PayRange Inc. has signed an agreement with Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company (SMCC), reportedly the largest credit card services provider in Japan. The two companies hope to capitalize on the ubiquity of vending machines in Japan, and those machines’ lack of cashless payment options.
Japan is well known for its advanced and widespread vending machine market, with machines dispensing an unimaginable diversity of products on nearly every street corner in Japanese cities. However, according to PayRange, almost none of the machines accept debit or credit cards.
“It has been very expensive to bring cashless solutions to this vending market.The PayRange solution is unique in that it requires no networking infrastructure, allowing easy upgrade of the existing fleet of machines,” said SMCC officials. “We’re particularly eager to offer solutions to vending merchants that will allow them to upgrade their machines ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics when millions of visitors and athletes will visit. We want them to be able to easily use the vending machines.”
The PayRange solution will also be expanded to Japanese laundry and amusement machines. This won’t be SMCC’s first foray into non-traditional payment, as the company partnered with other U.S. companies like Square and Stripe to bring those services to Japan.
“Partnering with SMCC is an exciting opportunity for PayRange,” stated Paresh Patel, founder and CEO of PayRange. “The Japanese vending industry is large, but also complicated. SMCC’s leadership, reputation and experience is what we sought to ensure success of our entry into the market.”
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