These S’poreans built a vending machine that makes cafe-style coffee—& it’s selling 23K cups/ mth
They thought vending machine coffee was terrible, so they built one themselves Vending machine coffee often has a reputation for being watery and bitter—it’s the kind of drink you settle for just because it’s convenient. But Flow Coffee is trying to change that assumption. Over the past year, its vending machines have used real Meiji […]
Flow Coffee, a Singaporean startup, has created a vending machine that brews cafe-style coffee using fresh milk, rather than the typical powdered creamer. The founders, Wei Sheng Chang, Qingyuan Zhang, and Jacky Pu, recognized that vending machine coffee often suffers from being watery and bitter. To improve the taste, they replaced cheap powdered creamer with genuine Meiji and oat milk.
Within a year, the company has sold over 150,000 cups from 35 machines. The idea for Flow Coffee emerged in 2023 from a desire to provide affordable yet high-quality milk coffee without the long wait at cafés. Initially, the founders considered opening a café, but the costs dissuaded them. Instead, they opted to design a vending machine that could use fresh milk.
After several prototypes and a successful trade show demonstration, they secured a partnership with a Chinese manufacturer, who produced the first prototype. The trio then added proprietary features, such as an aroma-release mechanism and a foam maker. Although initial sales were slow, the founders organized launch events and gave out free samples to educate customers about the quality of their coffee.
Written by urgent.news from Vulcan Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
