Vendekin Technologies, which makes unattended retail technology solutions said on Monday that it has raised Rs 8.5 crore in a pre-Series A funding round. The round was led by Better Capital with participation from existing investors CP Gurnani's family office and Vineet Nayyar’s family office. Gurnani is CEO of Tech Mahindra NSE -0.15 % while Nayyar is former vice-chairman and MD of Tech Mahindra. The funds will be used towards investing in it its R&D and technology teams to improve customer experience at vending machines and micro markets.
Vendekin also announced its plans to expand globally, to the USA and Europe, as well as explore new avenues of unattended commerce such as EV chargers, amusement parks and laundromats. The company will also work at creating a new channel of unattended retail in India through its V-commerce platform.
“We have a very special product in the unattended retail space and Better’s expertise will be instrumental in helping us gain market share globally. We are also excited about our plan for India where we have launched our V-commerce platform which is spawning many entrepreneurs in the unattended retail space. We already power the highest number of machines in the country, and you will see significant action from our side as we multiply this number many times over in the next few months,” said Aroon Khatter, founder and CEO, Vendekin Technologies.
The company aims to power $100 million in gross transaction value globally in unattended retail transactions by 2025.
"Vendekin is building Stripe-like infrastructure for unattended retail, and we are excited to partner with Aroon and team as they scale their proven stack to serve a global customer base", said Vaibhav Domkundwar of Better Capital, an early backer of breakout SaaS & infrastructure companies like Teachmint, Stader Labs, Khatabook and Airmeet.
Set up in 2016, Vendekin Technologies is India's first hardware-enabled SaaS startup that provides its proprietary technology solutions to large multinational companies as well as helps small vending operators digitize their business. The plug-and-play hardware solution, called Retrobox, can fit into any traditional vending machine without the need for 4G/5G, upgrading it to a smart, touch-less vending machine and is being used by companies like
Nestle NSE -1.35 % and Cantaloupe.
The global market for vending is projected to reach US$146.6 billion, growing at a CAGR of 1.3% by 2027. India, meanwhile, is expected to grow at 14.9% CAGR, growing its market by 10 times within this period, as per a recent report by ResearchAndMarket. Vendekin said that it aimed to grow its presence from 4,000 to 50,0000 machines by 2025. The company’s revenue has grown 400% year-on-year since 2020 and it currently facilitates around 1 million unattended retail transactions a month in India.