If there ever was a sector screaming for modernization—and especially mobilization—it would be vending machines. The potential to know inventory in advance, to know which of the 10 machines nearby have three of the desired item you and your friends want, to be able to place a group order and to pay in advance and to then have the machine dump it all into a bag, these are the areas where vending machines need to go.
One 4-month-old mobile vending machine group that is toying with various forms of vending machine modernization—PayRange—is attracting an unusually large list of some of the best-connected mobile investors in the industry. “On the heels of a $2.75 million funding round that closed in July, PayRange has disclosed a list of high-profile investors,” reported Vending Times. “It includes Nyca Partners, which includes Osama Bedier, former head of Google Payments; Hans Morris, former president of Visa; and Max Levchin, cofounder of PayPal; Google Ventures; Anil Aggarwal and Jonathan Weiner, founders of the Money 20/20 conference; Barbara Corcoran, one of the investors on ABC’s Shark Tank; serial entrepreneur and investor Phil Nadel; and Oscar-winning actor Jared Leto.”