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EBar

EBar Raises £670,000 for its Mobile, Automated Beer Vending System

EBar, the Aberdeen, U.K.-based beer vending machine company, announced today that it has raised a £670,000 (~$916,000 USD) equity round of funding. In an email to The Spoon, EBar Managing Director Sam Pettipher said that of the new money, £150,000 (~$205,000 USD) came via equity crowdfunding via the Seedrs platform, £300,000 (~$410,000 USD) came from an Irish events consortium, and the rest came from various investor groups. This brings the total amount raised by EBar to £1.4 million (~$1.9M USD).

Built for large events like soccer matches, festivals, concerts and more, EBar makes high-volume automated beer vending machines. EBar machines offer just two drink options, feature a touchscreen for ordering and can pour a beer in under 30 seconds. EBars are also mobile and meant to move around wherever there are events to create what the company calls beer as a service. Instead of leasing the machine, EBar charges each venue a commission on sales, so there is no upfront cost for set up or installation.

EBar launched its equity crowdfunding campaign earlier this year with the goal of raising £275,001 (~$387,827 USD). Pettipher said the company has closed the equity crowdfunding campaign and has moved on to the execution phase of its business, getting fleets of units out and growing the team.

EBar is part of a growing movement towards automating beer service, especially at large events. Macco Robotics, Revolmatic and Hop Robotics all make automated beer pouring machines that can dispense beers in seconds. This type of automation could potentially be huge for events and venues because a robot can churn out hundreds of drinks in an hour without stopping. Human bartenders could then shift their focus to selling more complex (and expensive) mixed cocktails, and would allow event attendees to spend less time in line for drinks.

The bigger question hanging over all of these services isn’t the functionality of the technology, it’s when large events will be able to come back in full force. With the COVID-19 Delta variant flaring up around the world, the pandemic is far from being over. Sporting events and concerts are making a comeback, but there is the constant threat of them being shut down again in the fight against the virus.

EBar Automates Beer Pouring at Events, Aims to Equity Crowdfund £275,001

As people return to sporting and live events, they won’t have to wait as long for a beer. Well, they won’t have to wait as long in Europe, because a number of robotic beer-pouring solutions are coming to market there.

The latest entrant to the robo-beer pouring space is EBar, a startup based in Aberdeen, United Kingdom, which makes what is essentially a beer dispensing vending machine. From the video description (see below), the EBar is more about volume than variety. There are just two kegs plugged into the back of the machine, so don’t expect an extensive menu of artisanal beer choices. Customers order via on-board touchscreen, take cups from the built-in dispenser and place them in the machine. The EBar then pours out what looks like a pretty perfect cup of a beer, complete with appropriately-sized foamy head, in under 30 seconds.

The EBar is built for large venues like stadiums and outdoor festivals, where people want their drinks quickly and don’t care as much about whether the beer they are getting is an IPA or a Stout. Additionally, since there is no server, the machine reduces the amount of human-to-human contact when getting a drink — an important factor in this emerging post-pandemic world.

EBar calls its business model Beer as a Service. Rather than installing and leasing machines in a single location, they move the machines around from venue to venue and charge a commission on all the sales. This is a smart play for the company because potential venues don’t have to spend money up front for the machine, and EBar can look at the data to determine which are the best events/times/locations to set up their machines to maximize revenue.

EBar is in the middle of an equity crowdfunding campaign and aiming to raise £275,001 (~$387,827 USD). The company says that despite the pandemic shutting most events down in 2020, its machines were still being used by thousands of customers. As venues re-open and people return to sporting events and concerts, it’s easy to see how having multiple EBars on-hand could come in handy. (This news post should not be considered investment advice.)

Europe appears to be a hotbed of automated beer pouring activity. In Poland, the Revolmatic is a smaller, counterop machine also built for large events that cranks out cups of beer. And over in Spain, Macco Robotics’ humanoid Kime robot pours beer, but isn’t really built as much for speed and volume.

Large events are actually good use cases for automation because attendees are at a venue to see a concert or a game, not stand in long lines for drink.

If you want to know more about the future of vending machines, then be sure to attend ArticulATE, our food robotics and automation summit on May 18. We’ll have speakers from smart vending companies like Yo-Kai Express, Rotender and Calvary Robotics. Get your ticket today!