For location hosts
You bring the wall and the outlet. We bring the store.
Looking for free smart vending for business? Here's the honest version. 8Kava gives employers, hospitals, campuses, residential buildings and hotels a 24/7 food amenity with zero capital. With Managed Operations, we install, stock, clean and service it. With Vending-as-a-Service, hardware, software and service come in one monthly fee. Either way, your team mostly gets to enjoy it.
- capital up front
- $0capital up front
- business days to go live
- 10business days to go live
- support and NOC
- 24/7support and NOC
Zero capital, three ways to run it
"Free" usually means you don't buy the equipment. Who pays for stocking and service depends on the model you choose and on how busy your site is.
| Managed Operations | Vending-as-a-Service | Purchase | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capital | None | None | The hardware price, e.g. $5,900 per Kava Cooler C2 |
| Monthly cost to you | Quoted per site; at busy sites, product sales can carry the cost | From $99 (Kava Kiosk K1) or $189 (Kava Cooler C2) on a 36-month term | Kava OS from $19 per device |
| Includes | Hardware, software, stocking, cleaning, service and reporting | Hardware, Kava OS Pro and service | Hardware you own outright |
| Who stocks | 8Kava | You or your operator | You or your operator |
| Best for | Hosts who want zero involvement | Hosts who want a fixed, predictable fee | Hosts and operators who want the margin |
Site Intelligence tells you which model your site supports before you sign. See pricing for every rate.
What your people get
Real food at every hour
Fresh meals, snacks and drinks held at 33–41 °F, open 24/7 with no cashier and no line.
Their way to pay
Contactless cards, mobile wallets, the Kava app or QR, employee badges and payroll deduct.
Subsidies you control
Cover breakfast, discount healthy items or fund a monthly allowance, applied automatically at checkout.
Charged correctly
Vision plus per-shelf weight sensing delivers 99.4% checkout accuracy, with a receipt within 10 seconds.
Fair prices
No cashless convenience fee, ever. Items near expiry are marked down instead of thrown out.
Privacy
Recognition runs on the device and looks at products, not people. No images of faces are stored or sent.
What you actually do, start to finish
Show us the spot
A hallway, a breakroom, a lobby. A Kava Cooler C2 needs 30 by 32 inches of floor and a standard 115 V outlet.
Approve the plan
We recommend the format, placement and opening assortment from your traffic, shifts and hours.
Sign
Managed Operations or Vending-as-a-Service. No capital request and no equipment purchase order.
Let us in
Installation is scheduled around your hours. A program of up to 10 coolers typically goes live 10 business days after signing.
Enjoy it
After that, your part is reading a monthly report and occasionally suggesting a new item.
Installed before your people arrive. Serviced before they notice.
Install crews work around your building's schedule, so the first anyone sees of the program is a full cooler. 8Kava technicians cover the Colorado Front Range with same-day on-site service; elsewhere in the continental US, vetted, 8Kava-trained field partners provide next-business-day on-site service in served metros.
After go-live, the 8Kava Network Operations Center watches every device 24/7/365. Temperature, door, connectivity and compressor alerts come to us, not to your facilities team, with a 4-hour remote response target for critical issues. Built-in LTE means the cooler never has to join your network.
- A standard 115 V outlet and no plumbing.
- 72 hours of offline buffering if the connection drops.
- Shopper support at support@8kava.com, around the clock.
We gave residents a 24/7 pantry in the lobby and didn't spend a dollar of capital.
Hosts we work with
Workplaces
Pantries with subsidies and payroll deduct that follow hybrid attendance.
Manufacturing & Logistics
Fresh food and badge-limited PPE for every shift.
Healthcare
Night-shift meals and audit-ready temperature logs.
Higher Education
Campus-card checkout in residence halls and libraries.
Multifamily
A 24/7 lobby market for residents.
Hospitality
A lobby pantry that keeps selling after the gift shop would have closed.
What keeps the amenity running
Which amenity in your building gets used every single day?
The gym gets a loyal few, the lounge gets meetings, the rooftop gets a busy summer. Food gets almost everyone, almost every day, and people notice right away when it's empty or broken. If you counted daily use instead of square footage, which amenity would come out on top, and what is it costing you to run?
Location host FAQ
Is it really free?
With Managed Operations or Vending-as-a-Service there's no capital purchase. VaaS has a fixed monthly fee that covers hardware, Kava OS Pro and service. Managed Operations is quoted per site, and at busy sites product sales can carry the cost. We'll tell you which applies before you sign.
What do you need from us?
Floor space, a standard 115 V outlet and access for installation and restocking. Wi-Fi and Ethernet are optional, because every cooler brings its own LTE connection.
Who handles problems and refunds?
We do. Shoppers reach 8Kava support around the clock at support@8kava.com, and the NOC watches every device for faults. On Kava Vend V4, guaranteed vend refunds automatically if a product doesn't drop.
Can we choose what's stocked?
Yes. Name your must-have items, healthy-choice goals and local favorites, and the forecast handles quantities. Sales data shows what's working, so the assortment gets better month by month.
What happens at the end of a 36-month VaaS term?
You can renew or end the service. Returned hardware goes through our refurbish-and-redeploy program, so it gets a second life instead of a trip to the landfill. See Vending-as-a-Service for the full terms.
Where to go next
Show us the spot. We'll handle the rest.
Tell us where your people gather and when. We'll come back with a format, a placement and the model that keeps capital at zero.