know from our own family life.
From lost to back home
Many of the things that go missing are still perfectly fine. Yet a water bottle, lunch box or sports bag is often replaced when it doesn't come back. Trekka gives these things a clear way back, without putting a name, address or phone number on the item itself.
Every sticker contains a unique NFC chip. You stick it on a backpack, lunch box, water bottle, cuddly toy, suitcase or anything else that travels a lot. If someone finds the item, they can use the sticker to say where it is or how you can get it back.
That way useful things are more likely to last longer instead of being replaced for no reason.
How Trekka works
After setting it up, you put the Trekka sticker on the item. A finder unlocks an NFC-capable iPhone or Android phone and holds it against the sticker for a few seconds. A secure page then opens straight away in the browser.
The finder doesn't need to download an app or create an account. On the finder page they can leave a phone number or email address. Would they rather not share contact details? Then they can simply say where they handed the item in, for example at a school, sports club, reception desk or lost-and-found point. The owner then gets a notification.
The NFC sticker needs no battery, so it never has to be charged. There is no subscription. According to the product specifications, the stickers are waterproof and dishwasher safe.
Privacy without live tracking
Trekka is not a GPS tracker and doesn't follow a live location. The sticker only helps when someone taps the found item with a suitable phone.
The owner's personal details are not visible to the finder. In turn, the finder decides what to share: a phone number, an email address or just a message saying where the item was found. So someone can help without giving away more information than needed.
Thought up by parents, built by software makers
We are Susan and Tom Pesman, parents and software makers from Delft. In our family, too, water bottles, lunch boxes and bags disappeared at school, at the sports club or on the way. We wanted a solution that is easy for families to use and handles privacy with care.
So we developed and tested Trekka in our own software company, with our children and their everyday things as practical test subjects. The result is a small, cheerful sticker with a clear job: helping a finder get lost children's belongings safely back on their way home.
