Vending

Pandemic boosts growth for contactless vending operation in India

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June 29, 2021

Daalchini, a vending operation launched in 2017 that sources fresh food from home cooks, has installed more than 400 internet-enabled machines across 10 cities in India, according to a smefutures.com report.

Founded by Prerna Kalra and Vidya Bhushan, both ex-Paytm executives, the company offers more than 100 brands in its contactless machines. The fresh food is a welcome alternative to the extended shelf life packaged items usually found in vending machines.

The startup uses a temperature-controlled supply chain that is forecast-driven guided by machine learning-based projection tools.

When the company reached a milestone of 200 machines by 2020, growth accelerated on account of the pandemic, thanks in part to the contactless ordering.

Looking forward, the team also intends to install its IoT-enabled machines in vehicles.

For an update on how the coronavirus pandemic has affected convenience services, click here.