The Technology Fund
A Step Towards A Sustainable Future
The Technology Fund is a political instrument rooted in the Swiss CO2 act and advocates innovative climate protection. It offers funding for Swiss SME’s and start-ups that promote innovative, climate friendly products.
The Technology Fund manages CHF 500 million and offers loan guarantees of up to CHF 3 million per company. The Swiss operating arm of Boost Inc, Boostbar, received non-dilutive funding for its sustainability impact in the vending industry.
Boostbar concepts achieve up to 90% less food waste and transport-related CO2 emissions versus vending industry standards. In total there are roughly 15 million Vending Machines being operated worldwide. Making them run with fewer CO2 emissions, less food waste, and for a longer time has a huge positive environmental impact.
“Working with The Technology Fund helped us twice: the detailed assessment forced us to put hard numbers behind claims. With the loan guarantee, we will be able to scale our solutions and conquer new markets even faster” – Pascal Uffer, CEO Boost Inc
Cutting-Edge Technology Solutions
Boost Inc is a vending-management & technology company that enables businesses of all sizes to run self-service food and beverage outlets. Boost Inc is the only company that allows anyone to digitalise and manage any type of unattended Points of Sale (POS), providing a unique cloud-based vending technology and management solution that is completely modular and customisable.
The vending technology & management solutions allows customers to:
- Monitor and manage any unattended point of sale (smart fridge/freezer, vending
machine, micromarkets & coffee machines) - Automate operations, from refilling to promotions, remotely leveraging data and AI to
gain unprecedented operational efficiency improvements - Connect any payment solution from eWallets, employee badges or 3rd party payment
solutions
Environmental Benefits Of Digitalising Vending
Vending machines are unstaffed Points of Sale (POS) that are managed through route-based operating models. This means that operating them involves significant driving from central warehouses to the POS to restock and for technical interventions. Additionally, machines that allow cash payments are on cash collection routes.
Given that vending machines are by definition relatively small POS and are usually placed in less frequented locations compared to retail solutions, unattended POS run the risk of food waste. This is especially true for POS stocked with fresh products or products with generally
shorter shelf-life.
Boost Inc’s digitalisation and telemetry can help reduce the CO2 emissions and food waste of operations by making operating a POS much more efficient. Digitalization kits can be fitted also on old existing machines, which means that older machines can be repurposed,
extending the lifespan of these POS, thereby avoiding or delaying CO2 emissions related to manufacturing and shipping of new machines.
The digitalisation of machines allows the operator to monitor the stock of products live. This means they can plan his trips dynamically and individually for each appliance. This reduces trips (and therefore CO2 emissions) by around 30% on average. Furthermore, our technology gives operators the ability to pre-define ‘sell-by’ dates and to automatically reduce products when it is about to reach its best-before date.
This functionality promotes more sales and helps to reduce waste.
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