Software, Payments Firm Cantaloupe Names Current COO Ravi Venkatesan as CEO

Cantaloupe, which works in digital payments and software services for the unattended retail market, has added a new CEO in Ravi Venkatesan, a press release says.

Venkatesan, the current COO of the company, will take his new job as of Oct. 1 this year, succeeding current CEO Sean Feeney, who will step down Sept. 30.

Feeney said his tenure leading the company was rewarding, as the company had “strengthened our operations, grown our customer base and set trends with cashless and contactless payments.”

Venkatesan became COO in February this year. He was previously chief technology officer as of Dec. 2020. As COO, he helped drive business strategy, product innovation and customer experience. He also worked with Bakkt and Bridge2 Solutions before that.

“I’m honored to be selected as the CEO of Cantaloupe,” said Venkatesan. “I am excited and humbled by the opportunity to lead this great company through the next phase of growth and transformation. The self-service economy is still at an early stage, and I am very excited about Cantaloupe’s capabilities and our leadership position to allow us to capitalize on secular long-term growth trends.”

Douglas Bergeron, chairman of Cantaloupe, said Venkatesan “has launched compelling new product offerings and proven that he is the right person with the vision to lead Cantaloupe as we expand internationally and into adjacent markets,” and would help with growth and competitive positions.

Unattended retail is taking on more shapes and verticals than ever before, and Swiss FoodTech company Selecta, a business that operates vending machines across Europe, says the ability to monitor and restock them in the most optimized and efficient manner can reduce the number of delivery trips needed and hence the company’s total carbon emissions, PYMNTS wrote.

Read more: Selecta: Strong H1 Results Drive Shift From Vending Machines to NextGen Autonomous FoodTech

As well as deploying technology to reduce the number of journeys vehicles need to make, Selecta is also pursuing an “electric-first” policy with its vehicle fleet and has already gone fully electric in the cities of Oslo and Amsterdam.

Efficiency optimizing technologies have the twofold benefit for Selecta that they reduce carbon emissions and help to mitigate against inflation. As Schmitz told investors, so far this year, the company has experienced a 120% average increase in fuel costs and a 105% average increase in energy costs on a per unit basis.

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