The Navarre-based company Muxunav has patented the development of a modular digital system that can be installed very easily on the vending machines already on the market —tobacco, drinks or snacks— and that makes it possible to modify how they operate so that the customer experience is completely contactless, that is, with no physical contact.
This way, users would not have to physically touch the machine to select the product and pay, something especially relevant in the effort to minimise the risk of Covid-19 contagion.
Antonio Torres, CEO of Muxunav, explains how the system was devised: “We realised that there was nothing on the market that allowed both steps to be completed contactlessly. There was contactless selection and contactless payment, but not both in a single device. For this reason, and faced with the Covid-19 health emergency, we decided to invest in a development running parallel to our digitisation devices for vending machines —whose commercialisation has already begun in Austria and Germany— and which, taking advantage of the technology we had already developed, would limit the possibility of Covid-19 contagion when using vending machines,” explains Torres.
The system will make it possible to select the product and pay for it safely and contactlessly, using only the user’s own mobile phone, through QR codes and blockchain. In addition, users will be able to have a record and individual digital purchase receipts.
It will also incorporate the latest payment gateways and technologies operating on the market, offering absolute product traceability in real time.
“We realised that, for example, on tobacco machines we made things easier for the hospitality owner, who will no longer have to constantly clean the machines’ selection buttons. We have also held talks with several banks to bring the patented system to market in the coming months. We are very excited about this development and its reception,” says the head of the Navarre-based company.
Currently, 2% of Austrian machines already feature Telmarkt digitisation technology, and they expect to reach 15% of that country’s market within 12 months.
“We also expect to have a significant presence in the German and Swiss markets, and we are confident that adding this advance to the payment method will open the doors to other markets such as Spain and Portugal in a meaningful way,” Torres maintains.
For its financing, Muxunav has the backing of Sodena, Elkargi and Sonagar, as well as private capital.
