From Yahoo Finance: SAN FRANCISCO, May 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Swyft Inc., a leader in automated retail and vending technology, announced a January 4th, 2016 close of US$3.5 Million in Series A equity financing. “Th

Source: finance.yahoo.com

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Swyft was co-founded by Gower Smith, creator of the automated retail industry. “We are at the inflection point where automated retail is proven, however has not yet scaled. Just like when banks introduced ATMs, location numbers increased 10 times once independent manufacturers deployed low-cost machines. At ZoomSystems I quickly grew annual sales from zero to $100 million, but after handing off management, the company didn’t continue to lower capital cost to improve ROI. Our data showed that this was the key for scale to tens of thousands of locations and billions in revenue, which is our focus at Swyft.”

Automated retail provides more compelling unit economics than the $20+ billion US vending industry because it usually offers high-value merchandise, not just soda and snacks. Automated retail delivers the highest sales per square foot at typically 5-20 times the revenue of a vending machine, with many individual stores exceeding $1M annual revenue. It is more efficient than traditional retail because it eliminates staffing and real estate risk. Before Swyft, the technology lacked flexibility and operating costs were too high to scale.

The $3.5M funding has already enabled Swyft to release its low-cost hardware, flexible cloud-based software and a more efficient operating cost structure. This disruptive solution means lower capital costs, shorter ROI and the ability to scale to tens of thousands of locations. Swyft anticipates tremendous growth, with a projected market of over $1.5 Billion in the US and $5 Billion globally.