Vend is

cloud-based Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage (cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over multip ...

point-of-sale and retail management software company based in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The company was founded in 2010 by Vaughan Rowsell. It was acquired by Australian software company Kounta.

History

Vend was launched in August 2010 by software developer Vaughan Rowsell. In 2013, Vend raised NZ $8 million of funding from investors in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

. Further capital has also been raised from existing investors including Point Nine Capital in Berlin. The following year, Vend closed US $20 million (NZ $25 million) in Series B funding. The funding round was co-lead by

Peter Thiel Peter Andreas Thiel (; born 11 October 1967) is a German-American billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Fac ...

and Square Peg Capital in Australia. Later in 2014, the company also opened offices in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. In August 2015, Vend announced that it had raised NZ $12 million, mainly from existing investors along with new entrant Punakaiki Fund. The company also announced cuts to staff. In 2015, Vend launched Vend Ecommerce. It also announced a partnership with UK payments provider iZettle, and North American payments provider Mercury (now Vantiv). In 2016, the company partnered with Square to enable retailers who use Vend's software to process payments with Square. In 2016 Vend also launched an app for inventory management named Counter. At the end of 2016, Vend raised a further US $9 million (NZ $13 million) led by existing investors, and with significant new investment from fund manager Movac. In 2016 Vend grew its UK staff to 20 and opened a new office in

East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

. In 2017, Vend renamed its inventory app Counter to Scanner by Vend. On 12 March 2021, Vend was sold to Lightspeed POS Inc. for US $350 million (NZ $455 million).

Features

Vend's services include web-based POS software, inventory management,

E-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

, customer loyalty, and reporting analytics. Vend integrates with other business and payments applications including

Shopify Shopify Inc. is a Canadian multinational e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. Shopify is the name of its proprietary e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems. The Shopify platform offers online ret ...

, Square, Xero and

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

. Vend's software allows merchants to generate reports on sales, inventory, and customer behavior. Vend Ecommerce and integrations with partners like Shopify and WooCommerce enable retailers to sell online.

Technology

Vend uses

HTML5 HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML ...

features in

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS ...

and

Safari A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...

to implement offline processing capabilities. * A webSQL database built into the browser provides local inventory storage so sales can be processed offline and all stock levels updated. *

’s offline manifest tells the browser to take copies of certain files and pages for offline use. *

WebSocket WebSocket is a computer communications protocol, providing full-duplex communication channels over a single TCP connection. The WebSocket protocol was standardized by the IETF as in 2011. The current API specification allowing web applications ...

(another element of

) allows Vend to talk to other devices on a local network, interfacing with hardware such as an

EFTPOS Electronic funds transfer at point of sale (EFTPOS; ) is an electronic payment system involving electronic funds transfers based on the use of payment cards, such as debit or credit cards, at payment terminals located at points of sale. EFTPOS t ...

unit or other payment devices. Aside from being compatible with mobile browsers, Vend also has an iOS app called Vend Register.

Awards and recognition

* 2011 NZ Innovators Awards – ICT category and Supreme Award * 2014 NZ Hi-Tech Awards – IBM Hi-Tech Exporter of the Year (under $5 million revenue) and Cisco Hi-Tech Emerging Company of the Year categories * 2014 Gold Stevie Award for Vend's homepage video (American Business Awards) * 2014 Monocle Magazines's Top 25 in Retail * 2015 Gold Stevie Award for Customer Service (American Business Awards) * 2015 Silver Stevie Award for Vend's video with TopShelf Style (American Business Awards) * 2015 Deloitte NZ Fast50 – 7th fastest growing company in NZ * 2015 Industry Specific App of the Year – Xero UK * 2016 Deloitte NZ Fast50 – 38th fastest growing company in NZ * 2016 TIN100 Hot Emerging Companies New Zealand (2nd) * 2017 Vend named as the best all-in-one POS system for small businesses by Business News Daily *2019 Newsweek Best Business Tools – POS

References

{{Reflist, 33em Software companies of New Zealand Point of sale companies Software companies established in 2010 New Zealand companies established in 2010