Supermarkets are introducing Centy, which recovers your small coins and uploads onto your fidelity card

One year passed from the first functioning prototype to the first series: Centy, the start-up that converts small coins into digital money that can be loaded onto fidelity cards, has installed the first six machines at six supermarkets in the Tigros chain.

 

“For us, starting our collaboration with a local company is a reason for great pride,” said Davide Caiafa, the “creative” figure in the start-up founded together with Lorenzo Vidoz. Tigros had already installed the very first Centy machine to come into contact with the public, in 2019, at the supermarket in Solbiate Arno.

 

Currently, Centy can be found “in six Tigros supermarkets, in Busto Arsizio, Solbiate Arno, Buguggiate, Castellanza, Gerenzano, and even Vigevano,” said Lorenzo Vidoz, who deals with the commercial side of the start-up (the video was shot in the supermarket in Viale Pirandello, in Busto Arsizio).

 

What makes Centy different from a “normal” coin converter is the fact that the money is uploaded directly onto the fidelity card; for a normal user, this means zero commissions (so, if you put in €3.36 in coins, you will see €3.36 uploaded onto you card) and maximum practicality.

 

The development of Centy took place largely in Varese Province: the founders live in the Busto area, the machine’s software was developed by the company King Srl, in Gallarate. The machines were made in Emilia Romagna, in Cesenatico, but the first application (initially experimental, now, fully operation) is in the Tigros chain, which has supermarkets in the provinces of Varese, Como, Milano and Piemonte, although the headquarters are in Solbiate Arno.

 

Tigros is the first chain that believed in this, “our ambition is to extend it abroad.”

The amounts of money converted are confidential, “but we can say they’re beyond our expectations,” said the founders of Centy. “What is most important for us is the number of transactions, which are currently about three hundred a day.” From the company’s control app, you can check the transactions at several sales outlets and the value, in real time. And it is not just pocket change; on one smartphone screen, for example, a transaction of over €33 appeared.

 

Obviously, the sensitive data of those who transfer money is not shown, so there is no point in looking for an average user here. What is more worthwhile is the observation “in the field”, which was done during the initial installation period of each machine. “In the end, the most important users of Centy will be bar owners, bakers, shopkeepers, those who often have to get rid of the little coins and find it difficult to do so in other ways.”

 

Translated by Sara Francesca and Elena Gandelli

Reviewed by Prof. Rolf Cook