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PayRange Inc. raises $70M to upgrade machines to accept mobile payment

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February 24, 2020

PayRange Inc. has secured $70 million in funding to digitize unattended retail machines at no upfront cost to machine owners, according to a press release. 

Millions of vending, laundry and other cash-and-coin-only machines have not been able to accept cashless payments, because upgrading to accept card and NFC payments has historically been cost-prohibitive for most such machines.

The patented PayRange solution, a small, dongle-like device that installs inside the machine, uses the consumer's smartphone for connectivity and payment over Bluetooth. In addition to retrofitting existing machines, the solution is also available as OEM in new machines. 

With the company's new 2020 Consumer Choice Program, PayRange offers machine owners the ability to capture more sales by offering a wider range of payment options. Additionally, PayRange empowers machine owners to offer consumer engagement features, such as promotions and loyalty programs. 

"We realized that the initial upfront investment was a hurdle preventing owners from upgrading, so we developed the hardware-as-a-service model, allowing operators to finally bring their un-networked machines into the digital age," Michael Kitchen, chief revenue officer, said in the press release. "We have only begun our initial rollout of the program and are already signing up 10,000 machines a week. We are very pleased with the early results of this program and expect demand will outstrip our initial 1 million device supply."