Vending-Payments Specialist Cantaloupe Targets Micro-Markets With Its Deal for Yoke

Building on a strategy of growing share of payments in the unattended retail market, Cantaloupe Inc. announced Tuesday its acquisition of Delicious Nutritious LLC, a Los Angeles-based micro-market payments company that operates under the trade name of Yoke Payments. The purchase price was not disclosed.

The deal gives Cantaloupe, which earlier this year changed its name from USA Technologies Inc., a point-of-sale terminal and application specific to micro-markets that can be integrated into its Seed Markets platform. Micro-markets can be retail locations built to fit spaces the size of a walk-in closet, for example, or refrigerated cases containing food and beverages.

Seed Markets enables micro-markets, which are generally unattended, to manage their business. Seed Markets’ functionality includes route scheduling, warehouse pre-picking, and reporting for micro-markets, vending, office coffee, and pantry services.

“We felt we needed a micro-market-specific terminal, and Yoke brings that expertise,” says Cantaloupe chief executive Sean Feeney. “Micro markets are an extremely fast-growing retail segment, and Yoke fits well with our Seed Markets platform. Its technology is an extension of our product line.” 

One factor helping drive the growth of micro markets is that many food- and coffee-service providers are having trouble finding labor. Unattended retail locations provide a way for them to service new locations without employees to staff them. 

“With the difficulties some businesses are facing when it comes to hiring, a collision of micro-markets, vending operations, and retail is coming,” Feeney says. “We feel this is the tip of the spear.”

The global vending-machine market is expected to reach $25 billion in annual sales by 2027, according to Allied Market Research. 

For four years prior to the acquisition, Cantaloupe had provided Yoke with logistics and payments processing. Not surprisingly, Cantaloupe views the acquisition as a natural progression of its relationship with Yoke, and a vehicle to expand its Seeds Markets platform among micro-market operators. 

“It’s good to do deals with people you know and technology you know works,” Feeney says. “Yoke has a good brand and is well known in the micro-market industry.”