As the coronavirus outbreak worsens and hygiene becomes critical, a Pune-based start-up, Vendekin Technologies, has introduced its smart vending technology to dispense hand sanitisers and other hygiene products through vending machines having minimal contact.
Vendekin brings in the electronics and software while the product will be manufactured by Instor India, a manufacturer and exporter of automated smart vending machines. Instor India is the largest manufacturer and exporter of retail fixtures in India. Vendekin has so far installed 1,500 snack vending machines but considering the circumstance has added this machine to improve accessibility of sanitisers.
Aroon Khatter, founder and CEO, Vendekin Technologies, said they have been inundated with orders for the product. The company is in a position to provide 100 machines immediately and 500 more in the coming days. Khatter said the firm had been installing sanitary pad vending machines called HygieneVend and following the coronavirus outbreak and ongoing scramble for hand sanitisers, Vendekin has converted these into hand sanitiser vending machine with some changes in the product and at the same cost. The machine makes sanitiser easily accessible and Khatter thinks it can fit well into IT and business parks, offices, banks, airports and other such crowded spaces.
The sanitiser dispensing machine is being positioned as an ideal tool for use in crowded public spaces such as schools, colleges, malls, offices, IT and business parks, airports, railway stations, metro stations and hospitals. The machine is also integrated with cashless payment options and is currently available with PhonePe and will soon add Paytm, Khatter said.
The machine can store 50 bottles of 60 ml sanitiser and will be brand agnostic allowing different sanitiser brands to be accessed by customers. They can add bigger capacity bottles but currently all brands offer retail packs and also question of refilling and logistics will have to be addressed. As of now they are not positioning it for railway stations and bus stops as there could be issues of vandalism, Khatter said.
Vendekin has a tie-up with Instor by Kider India for manufacturing these machines. Manu Sharma, president, Instor by Kider India, said they wanted to support the effort to fight the current pandemic so will be using their manufacturing capabilities along with Vendekin’s domain technology to make these smart sanitiser vending machines equipped with digital payment and touch-free dispensation. Quick and swift actions like these can have huge impact and safeguard health and safety of citizens, Sharma said.
Instor and Vendekin have been working closely since 2017 on developing unmanned retail solutions and vending machines to provide self-service unmanned retail solutions to grow the Vcommerce ecosystem in India and globally. Founded in 2016, Vendekin Technologies, is funded by family offices of CP Gurnani and Vineet Nayyar, among others. Instor has its manufacturing facility in Koregaon Bhima, Pune and has covered more than 5.5 million square foot space with their fixtures serving more than 8,000 stores.
