Cantaloupe Inc. acquires Yoke Payments, signaling big move into micro market space

Digital payments company Cantaloupe Inc. has acquired the assets of Delicious Nutritious LLC, dba Yoke Payments, a Los Angeles-based micro market payments company. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Yoke’s self-checkout kiosk and mobile apps will be showcased at this week's NAMA Show at New Orleans' Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in Cantaloupe booth No. 1231.

Through the acquisition, Cantaloupe said it is investing in the fastest-growing segment of unattended retail by extending its solutions to any micro market point-of-sale. In addition to digital payments, Cantaloupe develops and provides end-to-end technology solutions for the unattended retail space.

Cantaloupe’s Seed Market package enables operators to optimize their micro market businesses by integrating route scheduling, warehouse pre-picking and reporting for markets, vending, office coffee services and pantry.

Yoke’s point-of-sale platform now extends this offering to provide self-checkout while integrating with Cantaloupe’s inventory management and payment processing platforms.

“Micro markets are the fastest growing segment of the unattended retail industry. While through Seed Markets we already provide logistics and payments services for thousands of micro markets, we knew that extending our fully integrated solution to point-of-sale was important to our customers,” said Cantaloupe chief executive Sean Feeney.

“Having worked with Yoke for the last four years, this acquisition was a natural progression of our relationship," Feeney summed up.

Yoke’s technology currently integrates with more than 40 major platforms, enabling faster onboarding through a plug-and-play setup that simplifies operations and reduces costs, creating a profitable and scalable micro-market solution for small and medium businesses. It also supports enterprise customers looking to maximize existing locations.

Yoke's mobile capabilities facilitate a direct line of communication between merchants and consumers, too. This enables promotions, coupons, and loyalty and rewards programs, all helping to increase customer engagement and retention.

“This is an amazing opportunity for the Yoke team and our customers,” said Yoke cofounder and chief executive Michael Johnson. “We share many of the same core value."

Johnson and his Yoke cofounder, Benjamin Thomas, are joining the Cantaloupe team.