Mid January, Riga-based Vendon scored half a million euros in funding from Baltcap for their monitoring systems and solutions for vending machines. At first vending machines may not sound too exciting, but in reality they take care of the whole vending machine experience– from mobile payments, inventory tracking, management software, and logistics. The service gives vending companies a complete system to monitor and manage the lifecycle of a candy bar.
They offer many supply side tools to cut down on costs of running a vending business, which can be distributed across a potentially huge geographic area. Alerts and forecasting make it easy to keep track of inventory, while routing, and mobile software make it easy to deliver the products in the field. They also include a mobile payments system that’s a great feature for any vending machine to have.
To allow the vending machine’s monitors and sensors to talk to the software, Vendon offers the vBox, which connects to the vending machine through its data port. This box can communicate with the Vendon software over the cellular networks, and can monitor five different sensors temperature, door opening, people presence in from of the vending machine, and so on. Different sensors are client-specific and these sensor installation can be agreed between Vendon and the client before the telemetry project implementation.
BaltCap financing is made up of private investor contributions, as well as European Union Structural Funds money, which is administered by the Latvian Guarantee Agency.
