Automated Retail & Kiosk Innovation Show

Tech players connect at Self-Service Innovation Summit, partner on age verification solution

After meeting at last year's Self-Service Innovation Summit in Hollywood, Florida, Optimal Station and CAV Solution have partnered on an age verification solution for self-service equipment.

Michele Lee and Teddy Sanchez of Optimal Station teamed with Juri Tarassenkov and Dmitri Pimenon of CAV Solution Ltd. after meeting at the Self-Service Innovation Summit in Hollywood, Florida.

October 26, 2022 by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times

Teddy Sanchez and Michele Lee, co-founders of Optimal Station, a Florida based company that develops self-service machines for automated retail, inventory control and event marketing, were trying to find a seamless age verification solution.

CAV Solution Ltd., a Tallin, Estonia based startup that offers age verification with a two-step process that does not require a download, was looking for partners to market its solution in the U.S.

Both parties thought the Self-Service Innovation Summit in Hollywood, Florida last December offered a promising opportunity to find helpful connections in self-service technology. The agenda included topics addressing the changing self-service technology landscape.

They weren't disappointed.

Optimal Station developed a vending machine for age restricted products using the CAV Solution age verification solution.

'Love at first sight'

"It was love at first sight," Lee told this website in a phone interview describing her reaction to the CAV Solution exhibit at the Self-Service Innovation Summit. "We go to Self-Service Summit, we see a booth, we come up and Teddy says, 'Wait a second, something's different about this. It works.'

"It doesn't require the downloading or the registering of an app," Lee said. "It is a quick, seamless age verification with a simple two-step process. It really took away those hesitations that people usually have when they don't want to put their information in when they sign up for an app or download an app."

Lee's partner Sanchez, who had spent 12 years exploring age verification devices, shared her excitement at the Self-Service Innovation Summit.

"When I saw the solution I jumped all over it," said Sanchez, "There is a huge opportunity here not only in vending, but in self-service kiosks as well."

Partnership emerges

CAV Solutions, for its part, was impressed by Optimal Station's breadth of knowledge and connections.

"In December 2021 we went to the Self-Service Innovation Summit 2021 in Florida, where we met the founders of Optimal Station, who were very interested in our equipment and said it was the solution that they have been looking for for 12 years now," Juri Tarassenkov, CCO of CAV Solutions, told the Startup Inkubaator Tehnopol website, the business incubator in Narva, Estonia, where CAV Solution received business training and raised funding.

Lee and Sanchez invited CAV Solutions to visit their headquarters in Alachua, Florida, where they examined their hardware and software in more detail.

"We invited them to our headquarters and went into partnership mode almost immediately," Lee said. "Our missions aligned…and we just really worked well together." Optimal Station became an investor in CAV Solutions and its exclusive U.S. distributor.

The two companies have since partnered on a solution that integrates CAV Solutions' age control identifier with Optimal Stations' vending machines, a solution that has already proven popular with vending operators and retailers anxious to serve the rapidly growing age-restricted market.

How it works

The user looks into the camera which captures their image. They then present a passport or an ID with an image, and in 45 seconds or less the device verifies that the face matches the picture and that the document is valid and the age is equivalent to what the document states.

"In our industry, age verification has existed, but has existed through ways of mobile apps, where you have to sign up…and wait for somebody to acknowledge it, and then your transactions are through a mobile app," Sanchez said.

"This solution we have is really 100% frictionless," he said. "With this device at the point of sale, you don't have to interrupt the employee and we can actually do a verification. As far as a self-service checkout or those types of things, I think it's going to be really good."

The parties created a solution which they presented at a 2022 spring vending show in the U.S.

Manufacturers and operators respond

Greenbox, a cannabis retailer in Austin, Texas, uses a customized Optimal Station vending machine.

Both equipment manufacturers and convenience services operators showed interest in the technology.

Companies marketing CBD and cannabis products have been especially responsive to the solution. A handful of CBD and vape services in Texas and Colorado are already using it, averaging 30 to 45 verifications per day, Sanchez said.

"A lot of operators are interested in getting to the age verified products," Sanchez said. "It's up to the end user (the machine operator) to do the regulatory compliance."

Sanchez also sees a lot of opportunity for the technology in experiential marketing.

"We've been seeing a lot of traction on the marketing side where brands want to create a really cool experience with the vending machine to give away a sample…in a memorable experience that could also be shared through social media," he said.

"More importantly, after the event, we give them back all the data," he said, from the social media input and any survey data gathered. "That's where the value's at for the marketing side."

Self-Service Innovation Summit delivers

Sanchez attended sessions at the Self-Service Innovation Summit and especially appreciated the session, "The 'Phygital' era: Where physical and digital intersect."

"I thought that was a really interesting panel in the direction that we're going in," he said. He also appreciated the keynote, "The Customer Journey, How Has it Changed and What Does the Future hold," by Ruth Crowley, vice president of merchandise and brand strategy at Hudson Group.

Malls were dying, Sanchez said, and became more flexible and began allowing self-service equipment.

"She was encouraging us, the people with the self-service kiosks, to come up with some cool automated ideas and to target malls because there was a huge void there, and they (malls) want to defend themselves."

To register for this year's Self-Service Innovation Summit, Dec. 14-16 in Hollywood, Florida, click here.

Photos provided by Optimal Station.