Waterloo alumni get value out of vending machines

Tommy Chan and Jason Yeung started small.  While still engineering students at the University of Waterloo, they bought a vending machine for $400 and set it up on campus.

Chan and Yeung began prototyping the machine as part of a school project. They also used the money they made from product sales to buy two additional machines.

Before they knew it, the systems design engineering students were operating their own small business through several vending machines in the area.

“We’d go to school in the morning and, at night, we’d fill vending machines,” says Chan, who made a daily run to buy pop at the grocery store after his classes finished.

Soon they saw a gap in the vending industry and developed smartVend as part of a fourth-year project. The innovative technology is a remote monitoring system that sends a message to the owner of the vending machine when it’s time for a refill or repair.

Innovative technology

The entrepreneurs have now grown their new technology and on-campus operation into a fledgling company, Adaria Inc. They operate a vending machine, coffee, and water cooler business while further developing the smartVend technology, which is funded through the sale of drink and snack items in the vending machines.

Funding to support the innovation also comes from a $60,000 Scientists and Engineers in Business fellowship. The fellowship is a University of Waterloo program supported by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) open to promising entrepreneurs who want to commercialize their innovations and start high-tech businesses.

Global applications

Entrepreneurship has been an exciting opportunity for a team that didn’t immediately see self-employment on the horizon.

Just a few years into full-time operation of the company, the team is considering next steps. The smartVend technology is making it easier to manage a rapidly growing fleet of vending machines between the Greater Toronto area and Kitchener-Waterloo. It’s also offering a competitive advantage in the vending market. Drivers have been hired to help stock and service the machines.

Chan and Yeung continue to learn more about the vending machine business and how their technology can further the industry. They’re currently prototyping smartVend for use in machines outside of North America, and selling the technology as well as the business is always a possibility, says Chan.

“Who knows what the future will hold?” he asks. “For now we’re keeping smartVend exclusively for ourselves in helping us to become the best operator available.”