SoftBank leads Series A for China cashier-less vendor

SBVA sits alongside Mingde Holdings – the biggest shareholder in SF Express - as the largest investors in Feng1. The proceeds of the latest round will go towards scaling up the business and improving operational efficiency and service quality.

Incubated in 2017 by SF Express, Feng1 provides vending machines in offices, logistic parks, co-working spaces, factories, schools, and hospitals. It has more than 50,000 terminals across 28 cities with more than 10m customers.

Besides ordinary vending machines, the company supplies artificial intelligence-enabled cabinets. A customer scans a QR code to open a cabinet, they collect their chosen items, and a bill is sent automatically to their mobile phone when the door closes. Feng1 has open shelves that operate in a similar way.

Cashier-less vendor start-ups became popular in China after Amazon launched its own version of the concept, Amazon Go, in 2016. Many players have quit the market in the past three years due to overcapacity putting pressure on margins, but Feng1 has leveraged SF Express' logistics and supply chain capabilities to continue expanding.

"The offline unmanned retail scene has great commercial value - it is an irreplaceable offline channel for brands to reach consumers. We are optimistic about the operational and business development capabilities of the Feng1 team, which will lead to a better and more convenient consumer experience,” says Haipeng Ding, a partner at SBVA.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Consumer
• Technology
• Early-stage
• China
• Softbank
• CICC
• Shenzhen Capital Group
• TMT