SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Civic announced an expansion of the Civic Network. The soon-to-be-released Civic Pay app will enable partners to combine identity verification, payment, and rewards into a single transaction. The first Civic Pay partners are at the forefront of the automated retail industry. AAEON, AR Systems, Fastcorp Vending, Global Vending Group, greenbox Robotics, Invenda, IVM, IVS, Retail Automated Concepts, SandenVendo, The-Venders, and Wemp will bring blockchain-powered innovation to the industry with simple access to age-gated products, an improved user experience, and personalized rewards.
By integrating the Civic Pay app with automated retail solutions and smart vending machines, these partners will introduce the first real-world, Civic Pay use cases, where people can prove identity and pay for a product in a single transaction. Together, these companies represent over one million connected vending machines. Combining identity with payment will further advance Civic partners’ automated retail solutions and expand vending opportunities for a growing market. Currently, there are over 3 million connected vending machines globally, a number expected to grow to 5.4 million by 2022 according to Berg Insight.
The Civic Network expansion marks a big step towards Civic’s larger vision: to give everyone a digital identity that they own and control. Most transactions require some form of identity verification and building identity verification into payment functionality simplifies that process. Vending machines make digital identity accessible and give people the ability to experience new technology. In addition, with the Civic Pay app, once users are verified, they are able to use the same verification over and over again, further streamlining the identity and payment process.
“The first step in making digital identity attainable is making it accessible for the everyday consumer,” said Vinny Lingham, Civic CEO and Co-founder. “Vending machines represent an introduction to the mass market, where people can see how digital identity functions in the real world, as well as opening up an entirely new market for automated retail. We’re thrilled to partner with leaders in the automated retail industry, and working together, we look forward to making digital identity available and usable.”
Civic will be attending the NAMA Show in the Las Vegas Convention Center, between April 24 and 26, 2019. On the Exhibition floor, Civic will be demoing the Civic Pay app with a variety of vending machines. After an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the Civic Pay preview with beer vending machines at SXSW, Civic will be working to connect customers to the vending machine partners that best meet their needs.
“Speaking with Civic, we immediately recognized the vision and how identity verification could help AAEON embark on an entirely new market of vending opportunities. The combination of identity and payment enables a frictionless user experience that allows for a new subset of product offerings,” said Paul Yang, General Manager at AAEON. “We’re excited to be one of Civic’s first vending machine partners, and we look forward to implementing Civic technology to provide a cutting-edge customer experience.”
“With over 800,000 vending machines, we’re always looking for innovative concepts to introduce. The vending machine market is flourishing and being the first to adopt industry-changing technology is critical to providing the best user experience,” Mike Weiser, SandenVendo’s CEO and President. “With combined identity, payment, and rewards solutions, Civic Pay is a perfect fit for our vending fleet, and we’re excited to implement this technology and help make digital identity more accessible.”
To learn more about Civic automated retail solutions, visit https://www.civic.com/.
About Civic
Civic is a visionary identity company. The ability to prove who you are is an essential human need, and Civic is creating a world where people can control and protect their digital identity. The Civic Network offers the most secure and user-friendly identity verification solutions with its mobile applications, available on iOS and Android. With over almost 200 partners, Civic is connecting businesses and individuals around the world to make sharing and verifying identity information a safe private and seamless experience. Civic sold $33 million CVC tokens in a June 2017 token sale to support this vision.