Nayax develops age-verification vending solution in partnership with UKO Microshops

Nayax Ltd., the global commerce enablement and payments platform designed to help operators scale their business, announced a partnership with UKO Microshops, an Austrian-based innovative leader in the vending industry and premium provider of cigarette and vending machines.

This new age-verification solution by Nayax and UKO offers a single and completely integrated card reader, Onyx, which can be retrofitted on any kind of vending machine without any extra mounting work. This provides an alternative to the existing solution in Austria. In addition to the technological advantages, operators will also benefit from low operational costs.

Starting in mid-2023, UKO Microshops will launch a new integrated age-verification solution on its vending machines via Nayax’s Onyx contactless card readers. This new solution is being developed exclusively for the Austrian market and will enable operators to accept cashless payments via their machines and verify the consumer’s age before selling any youth-protected products such as tobacco and alcohol. Age verification will work with the following Austrian-issued debit cards: Maestro, Debit Mastercard, V PAY, and Visa Debit. When the consumer taps their debit card on the Onyx card reader, the registered card holder´s age will be verified online.

This new age-verifying feature integrated with the Onyx device is part of Nayax’s complete solution, which offers capabilities including telemetry, remote vending management software, and a platform for loyalty and consumer engagement, to increase operators’ revenue and decrease their operational costs. Compared to other payment devices on the market, the Onyx contactless card reader is much smaller, easier to install, processes payments faster, and has lower transaction costs. These capabilities, along with the age-verification feature, enable operators to distribute their products 24/7 in a more secure, efficient and innovative way.

“By partnering with Nayax to develop a new age-verification solution, we enable our customers and partners to take another step towards innovation and independence,” Moritz Unterkofler, CEO at UKO Group, said in the announcement.

Sammy Yahiaoui, CRO of Nayax, added in the announcement, “We have exclusively developed the age verification solution for the Austrian market in partnership with UKO and are launching this most powerful solution in 2023. I am looking forward to a strong, long-term partnership with this innovative leader of vending and cigarette machines in Austria. As always, our goal is to help operators increase their bottom line and we keep developing more solutions with that in mind.”