Why we invested in Micromart

The opportunity we saw

The vending machine industry has gone largely unchanged for decades. It is ripe for innovation and renewal. Even though 10 million people use vending machines daily in North America, it still only represents 3% of consumers. It is usually the last option compared to convenience stores, grocery stores, and delivery apps. The problem is, traditional vending machines are limited in function and flexibility, and were not designed to sell fresh food—they tend to offer a narrow range of products, provide little inventory or consumer behaviour insight for sellers, and require manual, labour-intensive steps to operate.

The biggest problem is they are not designed for newer buildings where user experience and aesthetics matter, so most new buildings do not have them. For vending operators, these limitations can translate into a lack of good locations to go after, lack of sales, operational headaches, which makes it difficult to scale beyond a handful of machines.

Starting a modern consumer business increasingly requires customer insights, payment systems, inventory management and operational tools to manage the business. Building or integrating that digital infrastructure—whether through custom software or multiple third-party vending management platforms—can be costly and technically complex, creating barriers to entry for new entrepreneurs. Micromart’s technology does this heavy lifting for its customers with an out of the box solution.

When we decided to invest, we were also aware that hybrid work patterns were putting some traditional cafeterias out of business. For some potential customers, Micromart’s self-serve solution can help align food supply with demand.

The solution

Micromart’s smart stores use computer vision and item recognition to track what customers select in real time. Shoppers tap a card or mobile wallet, choose their items—anything from hand cream to bottled water to freshly prepared meals—and are automatically charged after the door is closed. The system pairs the Smart Store with an induction heating tower so customers can heat refrigerated meals in locations that do not have other means to heath the meals.  

What sets Micromart apart is not just its Smart Store but the integration of those with a full software stack. 

For operators, that platform is the real breakthrough. Entrepreneurs can manage payments, inventory, pricing and replenishment from their phones. They receive data-driven insights that highlight seasonal trends, top-performing products, and customer behaviours and preferences. The result is a sophisticated retail operation that does not require technical expertise to run. 

Operators also have the option to purchase or lease the Smart Store units. This flexibility makes it easy for entrepreneurs to start small, test ideas and grow sustainably. 

This  hardware-as-a-service (HaaS) mode allows the company to scale without needing to invest in infrastructure—a business model that aligns with the Sustainability Venture Fund's capital-light investment focus.

The sustainability angle

By enabling food and other products to be delivered directly to offices, campuses, residential buildings and other high-traffic locations where people live and work, in bulk, the platform makes food distribution more efficient compared to on demand single meal delivery and reduces the amount of packaging required in other meal or grocery delivery models.

Real-time inventory tracking and dynamic digital price tags enable discounts on almost expired food, which in reduces spoilage and increases operator’s margins. From the perspective of the Sustainability Venture Fund, making everyday systems smarter, leaner and more responsive is a powerful lever for supporting responsible consumption at scale.

Micromart’s platform also gives retailers flexibility in product assortment, including the ability to offer locally produced products, which are fresher, while using data to optimize inventory levels, streamline logistics and improve energy performance. These kinds of operational sustainability gains are exactly what BDC’s Sustainability Venture Fund is designed to support.

Looking ahead

As Micromart’s network of machines grows, the platform has the potential to generate insights that will help operators and food suppliers/brands brands make better inventory and distribution decisions. With enough scale, the company can help brands understand what sells where and when, ultimately improving product placement, reducing waste and optimizing supply chains. 

Micromart has been growing rapidly, expanding into new markets and scaling its manufacturing. It expects to have more than 3 000 Smart Stores in the field by Q4-2026.

BDC’s investment helped attract additional investors. Those equity investments support the development and growth of the platform, in addition BDC provides financing via its banking platform. 

The Sustainability Venture Fund

BDC Capital’s Sustainability Venture Fund targets capital-light technology companies whose solutions improve efficiency, reduce waste or enable more sustainable business practices at scale. 

In contrast, our Climate Tech Fund focuses on companies requiring larger amounts of capital to reach critical inflection points that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

What do we mean by capital intensity of a business? Here is how to think about the difference: 

• A capital-light business scales primarily through software, data, intellectual property and partnerships. Its growth depends less on owning physical infrastructure and more on expanding a platform or network.

• A capital-heavy business requires more upfront and ongoing financial investment in physical assets, technology, or infrastructure to prove its business model, build its product, and scale operations. 

Difference between BDC’s Sustainability Venture Fund and Climate Tech Fund

With a technology platform that modernizes an everyday system, Micromart is an example of a capital-light business that is a good fit for the Sustainability Venture Fund. The company reduces barriers to entrepreneurship and enables more efficient consumption. 

Supporting sustainable growth

Our goal is to help innovators like Micromart commercialize and scale their technology responsibly. That is one of the most powerful contributions BDC can make to building a cleaner, more efficient, more inclusive economy.

If you think our Sustainability Venture Fund could help your business, we encourage you to get in touch.