Former Costa Express boss Scott Martin has secured £2m for his AI-powered coffee vending machine platform.
Unity Coffee will use the money to roll out more than 500 machines connected to its app into high-footfall venues, including gyms, hotels, flexible workspaces and forecourts.
The app-first coffee stations have completed pilot tests in London, and the new rollout marks the first phase of Unity’s wider automated retail platform, spanning hardware and software upgrades.
Unity aims to pair premium coffee, matcha and hot chocolate beverages with connected machines, app-based ordering and payments, and real-time loyalty offers.
After a successful friends and family raise, Unity Coffee’s latest round features a consortium of seasoned industry figures, including specialist investment firm The Imbiba Group and angel investor and W Communications CEO Warren Johnson.
“‘Big Coffee’ has spent decades extracting maximum margin from a captive market, but we are here to flip the model,” Martin said.
“We are committed to offering barista-quality drinks at up to 20% cheaper than the high street, powered by a digital platform built for the next decade and socially distributed instant rewards, which serve customers and owners.”
Martin is the co-founder of self-service coffee machine company Coffee Nation, which was acquired by Whitbread for £60m in 2011 and rebranded as Costa Express. He led the company under Whitbread’s ownership, leaving when Coca-Cola snapped up Costa in 2019.
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