AirVend announced it has landed a $1.2 million Series Seed round of funding to fuel its production of the vending-machine-mounted, cashless touchscreen devices designed to help vending operators prepare for the impending law requiring vending machines to display calorie information.
When asked about the new law and the purpose of AirVend's touchscreen technology, CEO and founder Chad Francis said in a prepared statement, "We love the idea of consumers having nutrition info available, but we also don't want the new calorie disclosure requirements to break the back of the average vending operator. We are extremely excited to be able to raise the funds in order to take our company and vending technology to the next level and be part of the overall solution."
The Series Seed round was led by strategic vending industry partner, 365 Retail Markets and included PS27 Ventures, an investment firm focused on healthy living and wellness initiatives.
According to the release, the wirelessly connected AirVend device helps operators comply with coming regulations by providing a digital nutrition label of each product and it also significantly lowers their operating costs with remote inventory management, error reporting and an increase to sales by providing credit card and NFC payment options.
Lance Ellsworth, co-founder and executive vice president of business development added, "While this new calorie disclosure law is a potential burden hanging over the heads of vending operators, it also turns out to be sort of a catalyst to reinvigorate the vending industry with desperately-needed technology. Being able to scale up operations and provide not just a solution for legal compliance, but also vast improvements in sales and operational efficiency through the application of smart technology is a tremendous opportunity for vending operators and us."
